I just read the best article on garlic presses. America’s Test Kitchen tells all about them and starts by asking “Have you been using your garlic press wrong? Since there’s a good possibility of this, consider these tips.”

Lisa McManus, executive editor and gadget expert for the show, America’s Test Kitchen, explains that in the Test Kitchen, they prefer using a garlic press instead of mincing tricky, tiny garlic cloves with a knife. She admits that if you’ve got the knife skills (and the patience), then a garlic press isn’t needed. But for most of us, a garlic press is easiest, safest, and consistent (it creates pieces that are all the same size, in a matter of seconds).

The easy part: You just put the clove in and press. But sometimes they can be finicky to use and hard to clean. If you’ve given up on garlic presses, Lisa says it’s not you, it’s the press. She says you should first of all, make sure you're buying the best one and then follow the Test Kitchen techniques for pressing with success.

Since there’s so many to choose from, how do you know which is the best press? Look at its output. Is the pressed garlic mostly the same size? Uniform pieces make a huge difference in your cooking. We tested two batches of simple spaghetti with garlic and olive oil with garlic prepped in our top- and bottom-ranked garlic presses, and the results were astonishingly different.

Our winner produced small, uniform pieces of garlic that browned evenly and stayed distributed all throughout the pasta, for perfect golden, garlicky taste in every bite. The Kuhn Rikon Epicurean Garlic Press (around $40) couldn’t be beat.

Once you have the best press in your hands, you want to use it properly so it lives up to its potential. As they were testing all the available presses, The Test Kitchen folks learned a few tricks for better pressing:

FIRST: Don’t peel the cloves. You could peel the garlic cloves, but save yourself the fuss and just press them with skin on. Bonus: The skin lifts almost all the residue right out when it’s time to clean the press. (THIS is the best tip EVER!)

ALSO: Cut off the stem. Trim off the tiniest bit of the stem end of the clove (at the bottom of the bulb) before putting it in the garlic press. This breaks the tension of the skin and makes it much, much easier to squash. (You can also cut the cloves in half.)

THEN: Use the back of a knife to get all of the garlic out. Scrape off any extruded garlic that sticks out of the face of the press using the back of your knife. This gets every last bit of garlic out of the press and saves your blade’s sharpness, too.

LASTLY: When finished with your pressing, wash (or soak) the press immediately. Garlic really dries on, turning into garlicky cement. This can clog the holes of your press, making it a pain to clean. If you don’t get it all out, you’ll be working with fewer and fewer holes in your press over time. So, if you don’t have time to wash it right away, at least soak it.

Turns out, I HAVE been using my garlic press wrong. AND, I sure haven’t been using the best one. Going forward, I know what I’ll be asking Santa for Christmas! And I may just send Lisa McManus a Christmas card thanking her for these tips. What a gift she’s given us!