Confiting is a French method for covering foods in fat and cooking them at low heat until tender and richly flavored. In most cases—as in duck confit—the fat is rendered from the meat, but with garlic, it’s added. The raw garlic cloves may be submerged in savory animal fat, grassy extra-virgin olive oil, or, as in this recipe, a neutral oil like grapeseed or safflower, which will allow the naturally sweet flavor of the cooked garlic to really shine.
You’ll need to peel quite a few heads of garlic for this technique, but we’ve got a few tricks to make the process painless. While you could grab a bag of pre-peeled garlic cloves at almost any grocery store, you risk buying dried-out cloves. Instead, pop unpeeled cloves of garlic into very hot water for a moment—their skins will slip right off. Most of the work in this garlic confit recipe is hands-off; the steady, low temperature of the oven ensures the cloves cook evenly. To amp up your infusion, add fresh herbs (like rosemary or fresh thyme sprigs), black peppercorns, crushed red pepper flakes, or bay leaves to the baking dish.
Mix garlic confit into mashed potatoes or hummus for a boost of flavor; spread a few caramelized cloves on sourdough toast to make a quick garlic bread appetizer; or mash them with butter and serve as a condiment for grilled steak. And that cooking oil? Liquid gold. Use the garlic oil in salad dressings or vinaigrettes, in marinades, and to baste veggies on the grill. Store garlic confit in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, or freeze it along with the infused oil in ice cube trays.
Recipe information
Total Time
2 hours 10 minutes plus chilling
Yield
Makes about 1½ cups
Ingredients
3
1½
Preparation
Preheat oven to 250°. Place garlic and oil in a small ovenproof saucepan (add more oil if cloves aren’t submerged). Cover and bake until cloves are golden and tender, about 2 hours. Let cool; transfer garlic and oil to an airtight container and chill.
Do ahead: Garlic can be cooked 2 weeks ahead. Keep chilled. Bring to room temperature before using.
Note: In most cases, confited garlic is perfectly safe to eat, but storing garlic in oil does come with some risk of botulism, a food-borne illness caused by bacteria that thrive in low-oxygen, low-acid, low-sugar environments. The cooking process greatly reduces that risk, as does storing the cooked garlic and oil at a temperature below 38°F and consuming them within 2 weeks. For longer storage, or to store at room temperature, look for methods using a pressure canner.
Nutrition Per Serving
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Reviews (51)
Back to TopI am guessing that my oven runs much hotter. I smelt a little burning but still wanted to be patient, the garlic was completely burnt. I have an old stove and I don't think that something this delicate can afford any variation. I am disappointed to have wasted farm fresh garlic.
Melissa
San Francisco, CA
7/14/2024
OMG. Reading these reviews is like Quora (a source of disinformation). The recipe gave you everything you need to know, but hopefully this will elaborate. The treatment of garlic is simple: 250 deg internal temp (fahrenheit for this note) for more than 3 minutes will kill off botulism. When preserving vegetables (canning) you need to heat water above 212 deg . To raise water above that temperature a pressure cooker is used. When baking, an internal temperature of 250 deg must be achieved for more than 3 minutes. When storing, refrigeration of 38 deg or lower must be maintained. When serving, you can allow it to reach room temperature, but don't leave sitting at room temperature for long period. For Celsius, temperature needed is 122 deg. If you have a poor temperature regulator in oven, bump the temp up a bit. (And buy a thermometer). Some say soaking the garlic in milk, half & half, or vinegar for 20 minutes, before starting the confit process reduces the bitterness you might get. I have never tried. I will be making garlic confit to go into mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. I will be adding a very, very small amount of thyme, rosemary and sage to the confit. The vegans and vegetarians have fewer choices, so I want the potatoes to have that Thanksgiving flavor (For them, I will not use cow product in the making of confit or potatoes.)
Anonymous
Portland, OR
11/20/2023
I hated the recipe, not this one, but other one. I prepared the garlic confit and ate it right after some minutes in the fridge. It was disgusting (i did sth wrong idk) and now I'm so worried about botulism, even though its nothing to be worried about T.T. Im so worried
Daniel
Spain
8/4/2023
Very educationa! and amusing midnight read.... From reviews, I was reminded of the Euro & American conversion differences. I have to agree with my old friend from Denmark 10s are simpler and make more sense... I learned more about BOTULISM than ever before... I did want to note that I have added raw garlic cloves to previous store bought garlic cloves in oil, had in there for months in frig door, used it in a cooking recipe, and I turned out Just Fine! God was protecting me. Not a raw garlic fan. 😁😁😁
Anonymous
NC, USA 😉
6/21/2023
V. Phelps: “I’m currently waiting to see if I have symptoms of BOTULISM because I had the unfortunate assumption this recipe would be adequate” …omG…I can’t stop laughing!😂🤣 Newsflash…the recipe is perfectly adequate, but don’t let that stop you from waiting around for symptoms of BOTULISM (not sure why the caps, but it must be important🤭) Also, for those wailing and gnashing their teeth because (heaven help us) they couldn’t work out that preheating the oven to 250 degrees meant degrees Fahrenheit NOT Celsius, then consider the very first line of the recipe…”Confiting is…cooking them at LOW heat”. From the very first line a person of merely average intelligence could surmise that 250degrees could ONLY be degrees Fahrenheit in this instance. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are so keen to criticise these recipes unfairly when the problem is clearly not with the recipe at all but with the person’s inability to either follow basic instructions or actually comprehend them in the first place. 🤦🏻♂️ Ps…this recipe is awesome. Confit garlic is absolutely delicious!
Marco
Lismore, Australia
4/6/2023
V PHELPS - "transfer garlic and oil to an airtight container and CHILL" followed by "Keep CHILLED" - literally said it twice in a four line recipe...
Anonymous
7/1/2022
@v phelps...did you die? It says, bring to room temperature before serving. Can't get more specific than that.
HMHSD
SOCAL
6/8/2022