from http://www.christopherranch.com/garlic%20in%20oil.htm

Christopher Ranch Chopped and Crushed Garlic delivers all the hearty flavor of fresh garlic in a convenient and ready-to-use form. These products are preservative free, and are made with fresh garlic and packed in oil.

I use this brand, or another one to make my giardinera. Not really worried about the flavor of the garlic (fresh vs jarred) in the giardiniera,
since it's getting soaked in salt water, I'd assume the "fresh taste" would be a wash anyway.

I've used these jars of garlic packed in oil for a long time. They are not salty, or briny, and they last for months in the fridge after opening? Are they seriously not safe?

I've used these jars of garlic packed in oil for a long time. They are not salty, or briny, and they last for months in the fridge after opening? Are they seriously not safe?

Disclaimer: I am not a food scientist.

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap2.html

To safely store garlic in olive oil without preservatives of any kind for three months at a time, they must have found a way to kill the potential spores that can cause botulism. According to the FDA, this means the jars of chopped garlic were heated to 80C for ten minutes or the pH of the garlic/oil mix is below 4.6 or the jar contains microbial inhibitors of some kind.

The incidence of botulism is low, but the mortality rate is high.

G Wiv wrote:

Antonius wrote:-- many Mexican groceries sell fresh, peeled cloves of garlic in plastic containers -- they're always in the produce sections and one can see that they typically quite fresh.

A,

As do Korean grocers.

Enjoy,
Gary

Stanley's always sells a big tub of whole peeled garlic. Can't vouch for freshness, though.

FrankP wrote:

I've used these jars of garlic packed in oil for a long time. They are not salty, or briny, and they last for months in the fridge after opening? Are they seriously not safe?

Disclaimer: I am not a food scientist.

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap2.html

To safely store garlic in olive oil without preservatives of any kind for three months at a time, they must have found a way to kill the potential spores that can cause botulism. According to the FDA, this means the jars of chopped garlic were heated to 80C for ten minutes or the pH of the garlic/oil mix is below 4.6 or the jar contains microbial inhibitors of some kind.

The incidence of botulism is low, but the mortality rate is high.

(I'm no food scientist either, but)
I'm not sure how Christopher Ranch does it, but there must be some treatment of the crushed/chopped garlic. The reason I won't buy chopped garlic (any brand) is because any breakage of the cells releases the flavor and aroma (a defence mechanism - also in onions) by releasing (simplistically) an enzyme to react with its substrates in a different part of the cell/bulb. These compounds are not only volatile but also degrade/react further - hence the green color of garlic paste if left sitting*.

see also this earlier thread on garlic


*Harold McGee recently wrote on this (Dec. 6th - also in NYT) - see here. Similarly onions turn red. I still don't know (chemically) why grated ginger turns an awful shade of pukegreen.

Costco also has jars of whole, peeled garlic - something like 3 to 5lbs. It's one of those purchases I've made in the past knowing that I would -maybe- use a pound or two of the garlic before it's time to part ways with it, but it's so cheap that it's still worth it. (Depending on how you attach value to your time.)

Cynthia wrote:mayonnaise, which I love making from scratch, I do want to note that it is not necessarily "stupid" to simply pick some of this stuff up at the store. There are lots of reasons one might not be able to do this at home.

For the reasons Cynthia mentions, there's probably nothing I'd never buy ready made, but mayonnaise is becoming a staple of my homemade products. In the food processor, it is trivially easy and fast; it's cheaper to make than to buy and tastes better; and it uses ingredients I always have on hand.

There are a lot of things I both make and buy. Broths, for example. Because when I go to the trouble of making chicken broth from scratch, a day-long process, I want to eat it, preferably with matzo balls, so when I'm looking for a cup of broth to pour into a recipe, it's apt to come out of a carton. (That may change, now that I've been making broth in the pressure cooker, which makes broth a faster process and produces broth better than canned but not as good as long-simmered. However, the advantage of the packaged broth is that it's shelf-stable and doesn't take up space in the freezer. One of these days I may acquire a pressure canner, and then I may make more homemade broths.)

I make some salad dressings and buy others. Vinaigrettes I make. I buy Henri's Tas-tee dressing. I usually buy ranch and blue cheese dressings, too. I could make them but the commercial products are less expensive than the ingredients.

Usually, I make spaghetti sauce, but I buy it when it's on sale in the winter. I make some pickles and buy others.

