Why bother to peel first? Just crush the garlic and the skin will fall away.

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put the garlic in a pot with cold water and bring it up to a boil then strain it and do this 3 times..aka blanch 3 times this will take make the garlic not smell strong , so you wont smell like garlic for a week

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I'm a big fan of using my microplane grater for garlic. It gives me a nice pulp that I grate right over the pot. No cutting board needed.

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Easiest way I've found to peel garlic is to put it in a bowl, put a lid on it, and shake it vigorously. The skin comes off on its own. I didn't believe it at first, but it really works:

http://www.brooks-bilson.com/blogs/food_bar/index.cfm/2007/4/13/An-Easier-Way-to-Peel-Garlic

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I'm with Nick Tulett - a good whack with the knife, and then snick the thick end and the skin will come away easy peasy!

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One useful trick I've discovered is to smash the (peeled) garlic on the cutting board, drizzle it liberally with olive oil, and then go to town on it with the chef's knife. The oil tends to keep the bits from stick to the knife, and it all reduces to a paste quite quickly (the salt trick helps here, too). There's a bit of extra oil from this method, but I usually then toss the paste into a pan anyway, so that works out.

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Nick Tulett is right: cut the end off the clove (where it attached to the bulb, then crush the clove with the side of your knife without peeling it. The peel then slips off. Another tip: the healthful substances in garlic form when you crush and mince it, but they are initially unstable and if you immediately sauté the garlic they're destroyed. So let the garlic sit for 15 minutes before you heat it. This also prompts one to do all the prep work before cooking---just begin with the garlic.

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Wet your knife before cutting = much less sticky garlic while chopping, without the (albeit minor) downside of oil.

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