I love flavored oils. I like to use extra virgin olive oil and assorted flavorants. However, fresh garlic as an oil flavoring can be hazardous. I was in the kitchen a few weeks ago, raring to go and make some fresh garlic oil. I prepared a whole bulb of garlic, and dropped it all into a 6oz recycled vinegar bottle, filled it with EVOO and stuck it in the cabinet. I enjoyed it over the next few days in various dishes, and got the idea of looking it up on the internet to see if there was some way to make it more flavorful.
DANGER! is what I found. Seems that botulism spores are present in fresh garlic, and these spores grow in the absence of oxygen. Immersion in oil leads to a wonderful growth medium for botulism.
BOTULISM WILL KILL YOU IN A HORRIBLE FASHION
I've read that freshly homemade garlic flavored oil is safe with a few rules:
DO keep it in the fridge.
DON'T keep it past a week.
Further info on garlic flavored oil: http://www.google.com/search?q=homemade+garlic+oil&ie=UTF8
Garlic flavored vinegar however, is safe. Must be the fact that vinegar kills dang near everything.
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