Here’s a twist on crushing garlic, and it doesn’t involve using a knife or a garlic press.  From Tipnut.com:

Tipnut here’s a tip for crushing garlic that once you try it, you’ll never go back to the method you are now using (I guarantee it). It was taught to me by my mother who was from Hungary and I always assumed this was a common thing there, but the few Hungarian friends I have never knew about this.

Find a rock that is smooth and is about the size of your palm. Look for one that is comfortable and not too heavy in the hand. When you first pick the rock, run it through the dishwasher a few times and it’s ready to use. If you don’t have a dishwasher just wash it in hot soapy water with a bit of bleach.

To crush garlic, hold the rock and smash it on a clove of garlic. Pull out the skin and there you have it, crushed garlic ready to cook with. Cleaning the rock is a dream, just throw it in the dishwasher utensils basket and it’s perfect to use for years and years. I keep my rock in the utensils drawer in the space between the tray and the back of the drawer, I call it my kitchen rock.

When I demonstrated this to a friend of mine, she loved how easy it was to crush the garlic but she couldn’t get used to the idea of a rock coming in contact with her food. She tweaked things to suit her better by taking a square of wax paper or a cleaned cereal liner bag and folding that over the garlic before hitting it with the rock.

My advice is to choose a smooth rock instead of a jagged surface rock, it does the best job and the results are consistent.