Toum (Lebanese Garlic Sauce)
Toum or thoum is a garlic sauce used in Lebanon.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Total
- 35 min
- Servings
- As written in source
- Difficulty
- Easy
Timings are approximate — worked out from the method, not measured in a test kitchen.
Ingredients
Quantities are retained as written by the source and do not scale automatically. Tap an ingredient to check it off as you go.
Cooking instructions
Procedure
Use a pestle (traditionally wooden) to smash the garlic with salt until very smooth; you can add the salt at the beginning or after the garlic is well smashed.Wooden mortar used to prepare toum
Procedure
Gradually mix in the oil—start by adding one drop at a time and stirring the oil into the garlic with the pestle. After you've added about 1 tbsp of oil and it's been well incorporated, you can drizzle the oil in rather than adding it drop by drop. After half of the oil is added, alternate a bit of lemon juice with a bit of oil. Don't stop for long while mixing; it's necessary to keep stirring, stopping only for very brief periods. When finished the toum will have a similar consistency to thick mayonnaise.
Notes, tips, and variations
You can also crush the garlic and salt to a very smooth paste and then use a blender or food processor to incorporate the oil and lemon juice.
Notes, tips, and variations
The pH of some olive oils can promote breaking of the emulsion.
Notes, tips, and variations
In Lebanon the pestle used is usually wooden; some new one are made of synthetic materials; occasionally you'll see one carved of stone. Carved stone pestles are usually used for kebbeh nayyeh.
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Charbel assumed (based on co · CC BY-SA 3.0 · http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ · Photo source and licence
Wikibooks contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Adapted; quantities retained as written. · Original source
Read it through first
Skim all 5 steps before you start — it is the difference between cooking and firefighting.
Scale it
Use the quantities listed in the original recipe. Adjust them manually if making a different batch size.
Storage
Cool completely, then keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.
Reheating
Reheat gently with a splash of water in a covered pan, rather than blasting it, so nothing dries out.
Nutrition information is not available for this recipe yet.
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