Is it healthier to wait after cutting garlic before cooking it?
Well, there’s a theory that cutting things (particularly vegetables and greens) with a metal kife imparts something or takes something away. That is why ceramic knives exist, I believe. Perhaps the article writer believed those things magically returned after 15 minutes. On preview: “heat will “kill” the enzymes”… Heat will kill the enzymes anyway (anything above approx 115 degrees). This is why the raw food lifestyle exists.
You’re going to get different effects (sometimes widely different) from different preparation methods because they differ in (a) how thoroughly they mix the flavor precursors with the enzymes that produce them, (b) how readily they liberate the flavor molecules, and when, and what catches them, and (c) how active those enzymes are. Crushing or food processing mixes them thoroughly and liberates everything quickly, flavor molecules will survive longer if received by stable lipids (butter, saturated fats) than unstable ones (olive oil), and early heat will tend to shut down the production of the defensive sulfurous compounds with the sharp taste and the long-lasting odor. Garlic that is blanched or roasted whole develops very little of the sharp, rank stuff, whereas mangling it thoroughly by blunt force at moderate temperatures will produce a maximum. And if there are chemicals in a food that react with metal atoms or ions, then yes, metal knives will affect them. Dunno how many of those
