About twenty-five years I made Italian gift baskets at Christmas including pasta, biscotti, candy, and garlic flavored olive oil. All I did was pour some olive oil in a clean bottle and toss in a couple cloves of garlic. Clearly those were simpler times -- now the internet is full of all kinds of cautions about contamination and botulism -- some commentators recommending against flavoring your own oils -- too much risk -- you need to be so careful. Very off-putting.
But no one died of botulism 25 years ago, so I decided to follow the other commentators who just emphasize using sterile bottles, keeping the oil refrigerated and using it within a reasonable time.
Commentators were also divided on what kind of olive oil to use, with some continuing to recommend a very good cold pressed extra virgin oil and others saying if you are going to flavor it, why use a good oil -- any pure olive oil will do. That makes sense, but I thought I would stick with a better oil and chose Colavita for this project.
I took a quart of olive oil in a clean (and sterilized) mason jar with 12 cloves of garlic. I left the jar undisturbed for a week. Wow, was that oil infused -- the garlic smell was so strong (and appealing).
I made some Barb's Vinaigrette using the garlic oil, and then since this is such a scientific blog, some Barb's Vinaigrette using unflavored olive oil. You could really taste (and smell) the garlic difference.
Do keep the oil refrigerated, and use it promptly: within a month or so.
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