Garlic Salt Substitutes: How Much Salt and Garlic to Use Instead

Out of garlic salt? Replacing it is mostly a salt problem, because that’s mostly what’s in the jar. The closest swap is table salt plus a little garlic powder, and the part to get right is the salt: get it wrong and the dish comes out bland or oversalted, while the garlic is more forgiving. Brands differ more than you’d expect, so the table below matches the sodium by brand. For a sauce or marinade, fresh garlic and salt work too.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

The salt figures are worked out from the sodium on brand labels. They match sodium, not flavor. No label gives the proportion of salt to garlic in a commercial garlic salt, so the garlic figures come from an extension service’s home recipe and its substitution chart.

Match the salt first

Garlic salt brands differ more than you’d expect. Per ¼ teaspoon, McCormick Garlic Salt has 540 mg of sodium, and Lawry’s Garlic Salt with Parsley, which also contains corn starch, sugar and parsley, has 350 mg.¹² Morton’s iodized table salt has 590 mg.³

Salt (Computed): For each teaspoon of garlic salt, use about this much table salt to match its sodium:

Kosher and flaky salts hold less salt per spoon, because fewer large crystals fit.⁴ If you’re using one, add a little more by volume and taste.

If garlic salt is seasoning a dry dish

1. Salt plus garlic powder or granulated garlic

This is the closest swap, because garlic salt is salt plus dried garlic.¹

Garlic (Attributed): Two extension sources land on roughly the same amount of garlic per teaspoon of garlic salt. UC Agriculture and Natural Resources’ home recipe is 4 parts salt to 1 part garlic powder,⁵ which puts about 1/5 teaspoon of garlic powder in each teaspoon of the mix. NDSU Extension treats 3/4 teaspoon of garlic salt and 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder as each equal to one clove of garlic,⁶ which works out to about 1/6 teaspoon of powder per teaspoon of garlic salt. Both figures are by our math from each source’s own numbers. Use a scant 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder with the salt from the table above.

Making a rub or a garlic butter? You can get more out of the powder. America’s Test Kitchen found that garlic powder straight from the jar hasn’t developed its full flavor, and that mixing it with water first brings it out.⁷ Stir the powder into an equal amount of water, or into the dish’s butter or liquid, before you use it.

2. Homemade garlic salt

Ratio (Attributed): UC Agriculture and Natural Resources gives 4 parts salt to 1 part garlic powder, blended for 1 to 2 seconds.⁵ By our math from the Morton label, a teaspoon of that blend made with table salt carries about 1,900 mg of sodium, between the McCormick and Lawry’s figures above. Pack it in an airtight container, as UC ANR advises for dried garlic.⁵

You can make it more garlicky by changing the ratio, but then it won’t match store-bought garlic salt one for one. Season by taste, not by the recipe’s measure.

If garlic salt is seasoning a wet dish

Fresh garlic and salt

In sauces, marinades, soups and dressings, fresh garlic works well and melts into the liquid.

Garlic (Attributed): NDSU Extension equates 3/4 teaspoon of garlic salt with one medium clove of garlic or 1/2 teaspoon of minced fresh garlic.⁶ Per teaspoon of garlic salt, that’s about 1 1/3 medium cloves, or 2/3 teaspoon minced.

Salt (Computed): Add the salt from the table above, about 7/8 teaspoon of table salt per teaspoon of McCormick’s garlic salt. Forgetting it is the most common way this swap goes wrong.

Fresh garlic doesn’t taste like dried. ATK found that how you cut garlic changes its strength, and that minced garlic left to sit keeps getting stronger.⁸ Expect a sharper, fresher garlic note than garlic salt gives you. Mash the minced garlic with the measured salt on a cutting board into a paste and it’ll disappear into a sauce more easily.

If you want a ready-made shaker

Seasoned salt

Seasoned salt is another salt-first blend with garlic in it, along with plenty else. Lawry’s The Original Seasoned Salt lists salt, sugar, spices including paprika, celery seed and turmeric, onion, corn starch and garlic, and carries 380 mg of sodium per ¼ teaspoon.⁹ It brings color, sweetness and onion along with the garlic.

Ratio (Method): Start with the same volume and taste. The sodium is close to the garlic salts above, but the flavor’s different, so it suits burgers, fries and roast potatoes better than garlic bread.

What doesn’t work as well

• Garlic juice. Bottled garlic juice and salt can season a marinade. A figure you’ll see repeated, 2 teaspoons of garlic juice and 2/3 teaspoon of salt per teaspoon of garlic salt, has no source we could find. If you use it, add the salt from the table above and add the juice a little at a time.
• Homemade garlic oil left out overnight. Garlic in oil is a botulism risk. UC ANR says not to store garlic in oil at room temperature, and to refrigerate garlic in oil for no more than 4 days or freeze it.⁵ Commercial garlic-in-oil products are made under strict guidelines.⁵ If you want garlic oil for a dressing, make it the day you use it and refrigerate any leftovers, or buy a commercial one. Salt doesn’t dissolve in oil, so add it separately.

What isn’t known

• No garlic salt label gives its ratio of salt to garlic, so the garlic amounts here come from UC ANR’s home recipe and NDSU’s substitution chart, not from a commercial product.
• Sodium varies by brand. The two brands we checked differ by about 54 percent per ¼ teaspoon, so read your label.¹²

Related

• Garlic salt, garlic powder and garlic
• Garlic powder vs. garlic salt, granulated garlic vs. garlic powder and garlic powder vs. fresh garlic
• Garlic powder substitutes and fresh garlic substitutes
• Seasoned salt, onion salt and onion salt substitutes
• Too much garlic powder, too much garlic and too much salt

Footnotes

1. McCormick Garlic Salt, label ingredients and Nutrition Facts as listed by Stop & Shop. stopandshop.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Lawry’s Garlic Salt with Parsley, label ingredients and Nutrition Facts as listed by Stop & Shop. stopandshop.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Morton Iodized Table Salt, Nutrition Facts, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩

4. Sodium Sources: Where Does All That Sodium Come From?, American Heart Association, 2025. heart.org · Reference work ↩

5. Linda J. Harris, Garlic: Safe Methods to Store, Preserve, and Enjoy, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2016. ccfruitandnuts.ucanr.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. Julie Garden-Robinson, Ingredient Substitutions, NDSU Extension, 2018. ksre.ksu.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩²

7. Carolyn Grillo, For Great Garlic Bread, Hydrate Your Garlic Powder First, America’s Test Kitchen, 2021. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩

8. The Strength of Garlic’s Flavor Depends on How You Cut It, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩

9. Lawry’s The Original Seasoned Salt, label ingredients and Nutrition Facts as listed by ShopRite. shoprite.com · Merchant ↩