How to Make Garlic Confit
April 20, 2012
•Le Cordon Bleu
•Le Cordon Bleu
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How to Make Garlic Confit
One of the advantages of attending schools of culinary arts is learning cooking techniques that can be applied to any style of cooking. One technique taught in culinary school is confit.
Confit takes its name from the French word confire, meaning to preserve. Any similarities between the fruits and vegetables your grandmother puts up every autumn and garlic confit end right there. Traditional canning and preserving methods use vinegars and/or salts and sugars to preserve food.
Confit is a generic term to describe anything that is poached at a low temperature in a rendered fat. Duck confit, where duck legs are slowly cooked in duck fat, is probably the most famous example of it. For our money, however, the most delicious version of it is garlic confit.
Garlic Confit Recipe
Garlic confit and its garlic infused oil can be used on anything from homemade vinaigrettes to garlic bread and garlic mashed potatoes. The process of poaching garlic in oil is not that different from roasting garlic, where no oil is used. Both leave mellow and mild garlic cloves that can be spread on bread like butter, but with confit you also have the oil. Save it. After you’ve eaten all of the garlic, the infused oil can be added to nearly all of your favorite meat and vegetable dishes to add another layer of flavor.
This garlic confit recipe is filled with fresh ingredients and could not be simpler to make.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cups peeled whole garlic (about 80 to 90 cloves)
- 10 whole black peppercorns
- 5 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 fresh bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
- Combine garlic, oil, and seasonings in a braising pan or Dutch oven. Cover pan and cook for 1 hour or until the garlic becomes brown and tender
- Let cool completely and transfer to a glass jar for storage. It will last in the refrigerator up to two weeks. You can also use traditional canning and sterilization methods to keep it unopened on your shelf for up to six months
If you love to cook at home or want to get into the culinary arts, check out culinary school for weekend classes or professional training.
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