Printed from smellbook.com/smells/garlic. This printout keeps the entry for Garlic itself: its description, reference card, Connections, questions, evidence, related smells, record details, states, names and citation. It leaves out your own notes, the map, the lists of paths, routes, stories and fragrance directions, and the lists headed “Also linked to” (other entries that share its place or material) and “Linked from”; they are on the page online. The entries this one links to are still printed under Connections and Related smells.
Categories and types group entries for browsing; they are editorial, not evidence. How smells are grouped.
A strong savoury, sulfurous and pungent food smell that changes dramatically when cut or cooked.
Its type, Source, means the smell is named after “a physical origin that can contribute a smell”; it is not an evidence source, such as a study or a book. The origin page for Garlic (the food or drink, not this smell entry) lists every smell recorded as coming from it.
Garlic smells pungent, sharp and savoury, with a strong, almost hot intensity when raw. EDITORIAL
Named in the VERIFIED claims about this smell: not a list of what it is made of, and not its cause.
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Other entries that link to this one
Links SmellBook records for this entry: what it comes from, where you meet it, what was written about it, molecules, related smells and comparisons. EDITORIAL links are chosen by SmellBook editors, VERIFIED links come from VERIFIED claims and HISTORICAL links describe what one source wrote at one time. Nothing here is a ranking, and a molecule is not presented as the cause of the smell.
QUESTIONS ABOUT GARLIC
Garlic smells pungent, sharp and savoury, with a strong, almost hot intensity when raw. Once cooked in oil it turns rounder, sweeter and nutty, and roasted garlic becomes soft and caramel-like. The smell spreads fast through a kitchen and stays on hands and breath. It is close to onion, though more biting and more lingering.
In SmellBook’s words: pungent, savoury, sharp and sulfurous.
It is met in home and restaurant kitchens when cloves are cut, crushed or fried, and in many dishes across the world. Many people link it with appetite, family cooking and busy kitchens.
Typical settings: freshly cut clove, cooking pan, restaurant kitchen.
SmellBook links it to one place page: see it in Connections.
2 VERIFIED scientific claims from 2 published sources are recorded for this entry: Thiosulfinates in the smell of fresh garlic and The main volatiles of fried and baked garlic. Each claim says only what its source supports, in the scope shown with it.
It also has one historical source, which records what was written without stating the time described, not a scientific finding: see its historical records.
3 molecules are named in one of these claims, The main volatiles of fried and baked garlic; see the evidence for the role the claim gives them. Each molecule this claim names has only the role the claim states.
Garlic is a strong example of preparation state changing smell identity.
SmellBook records one written comparison with other smells: see it in Connections.
One historical source describes it. It describes a time it does not state, no later than its publication, not the present: see its date in Connections; the sources are with the evidence below.
Answers marked EDITORIAL are written by SmellBook editors to describe the experience and add no scientific fact. Answers marked VERIFIED point to claims on published sources, checked against each source's own summary where one was available (each claim's page says how); what each claim supports is in its own text and scope.
Scientific evidence · 2 claims
How it is described or perceived
Thiosulfinates in the smell of fresh garlic
A review reports that the pungent odour of fresh garlic comes mainly from thiosulfinates and their breakdown products; the cloves' reactive sulfur substances are readily converted into many volatile compounds when garlic is processed.
Fresh garlic; heated, black and aged garlic have different volatile profiles.
Also covers: chemistry reported (the claim names compounds or kinds of compounds); conditions or places studied (the claim reports a particular condition, state or place, such as roasting, storage, moisture or a room).
How this was found: Broad account. A broad statement about how an aroma forms, how it is studied or what a term means, rather than one measurement. Source: review of earlier studies.
Kazuki Abe, Yoji Hori & Takao Myoda
Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine
DOI 10.3892/etm.2019.8394Conditions or places studied
The main volatiles of fried and baked garlic
Among the volatiles of cooked garlic slices, diallyl disulfide and diallyl trisulfide dominated in baked or microwave-baked samples, while diallyl disulfide, methyl allyl disulfide and vinyldithiins dominated in fried, oil-cooked and microwave-fried samples.
Volatiles isolated by steam distillation and solvent extraction and identified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry; composition, not odour.
Also covers: chemistry reported (the claim names compounds or kinds of compounds).
How this was found: Chemical composition. Compounds were identified or measured, without any assessment of their odour. Source: primary study; chemistry work. Studied: fried, oil-cooked, baked and microwave-heated garlic slices, by steam distillation and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.
Tung Hsi Yu et al.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
DOI 10.1021/jf00029a023Historical evidence · 1 claim
Garlic and Spanish cooking in an 1858 French travel essay
An 1858 French-language travel essay on Spain says that Spanish cooking has a local colour, that of saffron, and a local scent: garlic and oil that smells of its fruit.
A foreign visitor's general, somewhat disparaging remark on Spanish cooking, published in 1858; it names no particular place, household or dish, and says nothing about how Spanish cooking smells today.
How this was found: Historical text. A published historical text, read on a digitised page; it records what was written when it was published. Source: historical record.
Passage: p. 425. Published 1858, the latest time it can describe; not the present.
John Lemoinne
Each molecule is named by the claim shown after it. Each molecule named here has only the role the claim states. About molecules in SmellBook
Links chosen by SmellBook editors, not a ranking.
Associations can vary strongly by person, place and culture.
PATHS FROM HERE
Each step is a relationship SmellBook editors recorded in the knowledge graph, named as it is published there. Paths are not ranked or personalised, and they do not mean the smells smell alike.
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WHERE THIS SMELL APPEARS
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FOR RESEARCHERS AND EDITORS
Identity, revision history, corrections and how to cite Garlic.
CULTURAL: This entry's associations depend on context, language, memory or culture; its description and smell words are editorial. It says nothing about research or historical evidence; evidence for this entry is shown separately: VERIFIED.
A state says how an entry is met, such as wet, aged or roasted. It does not create a new smell, and it adds no scientific fact by itself: states marked EDITORIAL come from the entry's own records, and only those marked VERIFIED are reported by a VERIFIED claim.
How this entry is identified and named, for citing it or matching it with other records.
SmellBook SB-0036 — Garlicsmellbook:smell:garlichttps://smellbook.com/smells/garlicSmellBook. (2026). Garlic (revision 4, 2026-10-14). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:garlic. https://smellbook.com/smells/garlic@misc{smellbook_garlic_r4,
author = {{SmellBook}},
title = {Garlic},
year = {2026},
note = {SmellBook Public Atlas, revision 4, 2026-10-14, smellbook:smell:garlic},
url = {https://smellbook.com/smells/garlic}
}TY - ENCYC ID - smellbook-garlic-r4 TI - Garlic AU - SmellBook T2 - SmellBook Public Atlas PY - 2026 DA - 2026/10/14 ET - revision 4 UR - https://smellbook.com/smells/garlic N1 - SB-0036; smellbook:smell:garlic; resolver https://smellbook.com/id/smell/garlic ER -
The citation names revision 4 of 2026-10-14, so a reader can tell exactly which version was cited. Citing records what was read; it does not grant a licence.
Garlic is a strong example of preparation state changing smell identity.
Other entries whose editors linked to Garlic:
Added VERIFIED evidence through source intake.
Created 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-14Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the first of three dataset releases of 2026-09-30.
No correction notices published for this entry. Corrections policyEVIDENCE MATTERS
SmellBook separates cultural association, community perception, verified evidence, prediction and experimental relationships rather than presenting them as the same thing. Read the evidence guide ↗ See the evidence coverage report ↗