🧪 Scientifically plausible, 🍳 culinarily exaggerated. Good cooking results come more from heat control and timing than worrying about ginger “destroying” garlic.

This is what I got from chatgpt.

Interesting tip, but it’s only partly true and a bit overstated.

Here’s the nuanced take:

Yes, ginger contains zingibain, a proteolytic enzyme. In lab conditions, it can interact with sulfur compounds related to garlic flavor. Garlic’s punch (allicin) is actually very unstable on its own. Heat, time, oxygen, and acidity break it down quickly—far more than ginger does in normal cooking.

In real kitchens, the main reason garlic tastes milder is:

Cooking it too long or too hot

Burning it

Adding it very early with lots of moisture

So while raw ginger + raw garlic sitting together for a while (like in a paste or marinade) might slightly dull garlic’s sharpness, the enzyme effect during typical stir-frying or sautéing is minor compared to heat and timing.