Things I almost never buy are pre-cut vegetables. Why would anybody pay a premium for one onion, peeled, cut in 1/2-inch slices and wrapped in plastic?

Except for baby carrots, I won't buy pre-cut veg... But I have been known to pick up a bit of stuff from the salad bar if I only need one stalk of celery or something like that.

Hi,

One of my sisters buys frozen precut onions or at least has.

I once showed up at her place with a 10-pound bag of onions. I minced, roughly chopped and sliced onions for less than 30 minutes. Packed them in freezer bags and left them for her to use in the future.

I heard later that her entire freezer smelled of onions, which was reported with some displeasure.

When I visited recently, I saw chopped onions in a tupperware container in the refrigerator. I guess they now chop an onion for use over several days.

Regards,

LAZ wrote:There are a lot of things I both make and buy. Broths, for example. Because when I go to the trouble of making chicken broth from scratch, a day-long process, I want to eat it, preferably with matzo balls, so when I'm looking for a cup of broth to pour into a recipe, it's apt to come out of a carton. (That may change, now that I've been making broth in the pressure cooker, which makes broth a faster process and produces broth better than canned but not as good as long-simmered. However, the advantage of the packaged broth is that it's shelf-stable and doesn't take up space in the freezer. One of these days I may acquire a pressure canner, and then I may make more homemade broths.)

I've actually had pretty good experiences with the better than bullion brand of paste that you boil into a broth. It's a very condensed paste so it doesn't take up much room in the fridge and I think it's tastier and healthier than the ones I've found in cartons. You still have to do some prep, but it's just boiling water so not too terrible. They have veg, beef, and chicken versions.

I've used Better than Bouillon's various bases for years. They have an amaing product range including lobster, crab, turkey, ham, mushroom, etc., and several kosher types. They are all excellent, and taste of the beast/veg that they're *supposed* to taste like. My only exception is the beef, which I always follow Cook's latest recommendation on. (I'm embarrassed to say what it is lately!).

I recommend them highly!

Geo

I like the BTB products too. Noticed years ago that my mom used them; noticed years later that Cooks Illustrated likes them too. I always keep jars of BTB chicken and beef in my fridge.

JoelF wrote:Except for baby carrots, I won't buy pre-cut veg... But I have been known to pick up a bit of stuff from the salad bar if I only need one stalk of celery or something like that.

That is genius on the celery & carrots from a salad bar!

For the anti-processed garlic folks.
I recently at Woodman's saw a "squeeze garlic". Just like the cheap Heinz relish squeeze tubes.
To be honest, it isn't that bad. I bought a container for a scouts hot dog dinner recently, and several folks liked it. Obviously not the foodie representation, but not bad. I would consider it for times when my "hanging" stash is not fresh and should have been tossed.

I hope to be more proactive this year and "vitamix" lots of garlic, put into cheap ice cube trays, vacuum seal and use as needed.

funkyfrank wrote:very easy to make fresh chili powder.

I get my undies in a bunch when I see chili powder in a recipe (along with cumin, cayenne, oregano...)

I react much the same way when I see a recipe for baked beans that starts with opening a can of baked beans. WTF!

When I make hummus, I start with dry chick peas. I do buy store bought tahini though.

I suppose everyone has their need to balance convenience vs. time available.

HankB wrote:I react much the same way when I see a recipe for baked beans that starts with opening a can of baked beans. WTF!

Drives me bonkers when I'm looking for a recipe for a springboard, and the ingredients include cake mix, pudding mix, cream of whatever soup, dry onion soup mix, etc. Just came across multiple recipes for tamale pie calling for cornbread mix last night. Grr!

Back to the topic at hand, apologies for the detour...

exvaxman wrote:I hope to be more proactive this year and "vitamix" lots of garlic, put into cheap ice cube trays, vacuum seal and use as needed.

I have been really happy with my home-pickled garlic as a substitute for fresh. It even makes decent garlic bread.

Having compared Himself's homemade horseradish with the kind from a jar, I'm tempted to say I won't buy bottled horseradish anymore, but I probably will. Horseradish only lasts so long before it loses its oomph, and good roots are hard to come by at times. However, we do go to some effort to find the kind that doesn't have mustard oil or artificial flavorings in it.

LAZ wrote: Horseradish only lasts so long before it loses its oomph, and good roots are hard to come by at times. However, we do go to some effort to find the kind that doesn't have mustard oil or artificial flavorings in it.

