One for the garlic lovers ...

[wafflycat]

I don't think I suggested anywhere that it's more important to do one or the other...

 

[XmisterIS]

How small or big are you chopping the garlic?

I cut each clove into 3 or 4 chunks, depending on its size.

You need to be very, very careful when making flavoured oils with fresh ingredients, if those & the oil is not heated up to at least 120C. If you don't do this you retain water in the ingredients and risk Botulism (Clostridium botulinum). If you don't heat the ingredients & oil first, but simply use cool/cold ingredients & oil, you should not keep it for longer than a week in the fridge.

My understanding is that this can happen if you introduce bacteria into the mix as you bottle the ingredients. I thoroughly washed my kilner jar and put in the oven for 20 mins at 150 C and I washed my hands with anti-bacterial soap several times before peeling the garlic cloves. I added the oil directly from a fresh bottle of oil - I literally broke the seal on the bottle, opened the cap, poured it immediately over the garlic, then put the lid on the jar.

P.S. I've used the stuff several times and I haven't got botulism yet! Also, I cook it well and I don't eat it raw.

 

[User169]

The bacteria will be on the veg/herbs you put into the oil (botulinum is soil-borne).

 

[XmisterIS]

The bacteria will be on the veg/herbs you put into the oil (botulinum is soil-borne).

I'm guessing that when it is thoroughly cooked into a stew or casserole, it will be destroyed though, if there was any there to start with?

 

[User169]

I'm guessing that when it is thoroughly cooked into a stew or casserole, it will be destroyed though, if there was any there to start with?

Well the risk is that the microbe grows in the oil-environment and then produces a toxin. You would need to inactivate the toxin in the cooking process. That does though seem to be reasonably easy according to Wiki which cites this paper...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC546888/?tool=pmcentrez

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Just 'laid down' a bottle of olive oil with chillis and garlic, give it a year or two!

 

[XmisterIS]

Just 'laid down' a bottle of olive oil with chillis and garlic, give it a year or two!

Should only take 2-3 months in the fridge for the oil to become thoroughly infused.

Be warned - the oil will take all the flavour of the chillis - it will end up like napalm! (so I discovered when I put some scotch bonnet chillis in oil for a few months!).

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Be warned - the oil will take all the flavour of the chillis - it will end up like napalm! (so I discovered when I put some scotch bonnet chillis in oil for a few months!).

Yum! - as soon as it's like eating razor blades I'll know it's ready!!

 

[Watt-O]

Honey makes a good preservative for magic mushrooms!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

So did you cook them first or are you going to risk it?

There are cold oil recipes so I went for that.
Dried chillis, fresh garlic, cold oil and here's hoping!!
It's only me that'll touch the stuff - so I'm not taking any innocent party down with me...

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I must say, I always put fresh garlic in; I'd never thought about health risks.

I didn't know there was one either...

 

[yashicamat]

Botulism is a risk with any soil borne ingredients, as has been said. If I make a pickle using raw garlic, I always use half vinegar and half oil as the acidity prevents the bacteria from mulitplying (I actually add the vinegar first, stir it well, then add the oil).

 

[ArDee]

One advantage, or perhaps a mitigating point to the risk, is that Clostridium Botulinum is an anaerobic bacterium; only multiples in the absence of oxygen, so needs specific conditions to survive and multiple that may not be meet.

But does chew holes in flesh if infected and the toxin, as mentioned earlier, is nasty – it freezes nerves, so that those infected can end up not being able to breath; does also mean that it’s used to stop the old wrinkles – Botox is Clostridium Botulinum toxin.

 

[XmisterIS]

I don't think you'll be in danger of being asphixiated by botulism if you cook the garlic well!

I have just made a bean and tomato casserole with some of my garlic; I fried the garlic off in some of its oil first, then added the rest of the ingredients and simmered for 20 mins; that should kill any bugs stone dead!

Just don't eat the garlic raw and you'll be OK.