Trader Joe’s Many Clove Garlic Cooking and Simmer Sauce
Posted: August 27, 2013 Filed under: Condiments, Garlic, Sauces, Spices, Trader Joe's Brand | Tags: 40 clove garlic sauce 23 Comments
So much garlic they can barely fit the label on the jar.
On the bottle of Trader Joe’s Many Clove Garlic Cooking and Simmer Sauce, Joe himself lays it down, explaining that the jar contains garlic, “minced garlic, roasted garlic, garlic puree and granulated garlic”. That’s a lot of garlic, suckers. This is the sauce that Joe made to compensate for growing up in a garlic deprived household. There’s more garlic in here than there is in a clove of garlic. 110% of your USDA recommended annual allotment of garlic is in this sauce. This sauce is Trader Joe’s way of ensuring that no one ever kiss each ever again. Outside of the Stinking Rose, and Van Helsing’s kitchen, this is the most garlic you’re going to find in one place.
Open this jar up, dip a fork in, and put it right on your tongue. Feel that? That high burn that comes to the fore after a second? The way it zings your tongue? That’s the allicin at work – the same potent compound found in onions and chives. Famed for it’s antibacterial / anti-viral properties, what you’re feeling is Trader Joe’s Garlic Sauce actually cleaning your tongue. What I’m saying is, that’s a lot of garlic.
What we’re really tasting is a sauce known elsewhere as 40 Clove Garlic Sauce. A sauce made with exactly that – 40 cloves of garlic. According to Trader Joe’s own packaging, they didn’t keep count of how many cloves were jammed into this jar, which either means this sauce has more than 40 cloves, in which case someone needs to rein in the madmen in Trader Joe’s R&D, or it has less than 40 cloves, which case the thought of real 40 clove garlic sauce scares me.
But of course, this sauce isn’t meant as a dipping sauce or condiment, it’s a cooking and simmer sauce, and in such a role the garlicky nature of the sauce is much ameliorated. Mixed with pasta, or cooked up with chicken, this sauce retains its strong garlic flavor but mercifully loses the sting. If you like garlic this is a great sauce to work into any Italian inspired cooking. If you don’t, you still might want to give it a shot, because this is a garlic sauce done right. The garlic taste is heavy, but the creamy sauce isn’t – containing only a slender 4 grams of fat and 70 calories per ½ cup serving. The sodium on the other hand, is intense. 930 mg are packed into each serving, roughly 2/3rd of your daily recommend amount. Despite this sodium load, the sauce doesn’t taste notably salty. Mostly it all vanishes in the garlic blitzkrieg.
I like this sauce, but I’m also a man who went through a phase where I chewed up a raw clove of garlic every morning based a vague notion that it was supposed to enhance your endurance. This sauce may well be just too garlicky for some folks there, but for the rest of the population I have to give it a hearty, and healthy, recommendation.
The Breakdown:
Would I Recommend It: Yes, unless you’re sensitive to garlic, or a Transylvania count.
Would I Buy It Again: A healthy, creamy Italian cooking sauce? Absolutley.
Final Synopsis: Very low fat, very high sodium, very, very garlicky sauce.
Trader Joe’s Many Clove Garlic Cooking and Simmer Sauce – Nutrition Facts
Eating At Joes 
I’ve used this sauce for pizza too and it’s magic paired with fig + prosciutto or persimmon + goat cheese.
Wow, that sounds delicious!
I just bought this the other day, but the nutrition label is different…per 1/2 cup, 80 calories, 5g fat, 10mg cholesterol, 400 mg sodium, 6g carbs, 2g protein.
Thanks for pointing this out – I’ll update the information on the page.
I picked this up over the weekend (how could I resist? I haven’t been to The Stinking Rose in forever) and used half a jar over the world’s largest chicken breast tonight for dinner. Me, the husband and the almost-two year old LOVED it. So so good. I’m going to try the pizza thing, for sure!
It’s excellent on pizza! We top ours with Quattro Formaggio from TJ’s and sliced heirloom tomatoes and mushrooms. Throw some chopped basil on the pizza after cooking. It’s magnificent!
great on meatballs with tomato sauce
I tried it over chicken breast and cooked according to instructions on the jar. Very boring and not really that garlicky. I will try the rest of the jar over pasta with clams and parmesan. Won’t buy again.
Do NOT use this as a pasta sauce! I picked this up thinking it was a garlicky alfredo sauce and boy was I wrong! My family was not pleased with this meal. lol. HUGE DINNER FAIL!
I’m not one to post reviews, but this was so good I actually went online and sought out places to review it! I love garlic and, yes, it’s loaded with it. Upon opening the jar I dipped some fresh bread into it and it was yummy. Then I poured it over raw shrimp I picked up at the grocery store and broiled them into a small convection oven–a super easy shrimp scampi-style dish. YUM YUM YUM! A new TJ fave!
how long can it be kept in refrig after opening?
Can this be used with gnocchi?
please get this item back in stock i miss it I need it!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe, if everyone who loves it could contact them and beg them to bring it back, they will? An employee of TJ said they have done it before.
We have used this sauce ,and love it ,But cant find it in the store any more please bring it back.
i sauté chicken & add this sauce with lemon zest, lemon juice, fresh basil & capers, serve over pasta. Amazing. They discontinued this sauce. I am so bummed. My kids loved it.
Contact them, they have brought products back before! I just did, it’s easy to do on their website! I loved this Sauce and want it back too!
Why isn’t this great product available anymore?
Local TJs staffers can’t explain why – doesn’t even fit their “Drop the bottom 10%” policy. Maybe it’s part of the TJ Mystique – you get to love a yummy product and then get abandoned at the altar.
Maybe, if everyone who loves it could contact them and beg them to bring it back, they will? An employee of TJ said they have done it before.
My new daughter in law said my roasted smashed potatoes were the best thing she’d ever eaten! All due to many clove garlic sauce. Bet you can guess what she received in her Christmas stocking. So please bring it back soon!! It’s the most tasty versatile ingredient in my kitchen so I’m begging you please bring it back!!
I would like to purchase a couple of jars of Many Clove cooking & simmer sauce. How do I get a price and for this product?
Why was this discontinued? Will it be back? If not, can you supply me with contact info for the manufacturer?