Infused Oil

There is a pretty good trade to be done in the infused oil realm. After all, oil is a good medium to store flavors that are otherwise temporary: herbs, zest, spices, truffles, and so on. Normally, you expect the herbs to wilt or the zest to fade shortly after it's been harvested, but if you soak those flavorful items in some oil, then it's locked away for months of future use.

The doing is extremely simple. I took some herbs (thyme and sage, in this case), peppercorns, and lime zest.

Heated some mid-grade olive oil to 215°F, which is hot enough to kill most bacteria and draw out the flavors of the herbs etc., but not so much as to break down the tasty flavors.

I poured the oil into the mason jar with the flavorings, and listened to the sizzle of the herbs:

Covered with a kitchen towel to leave overnight:

And then I strained the remaining oil into another container for long-term use.

The technique is simple. The flavors are great. And there's no reason you have to stop there. You could do this with clarified butter or even brown butter. You could even infuse some lard for an exceptionally flavorful pie crust. You can play with the flavor profiles, and use ground espresso beans for an oil to top ricotta, for example. Would it work well? No idea. But it's pretty easy to find out, and a great thing to make your own.

It's worth mentioning that garlic is not one of the better things to infuse at home. Garlic can contain botulism, and botulism takes more than our little bit of heating to kill, especially if you use large chunks of garlic. If you need a garlic oil, stick with store-bought or find a better method of making it than this one.

Comments

[meg]

I read something a while back about infusing butter with water extraction. Have you tried this?