Is Garlic Confit Worth Making?
As someone who browses TikTok regularly, one trend that seems to have gained popularity in recent years is garlic confit, as it seems like many food/cooking accounts post at least one video showing how great it is, so I thought that I, as a garlic fanatic, should give it a shot myself!
Confit is a cooking term that basically means slowly cooking or poaching something with a large amount of fat or oil to get that food incredibly soft. The difference between confit and normal poaching is that poaching involves a liquid like water or stock.
In high-end restaurants, they’ll do duck confit where they cook duck legs in a large amount of duck fat to make it very tender and flavorful, and then serve that on its own or as a filling for ravioli, crepes, or even waffles.
It’s a bit of a tricky process because if the fat/oil gets too hot, then it’s basically deep frying, but fortunately, most confit recipes involve using the oven at low heat, so unless something is very wrong with your oven, then there’s no real reason why it should go wrong.
Garlic confit involves covering garlic cloves with a lot of olive oil and cooking that in a low oven for 2 hours, the goal is to get the garlic very soft, sweet, and golden, and you also have flavorful garlic oil at your disposal as well.
I’ve never tried making it before, but I do love garlic, so I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
I start by peeling a lot of garlic, I’m talking about a bulb and a half’s worth of garlic cloves.
I’ve seen many tricks to quickly peel garlic, some involve shaking the cloves in two bowls, and one involves pouring boiling water onto the cloves as well.
The easiest and fastest way to peel garlic cloves is to lay the side of a knife down on them and give the cloves a light smack, which will allow the skin of the garlic to pop right off.
For this method, I did want to keep the garlic cloves as whole as possible, but it shouldn’t matter too much if some of the cloves get a little crushed. I do believe that using larger garlic cloves is ideal as the fingertip-sized cloves could burn.
I then get my garlic cloves into my baking vessel of choice. I’m using a small Dutch oven (Yes, I know that one of the handles is missing, but it’s still useful), but any oven-safe vessel will work for this.
I then proceed to cover my garlic cloves in olive oil. You do not want to be skimpy with the olive oil here as confit is a process that involves covering the food in oil or fat, the oil will impart flavor to the garlic and help break them down to a soft, spreadable consistency.
I’d say I used about 3/4 of a cup of oil.
I also added a few little rosemary sprigs to infuse the oil with even more flavor; thyme works great too.
I then cover my pot and get the garlic into a 250-degree oven (120 C) for 2 hours. I know that sounds like a long time, but the garlic really does need all of that time to allow the oil to break it down and get it golden, plus the garlic will impart its flavor to the oil.
After 2 hours, the smell was amazing. It smelled sweet, nutty, and roasted, makes me wish that you could smell it through your computer screen!
Taking the garlic out of the oven, I opened the lid and smiled at my surprise. The garlic cloves were beautifully golden, looked soft, and I could tell were full of flavor. I took out the rosemary sprigs then set that aside and allowed it to cool.
By the way, any garlic confit you don’t use right away can be stored in its oil in an airtight container with a lid, then kept in the fridge for up to 2 weeks! If it lasts that long, that is.
So now I have my amazing garlic confit, the question is what do I do with it? I think the better question is what can’t I do with it?
The soft, sweet garlic could be mashed down and spread onto toast, into mashed potatoes, bashed into an amazing pesto, or mixed with some mayonnaise for a stunning aioli.
However, this garlic confit is the gift that keeps on giving, because what I also have is delicious garlic and rosemary-infused oil, which can be used for salad dressings, marinades, sautéing vegetables, or roasted potatoes.
Today, however, I will turn these cloves into an amazing Caesar salad dressing for some kale. I know that’s not classic Italian, but…I’m not an Italian boy, so I say it’s ok.
I started by bashing some of my beautiful garlic confit cloves. The beauty of this method is that the garlic is so mellow and sweet that you can get away with using three times as much garlic as you normally would.
I mixed that with anchovy paste, mayo, parmesan, lemon juice, and some of the garlic oil to form a creamy, delicious dressing.
From there, I simply tossed some washed and chopped kale with my dressing, some croutons I had made, and finished with shaved parmesan!
Words cannot describe how delicious this is! The sweet, mellow garlic confit plus that flavorful oil combine for a toasty, nutty flavor that makes this one of the best Caesar salads that I’ve tasted in a while!
So, to answer my question at the top, garlic confit is definitely worth making, especially if you’re a fellow garlic lover like me!
Garlic Confit
Makes 1 cup plus oil
Cook time: 2 hours
2 bulbs of garlic
1/2 cup of olive oil (you may need more)
1 small rosemary sprig (or thyme)
Separate the garlic cloves from the bulb and lightly crush to peel them, but keep the cloves as whole as possible.
Place the garlic cloves into a small Dutch oven or another oven-safe vessel, then cover with the olive oil. You want to completely submerge the garlic cloves in oil, so you might need to add more oil to top them off.
Add the rosemary or thyme sprig, cover the pot, then place into the oven at 250 degrees (120 C) for 2 hours
Once all of the garlic is golden and soft, remove the herb sprigs and allow it to cool.
You can use the soft garlic cloves for toast, spreads, or pesto and use the fragrant oil for salad dressings, marinades, and sauteing vegetables. Any garlic confit leftover can be saved in its oil in an airtight container with a lid, then stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
