Garlic: Tips and Troubleshooting, Selecting, Storing, Recipes, Safety

[tryska]

garlic in and of itself is an anti-microbial, if that helps any.

and an anti-fungal.

and an anti-viral.

it's magical.

Edited June 23, 2004 by tryska (log)

[NulloModo]

I've heard the garlic + botulism a lot around here too, but I've always kept chopped garlic packed in oil in the fridge, and never had a problem with slowly using the same jar over a period of months... then again, that is just my personal experience, maybe I am just lucky.

[johnnyd]

Hmmm...

I thought that lots of foods are kept in oil as a preservative, a trick used before refrigeration, but when I put my roasted red pepper in olive oil it gets all funky after a few days. Are we talking the same deal here? Am I missing a step or getting it all wrong entirely?

[FoodMan]

Here is an article by Robert Wolke about the subject and it should shed some light on the whole matter.

Elie

[chefdg]

garlic in and of itself is an anti-microbial, if that helps any.

and an anti-fungal.

and an anti-viral.

it's magical.

And it is natures defense against cholesteral (sp).

[fifi]

CDC info sheet on botulism.

I think Wolke got it wrong about the toxin. It is destroyed by cooking thoroughly. I think he was thinking of Staphylococcus toxin that is not destroyed by heat.

[andiesenji]

I have been preparing garlic infused oil for many years. However, I have never just placed garlic in cold oil as so many do, granted there are few incidents, but one is too many.

I place the oil I am going to infuse in a large dutch oven in the oven, I bring up the oven heat to 200 degrees and when the oil reaches that temperature I add the garlic cloves.

I roast the garlic for at least an hour, sometimes longer. The garlic actually carmelizes somewhat but retains its shape.

I can the oil in pint jars, adding plenty of the cloves to each jar.

It then goes into a waterbath for canning and the lids are tightened. I check every lid to make sure it is fully sealed before storing.

This is the only truly safe way to infuse oil. I don't like to process it in vinegar because it often turns blue. Not attractive.

[ellencho]

So tonight I did some prep work for some meatballs I was planning to cook tomorrow. Since I made a spinach frittata for dinner tonight, I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone and sweat out a large batch of onions and garlic with olive oil and a bit of salt. After I removed a couple spoonfuls of onion/garlic mix for my frittatta, I left the remaining onion/garlic in the pan a non-stick T-fal one to cool down for a bit before I stowed it away in the fridge.

So two hours later I come back to this - regular colored onions, but green tinted garlic. Has this ever happened to anyone else? If I serve this tomorrow will I poison my bf and myself?

[Fresser]

This happens to me when I broil my famous Garlic Pepper Chicken. I crush garlic and place it under the chicken skin before placing the bird under the broiler.

When I unwrap the leftovers the next day, the garlic has turned green. Why this happens, I do not know. But I like the color.

[Jensen]

When I unwrap the leftovers the next day, the garlic has turned green.  Why this happens, I do not know.  But I like the color. 

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And presumably you're not dead yet...

[Gifted Gourmet]

My garlic in my olive oil & garlic spaghetti turns a lovely blue ...the full explanation for this phenomenon

garlic contains sulfur compounds which can react with copper to form copper sulfate, a blue or blue-green compound. The amount of copper needed for this reaction is very small and is frequently found in normal water supplies. Raw garlic contains an enzyme that if not inactivated by heating reacts with sulfur (in the garlic) and copper (from water or utensils) to form blue copper sulfate. The garlic is still safe to eat.  Garlic exposed to direct sunlight can also turn green and acquire a bitter taste.

[chefdg]

The green is from the "garlic sprout" for lack of a more precise term. It's the little green fiber inside fresh garlic that a lot of people will remove because it is bitter.

[fifi]

I have had garlic turn blue in jalapeno pickles. It still tasted good.

[ellencho]

My garlic in my olive oil & garlic spaghetti turns a lovely blue ...the full explanation for this phenomenon

garlic contains sulfur compounds which can react with copper to form copper sulfate, a blue or blue-green compound. The amount of copper needed for this reaction is very small and is frequently found in normal water supplies. Raw garlic contains an enzyme that if not inactivated by heating reacts with sulfur (in the garlic) and copper (from water or utensils) to form blue copper sulfate. The garlic is still safe to eat.  Garlic exposed to direct sunlight can also turn green and acquire a bitter taste.

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Thanks for the explanation GG. I don't recall using any water in my saute/sweat, but I did double dip my wooden spoon in stirring my spinach/onion mix as well as the onion/garlic mix. Perhaps there was some copper in my frozen spinach? Hmm, but now that I think about it, onion contains sulfur compounds too but perhaps they are different from the ones found in garlic.

