That's a good method although I can't help but think that a significant fraction of the flavor is lost to the air or left in the cutting board. Garlic (and other members of the Allium family) store their active ingredient as a binary chemical weapon against herbivores -- crushing or rupturing the cells of the bulb causes mixing of the precursor and an enzyme.I'm going to try this tomorrow (for aioli)
LOL! No. Quite the opposite. One does want to rupture the cells to create the flavor substances but then minimize the exposure of the cellular debris emulsion to the open air and to porous surfaces.So your saying "don't let it notice you want to eat it, put the whole bulb carefully in your mouth -skin and all-, then swallow without chewing so that the cells don't rupture". I think that not the best advice you've given so far. My alternative hypothesis is that the rupturing of cell walls and mixing of chemicals if the think you want to happen, it's what makes it taste so good.