Yes... see my other thread. I did find it at Whole Foods and it looked decent. But the tops are removed and I'm unsure it will grow. (Probably not a concern - I grew it before and any bit of root left in the ground seemed to sprout.) I also found some at Ultra which had the top intact so I bought that too. That's the one we grated yesterday and it seemed to lack pungency from the get-go. Hopefully it will do better grown in the garden.

Re: "Squeeze" spices/herbs:

I've been using the tubes of ginger and lemongrass, as they are a lot smoother (less fibrous the what I get when I microplane the stuff. Considering how often I use these flavorings (not that much) they also seem to stay fresher than the actual botanic products.

LAZ wrote:Having compared Himself's homemade horseradish with the kind from a jar, I'm tempted to say I won't buy bottled horseradish anymore, but I probably will. Horseradish only lasts so long before it loses its oomph, and good roots are hard to come by at times. However, we do go to some effort to find the kind that doesn't have mustard oil or artificial flavorings in it.

I was wondering what kind of "artificial flavoring" would be in prepared horseradish. I mean most flavors are going to just disappear behind the horseradish, and what would you use? Vanilla? Butter? Mustard flavors at least make some sense.
I bought one (forgot the brand) without artificial flavors (but it did have preservatives) and it knocked our socks off.

LAZ wrote:

exvaxman wrote:I hope to be more proactive this year and "vitamix" lots of garlic, put into cheap ice cube trays, vacuum seal and use as needed.

I have been really happy with my home-pickled garlic as a substitute for fresh. It even makes decent garlic bread.

Having compared Himself's homemade horseradish with the kind from a jar, I'm tempted to say I won't buy bottled horseradish anymore, but I probably will. Horseradish only lasts so long before it loses its oomph, and good roots are hard to come by at times. However, we do go to some effort to find the kind that doesn't have mustard oil or artificial flavorings in it.

The Passover bottled horseradish is pretty incendiary. Contains just horseradish, vinegar and salt. $1 a bottle at Jewel.

JoelF wrote:I was wondering what kind of "artificial flavoring" would be in prepared horseradish. I mean most flavors are going to just disappear behind the horseradish, and what would you use? Vanilla? Butter? Mustard flavors at least make some sense.

It seems to be some kind of artificial mustard oil. Can't be real mustard oil, because some of the Passover brands had it. Maybe capsaisin? I don't know. All I know is that whatever it is, Himself absolutely hates the taste of it and scrutinizes every bottle of horseradish before he lets me buy it.

LAZ wrote:

JoelF wrote:I was wondering what kind of "artificial flavoring" would be in prepared horseradish. I mean most flavors are going to just disappear behind the horseradish, and what would you use? Vanilla? Butter? Mustard flavors at least make some sense.

It seems to be some kind of artificial mustard oil. Can't be real mustard oil, because some of the Passover brands had it. Maybe capsaisin? I don't know. All I know is that whatever it is, Himself absolutely hates the taste of it and scrutinizes every bottle of horseradish before he lets me buy it.

Synthetic mustard oil—also known as allyl isothiocyanate—is the artificial flavoring sometimes added to horseradish. Allyl isothiocyanate is naturally present in horseradish and gives the root (as well as mustard) its pungency. As I understand the labeling regulations, when the compound is distilled from mustard seed it can be called natural flavoring or mustard oil. It's included in an FDA Generally Recognized as Safe list (here). Chemically synthesized allyl isothiocyanate is also permitted but it must be labeled an artificial flavoring.

What I will and won't buy at the store has to do more with how busy I am and my energy level. I've made all of what is mentioned here and I have bought it too. I prefer home made but sometimes just do not have the time. I usually will use bought chicken stock or concentrated. Prefer raw natural garlic but sometimes have fallen back on the jarred. I buy hummus, have yet to make it, on my to do list. I actually like the guacamole at Whole foods. Its really expensive though and I can make the same at home. I hate hunting for ripe avocados or waiting for them to ripen so when I want some guac, I usually just buy it there. Hate other versions of it. I am a lazy slug a bug and have been know to buy expensive cut up fruits and veggies but only at Whole Foods. I note that some people buy frozen onions because their eyes burn and tear so much. I do not buy frozen. I find the sweet onions like vidalia do not make my eyes tear so much. Don't buy boxed macaroni and cheese. Love to make mayo at home its so dead easy but usually rely on Hellmans. I find making everything at home all the time from dead scratch exhausting to even think about.