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Pressing garlic extracts the oil from the flesh. The oil is strong flavored and if heated can become acrid almost instantly. If used in a cold preparation, the flavor would just be very strong - and in my experience, even if unheated, pressed garlic is more bitter and less sweet than sliced or chopped.
If the oil is kept with parts of the flesh, the oil is protected (this is my hypothesis, not rooted in anything other than my experience) and will stand much more heat, release flavor slower and generally be sweeter.
I think of pressed garlic a lot like powered garlic. There is a flavor there that can be used, but it's not really what I'm after when I want fresh garlic.
I'm no chemist and I frankly don't have a clue what's really going on with the garlic in different preparation. But this is my experience, and my opinion was formed about 10 years before Bourdain started his food-snob rants on the subject.
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