Safe garlic oil?

[Babycakes]

Hello all

I really want to make some garlic flavoured olive oil, but I know I shouldn't leave cloves of garlic int he oil bottle because of something nasty (bottulism maybe??) developing.

But I've been thinking, what if I used wild garlic leaves in a bottle of oil? Are there the same risks?

[paddy graham]

Dont see why you cant put cloves of garlic in the oil,I have been doing it for years,also chillies and I,m still OK ish.What I do is after putting the garlic in and sealing the top,leave for a couple of weeks ,then just shake the bottle every few days and after about a month or so its fine to use.

[albertajune]

If you can find it, I put up a recipe for garlic oil on the 22nd Feb 2012. You do have to be carefull with raw garlic, so the recipe is using roasted garlics. I make it regularly and it is very good.

[Stef]

I too usually make my own, but the tinterweb is full of warnings.

There is a risk from any homemade oil flavoured with anything that has come into contact with soil. The scare stories stem from an outbreak way back in the 80s! It was after that that all oils made commercially had to have an acidic compound added. I have had a look at various recommendations, government and other:

Wash all soil-contaminated produce before adding it to an oil infusion,
Add an acidifying agent such as lemon juice or vinegar to the recipe at the rate of one tablespoon per cup of oil,
Keep oil infusions refrigerated in order to retard the growth of any microbes,
Discard infusions after one week, or sooner if apparent cloudiness, gas bubbles, or foul odor develop and,
When in doubt, throw it out

Then again, we never refrigerate any flavoured oils, homemade or bought..... and they last for ages! Ooops??