Using a knife apparently also results in more flavourful garlic, since a knife cuts through the cells rather than merely separating them from one another as a crusher does.

This is useful to know, but it also reminds me unpleasantly of things people say about giving birth, and as a result I'm very slightly squeamish about garlic.

If the object is to lyse as many of the cells as possible, homogenising it in a 1% soap solution is probably the best way. I realise this is unlikely to be helpful :-)

Leaving aside the above, I'm puzzled as to the connection to giving birth. It's better to cut the umbilical cord than hit it with a hammer? Caesareans are preferable to just squeezing the mother really tightly?

I know there's the cut/tear issue with episiotomies, but that's not quite the same as a cut/crush debate.

I was thinking of the cut/tear issue. I realise it's not quite the same, not least because ladies aren't made out of garlic.

But wouldn't it be great! Garlic lady sweat, the greatest invention since chocolate semen :)

If the object is to lyse as many of the cells as possible, homogenising it in a 1% soap solution is probably the best way. I realise this is unlikely to be helpful :-)

Also unlikely to be flavourful, I would imagine. Or palatable, I should perhaps say.