ISO Recipe of Lemon-Infused Olive Oil

[shelly59]

My sister brought a bottle of lemon-infused olive oil with her when we all went to the beach. I fell in love with it. However, I had massive sticker-shock when I came home and sauntered into my neighborhood grocery store to pick some up. $19.00 for a 6 ounce bottle!!

I would like to make my own, but I have a little red flag waving in the remote recesses of my brain...something about organic substances and oil and botulism.

I may be making something easy into something difficult ( I have a special knack for that!) but, in an abundance of caution, I thought I'd ask here. COuld anyone address my concern and, would anyone care to share their infused oil recipe?

Much thanks.

[Chris Amirault]

I'd think that you merely need to steep lemon zest in olive oil, right? And if you heat up the oil to, say, 225F, you'd cook off any moisture. Give it a try and let us know!

[Dave the Cook]

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  I would like to make my own, but I have a little red flag waving in the remote recesses of my brain...something about organic substances and oil and botulism.     

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I think that little red flag has a bulb-of-garlic crest. Botulism (Clostridium botulinum) lives in soil, as does garlic. Botulism also thrives in low-oxygen, pH-neutral environments (above ~4.6, with some exceptions), like say oil. Cooking doesn't do a good job of killing it, though the actual toxin is destroyed at 176F. More information here.

Since they grow on trees, lemons aren't particularly susceptible to C.botulinum.