The History of Garlic

Where did the world’s most pungent bulb actually come from? What does a 4,000-year-old Babylonian clay tablet reveal about how people cooked with it? And how did a humble kitchen ingredient end up as a weapon against vampires, the subject of an international trade dispute, and a plant carrying hidden viruses from field to field?

Join John and Patrick as they take apart the history of garlic, one clove at a time — from the stews of ancient Mesopotamia and the gardens of Rome, to medieval English recipes, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Along the way, they ask why a food so prized could also be so quietly despised, and what the smell on somebody’s breath says about who gets to count as normal.

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