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

[Steve Martin]

I've seen somewhere that garlic in vinegar is a good home for E-coli.

I would keep it for a few days in the fridge though. Take more than a few microbes to frighten me ;-)

[mrbigjas]

Thanks for the info--I suspected that the fact that it was a dressing rather than just straight oil meant that I'd be OK.

[wannabechef]

Woah - I knew nothing about this hazard! Does this apply to cooked garlic in oil as well? I often infuse olive oil with garlic by slowly cooking it for an hour. I then save that oil in the fridge for weeks or even months. Is this hazardous as well or is it only raw garlic?

Thanks!

~WBC

[mrbigjas]

Just raw, to my knowledge. Here is more info about it from UGA's national center for home food preservation, but it wasn't real clear on what would happen in a mixture of vinegar and oil and whatnot, which is why I asked the original question.

[Steve Martin]

Woah - I knew nothing about this hazard! Does this apply to cooked garlic in oil as well? I often infuse olive oil with garlic by slowly cooking it for an hour. I then save that oil in the fridge for weeks or even months. Is this hazardous as well or is it only raw garlic?

The big and well proven danger is raw garlic in oil. The water content of the garlic in the airless, low acid environment of the oil leads to rampant botulism.

Dry products reduce this water activity and can be considered safe. I would say that as you heat and strain the oil it will keep very well.

The higher acidity of vinegar will not support botulism and indeed kills some strains of E-coli. However, there are acid resistant strains of E-coli and Salmonella just waiting to catch us out.

I always preserve my garlic in concentrated bleach and bury it in the garden.

The neighbour's garden actually.

[dano1]

refrigeration is your friend....

danny

[gus_tatory]

i wonder if i can ask eGulleters:

--by the time garlic is growing greens from the top of the bulb, is it too late to use it for cooking? i.e., is it bitter?

--when you cook for yourself at home, do you remove the little green centre of the garlic clove, or not?

thanks!

[Mudpuppie]

Some people swear that the garlic's no good if it's sprouting. Fact is, in some parts of the world, some months out of the year, it's almost impossible to find garlic that's not sprouting.

I remove the shoot. Simply smashing the clove like you'll probably do anyway allows for easy removal. I can't taste any difference once it's chopped up and cooked in something.

I thumb my small, perky nose at all those who say the sprouted clove is bitter!

[Chris Cognac]

I have always thrown them away when they get to that stage, I just dont think they are any good.

[Pan]

My advice is, if the sprout is well-established enough that the middle and not just the top of the garlic clove is green, throw it away.

[tsquare]

I'm with Mudpuppie on this one. Just wish I had a matching nose.

[MsMelkor]

I'm with Mudpuppie on this one. Just wish I had a matching nose.

For whatever it's worth, the folks at Cook's Illustrated / America's Test Kitchen did a test and found that garlic with the green shoot removed tastes as good as garlic without the shoot (keeping the shoot makes it bitter).

[Pan]

But if the whole center of the clove is green, whatever remains is too dried up from having served as a reservoir for the shoot that it's not worth using.

[Mudpuppie]

But if the whole center of the clove is green, whatever remains is too dried up from having served as a reservoir for the shoot that it's not worth using.

I don't find that that's always true. Now, if the garlic is truly dessicated, I won't use it. But in my experience, having a green shoot doesn't necessarily mean that the rest of the clove is dehydrated.

Sometimes? Yes. Always? No.

[Alex]

If there's just some green in the center but no shoot, I'll try to excise it. If some gets chopped in with the rest, no big deal if the garlic is getting cooked. If I'm using the garlic raw, or if there's a shoot, I'm more dilligent about removing the green part. In my case, I'd say that perhaps ¼ of the time the clove is too dessicated or moldy to use.

[woodburner]

I'll suggest you start buying hard neck varietals. When stored in a cool dry location, and not the refrigerator, you will not have the worries of growing shoots.

If it were me, and I were staring at a head of garlic that was starting to sprout, I would plant it in the garden.

woodburner

[ghostrider]

But if the whole center of the clove is green, whatever remains is too dried up from having served as a reservoir for the shoot that it's not worth using.

I don't find that that's always true. Now, if the garlic is truly dessicated, I won't use it. But in my experience, having a green shoot doesn't necessarily mean that the rest of the clove is dehydrated.

Sometimes? Yes. Always? No.

As someone who makes pasta a olio e oglio at least twice a week, I must agree!

[Katherine]

My rule of thumb is, if it looks fresh I use it, if it's withered, I don't.

Works for me.

[hathor]

My garlic critera: if the clove still feels firm and moist, no problem, go ahead and use it, removing the shoot. The other critical criteria: desperation....it's the only clove you have, no one (that would be my son) told me they used up the garlic, I'm hungry and its late. Of course I use it!

[ghostrider]

Is this for real?

My father made salad dressing for approximately 50 years by leaving a clove of raw garlic in a jar with oil, vinegar & a few herbs. It would last for about a week, then he'd do it all over again. He always left the jar out on the counter.

We never became ill from it as far as I can recall. I guess the vinegar did its job.

[marinade]

Can anyone safely answer as to what level of pH needs to be present to shut down botulism?

[jsolomon]

Can anyone safely answer as to what level of pH needs to be present to shut down botulism?

pH's of lower than about 5 are sufficient to inhibit botulism quite well. The CDC in the editorial note of this case states that a pH lower than 4.6 is sufficient for foods kept higher than 39F. IMO, those are pretty high standards. However, they are safe. 4.6 is lower pH and higher acid content than that of tomatoes (if I remember correctly) and I never worry about botulism in tomato products.

HTH

[marinade]

Thanks, the pH measurement helps a lot! The CDC report gave me better info than the USDA sites. Still curious about the garlic issue. What if garlic is pureed and infused into oil and then drained. Let's assume that there is no acid present other than what you may find in something like extra virgin olive oil. I've been giving some serious thought to dehrydrating and then infusing.

[fifi]

Which brings me to mojo de ajo.

This is a preparation of oil, or half oil and half butter, where you slowly simmer (really slow, like a bubble up every now and then) diced garlic in the oil for several hours until the garlic is a golden brown. Then you put it in the fridge and use the oil for griddling and the toasted garlic for whatever. In that scenario, it is always cooked which would eliminate any toxin but I still wonder about long term storage. I would think that the long cooking would render it sterile, even given the tenacity of botulinum spores.

[bobmac]

I'm always wary of storing uncooked chopped garlic in any oily, anaerobic environment. I have a recipe for dan dan noodles that describes making a big batch of the sauce and refridgerating it indefinitely. Along with garlic, the sauce contains some rice wine. Would the wine be acidic enough to discourage botulism? How much does refrigeration help?