Flavoured oils

kittycat204

scaredy_cat wrote: »

garlic and rosemary would be great!

I like the idea of compliments flavours together. Would look prettier in the bottles too. Thanks.

Seakay

I think that the woodier herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme) infuse the best. Soft green herbs (parsley, basil etc) have to be watched carefully and removed promptly when they discolour to be replaced by a fresh batch to avoid tainting the oil. You usually have to infuse with about 3 seperate amounts of soft herb and remove all traces before storing the finished product. Lovely to do but expensive at this time of year. Perennial herbs have less moisture when fresh and are still available from the garden at the moment.
Dried spices are also good to use.

mrsvanderkamp_2

Hi

I'm not sure if this is right place for this post so please feel to move if necessary.

Basically I want to make some infused oils as a Christmas present but on looking at recipies, I'm now terrified that I am going to give someone botulism!! Evidently the risk is greatest with garlic infused oils and I have read how you should heat the oil, not store the garlic in the bottle and keep refrigerated for a week max.

But then I found a Womens Institute recipe on itv.com which suggests you can keep it for up to 3 months, in a cool place and they also put a whole garlic clove in at the end? Surely the WI wouldn't advocate a recipe that might kill somebody??

So I'm now very confused as to the danger (or not?) of doing this and wondered if anyone had made it before and had any advice?

Thanks

mrsvanderkamp_2

Hi

I posted this on the food shopping and groceries thread but think that this might be a better place for it.

Basically I want to make some infused oils as a Christmas present but on looking at recipies, I'm now terrified that I am going to give someone botulism!! Evidently the risk is greatest with garlic infused oils and I have read how you should heat the oil, not store the garlic in the bottle and keep refrigerated for a week max.

But then I found a Womens Institute recipe on itv.com which suggests you can keep it for up to 3 months, in a cool place and they also put a whole garlic clove in at the end? Surely the WI wouldn't advocate a recipe that might kill somebody??

So I'm now very confused as to the danger (or not?) of doing this and wondered if anyone had made it before and had any advice?

Thanks :-)

Chris25

I think I read this a while back, but had forgotten about it.

Dried herbs, not fresh seem to be ok to use to infuse the oil & apparently, oil is not acidic enough to prevent the possibility of the bacteria from growing.

I have used fresh garlic to infuse oil before, but many years ago now - although no-one was ill or died from it.....at least that I'm aware of!

Some suggestions are to add vinegar to alter the acidity of the oil.

kittycat204

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4323121

mrsvanderkamp_2

Thanks for directing me here kittycat

So to be clear, is it ok to put rosemary in with the oil or should I dry it out first? (I can do this in the oven?)

I could then do a garlic and rosemary by just heating the oil with the garlic then discarding the garlic.

And I have chilli flakes as well as a couple of chillies that i have been drying out for months so that could go in as decoration for a chilli flavoured one.

As I mentioned in my other post, I found a recipe by the Womens Institute which included fresh garlic and it said you could keep it for 3 months in a cool place (lots of other advice says to refrigerate for only up to 1 week) and I can't imagine that they would say that if it was dangerous, but like Kitticat and myself if you want to make these as gifts, you wouldn't want to make anyone ill

kittycat204

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

Thanks for directing me here kittycat

No problem.

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

So to be clear, is it ok to put rosemary in with the oil or should I dry it out first? (I can do this in the oven?)

Seems from what I've read you don't have to dry it out first.

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

I could then do a garlic and rosemary by just heating the oil with the garlic then discarding the garlic.

And I have chilli flakes as well as a couple of chillies that i have been drying out for months so that could go in as decoration for a chilli flavoured one.

As I mentioned in my other post, I found a recipe by the Womens Institute which included fresh garlic and it said you could keep it for 3 months in a cool place (lots of other advice says to refrigerate for only up to 1 week) and I can't imagine that they would say that if it was dangerous, but like Kittycat and myself, if you want to make these as gifts, you wouldn't want to make anyone ill

You could always use garlic granules or powder, as others have suggest. Hope it goes well.

PLRFD

Couple of years ago i made infused oils for xmas pressies just used really fresh garlic and well washed rosemary sprigs and a few mixed pepper corns,didn't have any problems at all and i still had a bottle on the go in March.

mrsvanderkamp_2

kittycat204 wrote: »

You could always use garlic granules or powder, as others have suggest. Hope it goes well.

Thanks, you too I'm also making Asian Chilli Jam and Spiced Whisky Marmalade for my friends.