`Garlic Galore’ a Maine cookbook with taste

GARLIC GALORE, by Minnette Cummings, self-published, 132 pages, $12.95.

Good news, all you lovers of the stinking rose — here’s a cookbook packed with hundreds of absolutely garlic-drenched recipes for everything except dessert.

A quick sampling of titles should get those mouths watering: “Soul Soup” (six cloves); “Coriander Macadamia Nut Pesto Viglione” (two cloves); “Hot Brie Pasta a la Diane” (five large cloves); “I Will If You Will Soup” (two heads); “Chocolate Chili with Pinto Beans” (two tablespoons minced); “Fiery Melon and Peanut Salsa” (three cloves); “Rock Cornish Hen with 40 Cloves.” Get the idea?

Author Minnette Cummings — Maine native, retired state legislator, and garlic lover extraordinaire — began her collection more than 15 years ago for her own pleasure. As it grew, she began to play with the idea of creating a cookbook. Apparently she voiced her pipe dream once too often, and friends finally challenged her to put her words into action. The project took five years to complete.

“I was having to make terrible decisions!” Cummings said with a laugh during a recent interview. “Like does this go under `Salads’ or `Entrees’?”

The result, happily, was “Garlic Galore,” an attractive, eclectic specialty cookbook liberally sprinkled with garlic-related facts, folklore and humor. For instance, a wine made with crushed garlic is supposed to stimulate hair growth. Runner Magazine recommends that city joggers eat a clove of garlic before running to guard against the effect of exhaust fumes. In countries where the water is infested with parasites, garlic and lemon juice are believed to be disinfectants. Garlic tea is an effective insecticide. Cummings’ own contribution to garlic lore is a cube of sugar soaked in lemon taken to mitigate the effects of “garlic indulgence.”

“Garlic Galore” is available at BookMarc’s in Bangor, Rooster Brothers in Ellsworth, or through M.H. Cummings, 94 Neal St., Portland 04102 ($16.73 with shipping and tax).

Lynn Flewelling is a free-lance writer who lives in Bangor.