[Modernist Cuisine at Home] Freezing Garlic Confit

[Anonymous Modernist 12636]

Wife is out this weekend and I was thinking I should double batch Garlic Confit while she's away. Has anyone experimented with putting it in the freezer?

[Anonymous Modernist 14040]

My understanding is that the problem with storing garlic confit for more than a month is the risk of botulism. Storing it in the freezer would stop that, but you would change its texture and depending on how you sealed it get some drying and browning. Not necessarily bad things, but ultimately up to your taste buds. Try it and let us know how it works! However, I have freezed whole garlic cloves in oil for a couple months without issue.

Garlic is one of the botulism-risk foods when stored in oil. After three weeks in an anaerobic environment, botulism will start to develop to sufficient levels in order to be toxic; somewhere after four weeks when under refrigeration (as I understand it). The thing that I always question, when warned about the risk of botulism in things like garlic confit, is the how. Botulism spores are destroyed at 116C after 15 minutes. This recipe is cooked at 121C (1bar/15psi) for 2 hours. I cannot see how any botulism spores would be left. Thus, I do not see the risk of botulism. In fact, I have a hard time seeing why you cannot put a proper seal on it, let it can, and keep it as a canned food for 6+ months, except for the possibility that the garlic and oil break down(do they?) during that time and just end up not tasting as good. For years I have canned lemon curd, in a pressure cooker, and it keeps for about 9 months before separating. Nobody has died, I have sent it in to a lab to be tested, and I have never had a problem. However, I ensure that my lemon curd is below 5 pH and preferably around 4 pH at which point botulism cannot survive. The ideal pH is 4.6, but you have to be very aware of what your pH meter's error range is when trying to hit that.

That brings a person to the idea of acidifying the garlic confit. Acidification garlic as a home cook is considered to be unreliable. The reason, as far as I understand it, is because you have to acidify the garlic to its core. Garlic is harder and less absorbant, which means if you do not pickle it, you are not going to successfully acidify it. I question though why the modernist home cook cannot use industrial methods for acidification of garlic. To acidify garlic normally citric, acetic, phosphoric, or gluconic acid is added until it is below 4.6 pH. (see http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/7231.pdf) You could acidify garlic puree reliably, but whole garlic cloves will be more difficult. To do a whole clove, you either have to let it pickle, pressure pickle it so it is minimally pickled but is acidified to the core, or inject the acid in to the garlic clove's core. Normal pickling of garlic takes 3 days to a week, minimum, and varies by clove size/porosity/etc. And any of these methods of acidification run the risk of changing the flavor of the garlic itself.

While garlic does have anti-microbial properties, it is only for vegetative pathogens. Thus, botulism is not affected by garlic's anti-microbial properties. Garlic pH is 5.3 to 6.3 on its own.

Sorry for the rambling. Honestly, I would be tempted to try setting garlic in acetic acid for a week, bring down its pH, core some of it (the bigger cloves) and puree the cores, test the puree'd pH, if it is good use the remaining cloves to make the garlic confit. Then keep a jar of it around for 6 months to a year and send it off to a lab for testing. Then again, with this cooking under pressure for two hours, I would be tempted to dust my garlic with botulism spores ahead of time, can it this way, and then wait six months and send it in to a lab, just to double check. No idea where you could obtain botulism spores readily though.

[Sam Fahey-Burke]

It‚’s unnecessary to freeze Garlic Confit. If it‚’s stored in a sealed container, it will keep for months in a refrigerator.

Sam

[Anonymous Modernist 14040]

Would probably keep sealed for months at room temperature even, given how long it is cooked.

[Nicholas Zendrowski]

Do I need to add as much extra oil as the recipe has or just make sure they are covered with the fat/oil in the jar?

[kayb]

I do four pounds of garlic cloves (the big peeled bag at Sam's) in confit at a time. That lasts me close to six months. I portion it into two quart plastic containers with screw-on lids, and they live in the refrigerator. I put enough oil over to be sure they're covered, but once I start scooping garlic out of one, some cloves are exposed. I just use the oil I poached in, and pour off any unused oil into a container that goes in the pantry, to be used next time I do confit (it's some POTENT garlic oil at this point), though I always need to add fresh oil to it. I probably poach for at least 90 minutes.

 

I have not died, nor has anyone to whom I've served a meal that used the confit.