What about pickling garlic

[digitalis]

Having had no luck with smoking garlic has anyone a good recipe for pickling and any do's or don'ts ,what vinegar is best etc

[PLUMPUDDING]

I can't answer your question re pickling garlic, but I have kept some of the surplus by packing it into jars and filling the jar with a fairly mild olive oil. The cloves keep for a few months and the oil has a nice garlic flavour for cooking with. I make sure the peeled cloves are completely submerged in the oil and seal with a tight fitting lid. I keep them in the fridge just to be on the safe side. I once left them on a shelf and they started fermenting.

[snooky]

Evening digitalis,
Go to http://www.gourmetgarlicgarden.com and take your pick of recipes.

[Colin_M]

... I have kept some of the surplus by packing it into jars and filling the jar with a fairly mild olive oil...

Before you get too far into this, I have come across more than one person warning against preserviing garlic like this and mentioning Botulism as a possible risk. Now I have no way of verifying if these were genuine, or just rumors that the interent has helped propogate.

I'm sure someone like Alan Refail will be able to shed some light on this.

In the meantime, do you actually need to preserve your garlic at all (ours often lasts into the following year if stored correctly, though we generally use enough to clear stocks sooner than that).

[pongeroon]

I have pickled surplus garlic and it is lovely. There are several recipes on the net, all very easy, resulting in lovely munchable cloves which don't blow your head off.

[alan refail]

Before you get too far into this, I have come across more than one person warning against preserviing garlic like this and mentioning Botulism as a possible risk. Now I have no way of verifying if these were genuine, or just rumors that the interent has helped propogate.

I'm sure someone like Alan Refail will be able to shed some light on this.

I'm touched by your faith in me, Colin

That said preserving vegetables in oil is to be avoided unless you know precisely what your doing. The dangers of botulism, I understand, are very real and certainly not an internet-spread myth.

Have a look at this site -- http://extension.oregonstate.edu/fch/si ... l_2009.pdf

Like Colin I am puzzled by the concept of "surplus" garlic. Garlic is best stored after drying and kept in cool place - Please not over the kitchen range to look rustic or pretty! Kept cool it will last well into next spring.

[Tigger]

Yes - I am one of those people who've warned against botulism. Preserving garlic in oil is not recommended except by commercial outfits. I gave friends hampers of homemade preserves one year and then had to recall all the garlic in oil when I found out it was high risk!

[pongeroon]

Alan and Colin,

I can't speak for anyone else, but my surplus garlic happens around March or early April when I realise that I've grown far too much again and even if it kept until the new crop was ready (which it obviously wouldn't), I would still have some left over.

[Colin_M]

I can't speak for anyone else, but my surplus garlic happens around March or early April when I realise that I've grown far too much

Ok, point taken. Maybe you need to cook some more Italian dishes

In the meantime, I note that you pickle yours (presumably in vinegar). If you look at the link Alan provided, you'll see that an acid moxture protects against the growth of the Botulism bugs - it's the use of oil (as Plumpudding mentioned) that we wanted to caution against.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I was also one of the people who warned about the possibility of botulism from the oil storage method too, but have found a bottle done in olive oil, stored in the fridge and used within a couple of months was handy and didn't deteriorate. I must add that I used this method before I had read up on the risk of botulism and haven't used it since - mainly because I've not grown too much and have used the garlic up before it started to shrivel.

On the pickling subject - what does garlic pickled in vinegar taste like - it may be lovely, but it doesn't sound very nice?

[WestHamRon]

What kind of vinegar do people use to pickle garlic ?
As Plumpudding says, it sounds awful but I'm willing to try.

[pongeroon]

I used white pickling vinegar, but find it a little harsh, so next time I will probably use white wine vinegar or cider vinegar. The recipe I used included some sugar which I think is needed, but I shall use a little less next time as it was a tad too sweet for my taste. But on the whole I can very much recommend this way of preserving garlic. We mostly use them in salads, but can often be found munching them straight from the jar in the fridge.... they are just al dente, not too fierce in flavour and are a lovely little munchable snack which could be used alongside olives and suchlike with aperitifs if you are into dinner parties (which we are not, being lazy and antisocial old gits).