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Jars of freshly made garlic confit.

Garlic Confit

Course: Condiments
Cuisine: French
Season: All Season
Cook Time: 2 minutes
Total Time: 2 minutes
Author: Pam Spettel
Garlic confit is a springboard to better cool-weather cooking. Use the tender cooked garlic cloves and flavored oil as a condiment or seasoning to breads, meats, and vegetables, and use the garlic-flavored oil as a start to phenomenal sautees, sauces, and vinaigrettes.
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Equipment

  • Paring knife
  • Stainless steel saucepan

Ingredients

  • Peeled fresh garlic cloves
  • Good quality extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

  • Use a paring knife to rim away the stem end or any blemishes from the peeled garlic cloves. Then place the peeled blemish-free cloves in a saucepan (as many as you want), cover with olive oil, and put a lid on it. Make sure the cloves are covered by at least 1/4 inch of oil.
  • From here you have two choices: set the saucepan into a 250° oven for two hours, or set it on low heat on your cooktop for about the same amount of time. Gently stir the garlic in the oil every 30 minutes to keep them from browning. Moderate your heat as needed to gently cook the garlic. The aim is to soften the garlic cloves, not to toast or roast them. You will know they are ready when the oil has grown deeply golden and the garlic cloves are fork-tender and somewhat translucent.
  • Garlic confit is best stored in tightly sealed jars in your refrigerator. The refrigerated oil will thicken and become cloudy. It will return to its beautiful liquid-gold self when set out for about 30 minutes, or you can scoop some out and place it in a dish in a warm spot to hurry it along.
  • After scooping some out to use, make sure that any garlic cloves that are exposed get covered in oil. If there isn’t enough in the jar for that, simply drizzle in a little more from your day-to-day bottle. The oil creates a seal over the garlic cloves that preserves your jar of gold.