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Garlic Confit Recipe

Daniel Gritzer

This recipe gives you step-by-step instructions for making garlic confit at home by slowly cooking cloves in oil until tender and sweet.

Published:
Garlic Confit Recipe

[Photographs: Vicky Wasik]

Making garlic confit is a great way to use up any extra cloves you have kicking around, and is as easy as slowly cooking them in oil. The firm and pungent cloves give way, turning as soft as warm butter and taking on a flavor that's mellow and sweet.

Why It Works

  • Slowly cooking the garlic at less than a simmer gives it plenty of time to grow sweet and soft.
  • Storing the garlic confit in the refrigerator, and only for a limited time, helps avoid any food-borne illness risks.

Read more: Garlic Confit Is Savory, Sweet, and Spreadable (Like Butter!)

  • Yield:Makes as much as you want
  • Active time: 10 minutes
  • Total time:1 to 2 hours
  • Rated: 5

Ingredients

  • Garlic cloves, peeled and root ends trimmed
  • Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed (see note)

Directions

  1. 1.

    In a saucepan, cover garlic with enough oil to fully submerge it.

  2. 2.

    Set over medium heat and bring to a bare simmer. Lower heat to maintain the barest simmer, so that you see some tiny bubbles on the garlic, but it's not actively frying in the oil.

  3. 3.

    Cook, adjusting heat as necessary to maintain this minimal level of cooking activity, until the garlic is buttery soft and tan in color, 1 to 3 hours (exactly how long it takes will depend on the garlic you're using, including it size and age, and how hot the oil is; raising the heat will move things faster but also shortchange you on the flavor development).

  4. 4.

    Transfer garlic confit and the cooking oil to a clean heatproof container, cover with plastic, and refrigerate immediately.

  5. 5.

    Refrigerated in its oil, the garlic confit can be kept for up to 2 weeks.

This Recipe Appears In
Garlic Confit Is Savory, Sweet, and Spreadable (Like Butter!)

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Daniel Gritzer Culinary Director

Daniel cooked for years in some of New York's top American, Italian and French restaurants - starting at the age of 13, when he began staging at the legendary restaurant Chanterelle. He spent nearly a year working on organic farms in Europe, where he harvested almonds and Padron peppers in Spain, shepherded a flock of more than 200 sheep in Italy, and made charcuterie in France. When not working on, thinking about, cooking and eating food, he blows off steam (and calories) as an instructor of capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art.

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