Preserving Garlic

[blunomore]

Good people,

I have a bag full of garlic cloves and need advice on how to preserve it.

My current thinking is to roast the garlic in the oven, squeeze out the garlic into a container/s and then freezing that. How long can it be refrigerated if done like this ?

As an alternative, is it possible to freeze the garlic unroasted and unpeeled ?

Thanks

 

[Hosehead]

Make a Confit and they will last forever.
Get some decent olive oil and don't peel the cloves, just seperate the pieces and place in heavy bottom saucepan and cover with olive oil and cook gently on low heat - don't let it boil- just simmer and when the cloves are all tender and squishy soft then you know they are done.- poke them with something sharp after about a half hour to an hour or so. Take off heat and cool then bottle in the olive oil in airtight jars and refrigerate. Use as needed for topping cooked dishes - just warm the confit up.

 

[froot]

Make a Confit and they will last forever.
Get some decent olive oil and don't peel the cloves, just seperate the pieces and place in heavy bottom saucepan and cover with olive oil and cook gently on low heat - don't let it boil- just simmer and when the cloves are all tender and squishy soft then you know they are done.- poke them with something sharp after about a half hour to an hour or so. Take off heat and cool then bottle in the olive oil in airtight jars and refrigerate. Use as needed for topping cooked dishes - just warm the confit up.

Exactly what I wanted to say.
I did this and three months down the line I still use the stuff. It lasts really really well and the flavour is immense.

 

[blunomore]

Make a Confit and they will last forever.
Get some decent olive oil and don't peel the cloves, just seperate the pieces and place in heavy bottom saucepan and cover with olive oil and cook gently on low heat - don't let it boil- just simmer and when the cloves are all tender and squishy soft then you know they are done.- poke them with something sharp after about a half hour to an hour or so. Take off heat and cool then bottle in the olive oil in airtight jars and refrigerate. Use as needed for topping cooked dishes - just warm the confit up.

Exactly what I wanted to say.
I did this and three months down the line I still use the stuff. It lasts really really well and the flavour is immense.

Before you put the seperate cloves, do you need to rinse or wipe them clean ? So when you cooked a dish, you just put some of this confit on top of the dish after it is done? I was hoping to preserve it in order to use it e.g. to make garlic butter, use when I cook, etc.

 

[pookfuzz]

If you are going to preserve garlic in oil I would not suggest keeping it for too long. Botulism is not that fun.

 

[froot]

Before you put the seperate cloves, do you need to rinse or wipe them clean ? So when you cooked a dish, you just put some of this confit on top of the dish after it is done? I was hoping to preserve it in order to use it e.g. to make garlic butter, use when I cook, etc.

Well I just put the cloves just like that (just skinned) in the olive oil. Some of the softer cloves become mush and others stay somewhat harder. I also pressed some with the garlic press and add those, then you get some that are like butter too. Then you can use it in soup/pasta/ whatever, by just adding it and stirring it in.

 

[froot]

If you are going to preserve garlic in oil I would not suggest keeping it for too long. Botulism is not that fun.

It lasts and tastes and remains perfectly fine.

 

[Hosehead]

Before you put the seperate cloves, do you need to rinse or wipe them clean ? So when you cooked a dish, you just put some of this confit on top of the dish after it is done? I was hoping to preserve it in order to use it e.g. to make garlic butter, use when I cook, etc.

You can use them for garlic butter later just fish out a few cloves from the oil and squeeze the paste out into the butter etc...remember that when you cook Garlic it mellows the flavour so you will need to use more (confit) cloves than if you were making garlic butter from raw garlic.
Just wipe them clean and dump them in the warmed oil. You can wash them too as the water will boil off when the oil heats up. Just remember simmer simmer simmer- not boil

 

[pookfuzz]

It lasts and tastes and remains perfectly fine.