[Gifted Gourmet]

green, blue, who cares? Garlic in all its forms is God's gift to cooks and diners! fuchsia? that's another problem altogether ...

[Toliver]

A previous discussion on this:

"My Garlic turned blue!, Turned blue after it was baked on pizza"

And inside that discussion is a link to another similar discussion:

"Lemon Butter Sauce, question"

You are not alone!

[Anna N]

Just had to share this photo of my blue-green garlic. I prepped some ingredients for a shrimp casserole early in the day. When it came time to cook, voila - sea green/blue garlic. There was nothing in the container other than the minced garlic and the sliced scallions.

[Sencha]

What an odd thing! This is the first time for me to hear about this occurance. The only color changing problem with garlic I've ever had is when I've accidentally burned it!

[jhlurie]

Really the only bad colors for garlic are black and brown (although lets differentiate that last from "browned", which is okay).

[shelora]

Garlic is being harvested in these parts and selling from $1.50 to $3.00 a head. Being on a tight budget, I have opted for the grocery store garlic that hails from either California or China - 3 heads for .99cents. So I filled two plastic bags and have begun to cook.

Saturday we invited a few friends over dinner. I dove in and hand peeled 171 cloves for three dishes: 15 cloves for a batch of skordailia (a Greek dip redolent with garlic, a mashed potato and crushed blanched almonds), four heads thinly sliced for a garlic soup and the piece de resistance, a 100 clove beef, slow cooked with a bottle of red wine. Mercy. All for the pursuit of research and development. The skordalia was a stunning example of raw garlic's intensity. The soup a delicate slightly sweet rendition and the beef dish reduced the 100 whole cloves into a thick and rich paste. Can you overdose on garlic? Myself and the Mr., both felt slightly nauseous and a little crampy the next day, but quickly recovered around noon.

I plan on taking a few days off before I take up the cause again. The skordalia may again get the green light slathered all over a slow roasting lamb.

What sort of exquisite dishes do you make with tons of garlic that I just can't miss?

[Gifted Gourmet]

I have made this dish ....Lotsa Garlic Linguine and Broccoli Pasta but only once and with plain everyday linguini ... a bit too overpowering for me ...Garlicky Holy Guacamole! from Rachel Ray

[shelora]

I have made this dish ....Lotsa Garlic Linguine and Broccoli Pasta  but only once and with plain everyday linguini  ...    a bit too overpowering for me ...Garlicky Holy Guacamole! from Rachel Ray 

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I like the idea of combining the roasted and the raw minced garlics together. The other addition if the lemon juice. All three of the dishes I made on Saturday required the addition of an acid. It just seems to elevate the garlic.

Thanks for the recipe.

S

[fiftydollars]

garlic confit

I just take a lot of garlic… a lot. Can’t really count how many cloves. But I’d say I start with at least 2 cups of cloves or as many as I can be bothered to peel at the given time. I add big chunk of butter, a spoonful of demi glace, and I start the crock pot on low.

It takes a lot less time than onions and you sort of have to watch it to avoid having the cloves burn or dry out. You have to stir them about every hour or so to get them to cook evenly and it helps if you have a lot of garlic to work with. If you burn it, the garlic becomes intensely bitter as garlic is wont to do, so you probably want to avoid that.

Anyway, after the 8 or so hours it takes, the garlic is just wonderful. It is sweet and mellow and oh, so delicious. I made this after having good success with onion confit and shallot confit (both of which I highly recommend), which were all based on the standard recipegullet onion confit recipe. I pretty much follow the recipe, but just don’t season the garlic with anything, add sugar, include a lot of the other ingredients, or cook it for quite as long…ok I guess I don’t really follow the recipe, but you could, just watch them a lot more closely than onions. Garlic has a lot less moisture and will burn easily. Garlic also has some crazy compounds in it that through long slow cooking become very sweet and ridiculously delicious. It's like garlic marmalade.

Edited September 12, 2005 by fiftydollars (log)

[ladyyoung98]

ive got a favorite garlic recipe form Jeff smiths cooking with wine..its called garlic chicken with garlic garlic..it uses no less than 40 cloves of garlic..which when i was first making it i thought might be too much..however it was delicious....i highly reccomend it ...yuuuuuuuummmmmmmy.....

[Gifted Gourmet]

ive got a favorite garlic recipe form Jeff smiths cooking with wine..

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Ahhh, yes, have made it often! I love the pictures that accompany this recipe!

Forty clove Garlic Chicken