Garlic Confit

How to make garlic confit and garlic oil at home, this recipe can take as little as 15 minutes of prep time and 2 hours roasting time. The slow roasted garlic cloves are cooked and stored with oil and used in many ways as a caramelized, tender, smooth addition to any meal.

Like tomato confit, garlic confit consists of roasting garlic in generous amounts of fat at low heats until it’s tender and lightly browned. When ready, the garlic is soft, sweet, rich, and flavorful, in many ways, garlic confit is very similar to roasted garlic cloves. However, roasted garlic can lead to uneven cooking and can take longer to achieve the same results.

There are only three ingredients in this recipe.

Garlic: Peeled garlic, you can use as much or as little as you want. Fresh or pre-peeled garlic will work.

Oil: I use extra virgin olive oil for its flavor and health benefits, other oils will work however other cooking oils will affect the flavor and health benefits.

Herbs: You can experiment with the herbs using one or more of rosemary, oregano, chilli flakes, thyme, peppercorns, fennel, bay leaves, etc.

Supplies:

Jars or roasting dish

Cookie tray

Paper towel

If you are not using pre-peeled garlic, prepare the garlic by separating cloves from the heads and peeling the cloves.

Tip: to peel the garlic in seconds, simply break up the garlic heads and then add them to a container or mason jar with a lid and shake vigorously for 20 to 30 seconds. And you are done, even the ones that aren’t fully peeled the skins will be loose enough to peel off super easily.

Add the garlic spices and oil to a deep baking tray or casserole dish. I like to roast the garlic in the jars I am going to store them in.

Place the spices in the jars or tray first.

Then add the garlic cloves up to the jars neck.

Add just enough oil to submerge the garlic entirely.

Tip:

Use washed and dried jars, water droplets can cause the jars to overflow while roasting.

If you roast the garlic in a dish or baking tray, use a small dish with high sides so you use less oil, this is why I roast the garlic in the jars.

Slow roast the garlic confit in the oven for around 2 hours at 212° F or 100° C.

As the garlic confit roasts you will see small bubbles rise to the top of the oil.

The roasted garlic and oil is ready when the cloves are tender and lightly golden but not too browned.

Tip:

I like to roast the jars with the lids, in a tray with a paper towel to prevent spillage in the oven.

212° F or 100° C is just hot enough to sterilize the jars in 2 hours, but not hot enough to burn paper, (451° F or 233° C)

A slow, low temperature cook produces the best flavor.

You can check on the garlic after an hour as it may already be cooked enough for you.

If you roasted the garlic confit in jars, clean the lip of the jars with a paper towel when you take them out of the oven.

Place the lids on the jars and let the jars cool before placing them in the refrigerator.

If you roasted the garlic confit in a dish or tray, let the garlic confit to cool enough to remove the herbs if you want to. When cooled, transfer to a sterilized glass jar and move to the refrigerator immediately.

Tips:

Always store garlic confit and oil in the refrigerator.

The oil may solidify slightly in the refrigerator, you can spoon out the garlic cloves and oil and it will loosen as it comes to room temperature.

I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said you can use this garlic confit on almost anything. You can use garlic confit or garlic oil in dips, sauces, spreads, vinaigrettes, dressings, as a dipping oil for bread or when sauteeing, in place of vegetable oil.