You might want to read up on this... I wanted to do exactly what bluno is trying to do a few years back, and almost every site I found that talked about using oil also cautioned that you should use it quickly and store it in the fridge because the anaerobic conditions and low acidity of the garlic would promote botulism growth. I ended up pickling the garlic in vinegar.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/safefood/newsltr/v2n4s08.html

 

[TonyA]

Go with pickling the garlic cloves!!

 

[Hosehead]

You might want to read up on this... I wanted to do exactly what bluno is trying to do a few years back, and almost every site I found that talked about using oil also cautioned that you should use it quickly and store it in the fridge because the anaerobic conditions and low acidity of the garlic would promote botulism growth. I ended up pickling the garlic in vinegar.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/safefood/newsltr/v2n4s08.html

Keeping it in the fridge is fine. Mind you the Yanks don't really even use raw egg yolks in their food and good luck trying to find unpasturized milk/cheese there.

 

[I am Penguin]

Preserving Garlic

Garlic Oil

Fresh garlic and oil are a dangerous combination if left at room temperature. Because of garlic’s low acidity and oil’s lack of oxygen, they can cause botulism toxin to develop. However, peeled cloves of garlic can be added to oil and stored in the freezer for several months.

Commercially prepared garlic in oil contains a preservative to increase the acidity of the mixture and keep it safe. To make garlic-flavored oil at home, add dehydrated garlic to olive oil in a wide mouth jar, screw on the lid, and place the jar in the refrigerator. If the olive oil turns solid, just spoon it out. Be careful, however, to always use a dry spoon.
Refrigerator Garlic Pickles

Best Medical resource, re Garlic

Garlic-in-oil is a mixture of oil and garlic, either whole, chopped or minced. When you make it at home and use it right away, it is a safe product. It is also safe if you keep it refrigerated on a continuous basis, and use it within a week.

The trouble starts if you store homemade garlic-in-oil at room temperature, or if you keep it in the fridge for too long. These actions could allow growth of the spores that cause botulism, resulting in the production of toxin in the food.

Infused oils-DANGER!! Read the comments

Dangers of Garlic

More:

 

[murraybiscuit]

so could somebody give a recorded account of a garlic in oil botulism death?
sounds like the warning not to eat soft cheese during pregnancy because of potential listeria contamination.
it's not that it's impossible, just highly improbable, surely?

 

[blunomore]

I ended up roasting about a quarter of the garlic cloves and leaving the rest for now. Will decide what to do with them tomorrow!

I squuzed out the 'paste' from the roasted ones and will freeze it.

 

[I am Penguin]

so could somebody give a recorded account of a garlic in oil botulism death?
sounds like the warning not to eat soft cheese during pregnancy because of potential listeria contamination.
it's not that it's impossible, just highly improbable, surely?

Read my last post and references. If that's not good enough information then nothing will ever be good enough for you. One link is to the Canadian medical institution. To go and show you the graves and to exhume the bodies for forensic's to prove a point is just too much to ask. Do as and when you are pleased. It was only cheap advise, use it...lose it! Your choice.

 

[Frankie]

We just put the fresh skinned garlic cloves in the electric chopping machine, and then spread this in a layer about 3mm think inside sandwhich ziplock bags and freeze, then snap off what we need from the frozen slabs.

 

[froot]

You might want to read up on this... I wanted to do exactly what bluno is trying to do a few years back, and almost every site I found that talked about using oil also cautioned that you should use it quickly and store it in the fridge because the anaerobic conditions and low acidity of the garlic would promote botulism growth. I ended up pickling the garlic in vinegar.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/safefood/newsltr/v2n4s08.html

Nah I'm not intending to. I often cook with the stuff and use it in a wide variety of my dishes and yeah... there's nothing wrong with it at all. And it is in the fridge, btw

 

[Hosehead]

. To go and show you the graves and to exhume the bodies for forensic's to prove a point is just too much to ask. .

No it's not. I demand all graves of Garlic Oil fatalities be exhumed for forensics.

 

[DanH]

I just peel it and chop it in the food processor, add olive oil and little salt for preseving it. Then freeze it. Do the same with the ginger.