I received a bunch of complaints about this post. I was told that electric pressure cookers (and stovetop pressure cookers that aren't dedicated pressure canners) are untested for pressure canning, and are therefore unsafe. Garlic carries botulism spores, and botulism can be deadly, so you have to be careful when dealing with canned garlic.
If you want to see the recipe it was based on, get a copy of the Modernist Cuisine at Home cookbook, or go to the Pressure Cooker Garlic Confit recipe on Modernist Cuisine's website.
The coolest thing in Modernist Cuisine at Home? Cooking in canning jars in the pressure cooker. They use the technique where the food would have to be stirred if it was in contact with the bottom of the pot - which can't happen in a locked pressure cooker.
*I've heard of pot-in-pot cooking and pressure canning, but I never thought to do them both at the same time...
Pressure cooker garlic confit called out to me. I love the idea of a jar full of roasted garlic cloves in the refrigerator. And the garlic-infused oil is as useful as the cloves. I made braised kale using a few tablespoons of the oil and a few cloves of garlic from this recipe, and Diane was raving about it.
*See the Notes section for the kale recipe
After I got over how cool it was to see canning jars in the pressure cooker, my next thought was: Garlic infused olive oil? That can be a bad idea. Botulism multiplies in low-oxygen, low acid environments - like being covered with oil. Garlic, like most vegetables, can carry botulism spores. Fresh garlic in olive oil should be thrown away after a day or two in the refrigerator, and homemade garlic infused oil is dangerous. What about pressure cooking it? Does that make it safe?
It took a lot of searching, but I finally found out that the recipe is safe. According to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, botulism spores are killed if you can hold the temperature between 240°F to 250°F for 20 to 100 minutes, depending on the size of the jar. Conveniently, those are the temperatures you get with 10PSI to 15PSI pressure cookers. This recipe pressure cooks the jars for 2 hours, so there's no way botulism can survive. After the jar is opened, the garlic keeps for a month in the refrigerator.
*From what I could find, 3 minutes at 250°F kills the botulism spores. But it takes 20 to 100 minutes to be sure that temperature reaches the center of the jar, depending on the size.
Enough scary, but neccesary, food safety tips. This recipe couldn't be simpler if you own a pressure cooker and canning jars; the only hard part is peeling all that garlic. I'm already addicted to having a jar of roasted garlic in the refrigerator, ready whenever I want it.
*I used the technique shown here - [Youtube via Saveur.com]. It took multiple rounds of shaking to get all the cloves peeled. Don't be gentle - shake as hard as you can. Or, If there is a good Asian market nearby, keep an eye out for pre-peeled garlic, which makes this recipe much easier.
Recipe: Pressure Cooker Garlic Confit
Adapted From: Modernist Cuisine at Home
Cooking time: 120 minutes
Equipment:
- Pressure Cooker (I used my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker)
- 16oz canning jar
Ingredients:
- 1 cup olive oil
- 50 cloves garlic, peeled (4 large heads)
- ½ teaspoon herbes de provence
- 1 bay leaf
Directions
1. Fill the jars
Put everything in the canning jar, wipe the rim of the jar clean with a wet paper towel, then tighten down the lid finger tight.
2. Pressure cook the garlic
Put a rack in the pressure cooker pot and add 1 inch of water. (For my nine inch diameter cooker, this is about a quart of water.) Put the jar on the rack, lock the lid, and bring the cooker up to high pressure. Pressure cook on high for 2 hours. Let the pressure come down naturally. Carefully remove the jar from the PC, using tongs (or, even better a canning jar lifter). The jar will still be dangerously hot, with bubbling oil inside - let it cool to room temperature before handling. The sealed jar will last for a year at room temperature; refrigerate after opening, and the garlic will last for a month.
Notes
- I used my electric pressure cooker, which made it very easy - turn the timer to two hours, and walk away. But any pressure cooker will do, as long as it can get to 10 PSI.
- The recipe doubles easily...as long as you can live with peeling all that garlic.
- Bonus recipe: Braised Kale with Garlic Confit and Oil. Strip the leaves from the stems of a large bunch of kale, and rough chop the leaves. Put four cloves of garlic confit plus two tablespoons of the garlic oil into a large pot. Add the kale, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt, then toss to coat with the oil. Add a half cup of water, put the pot over medium-high heat, and cover. When steam starts escaping from under the lid, turn the heat down to medium-low and steam the kale for 20 minutes.
What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Adapted from:
Modernist Cuisine at Home
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Lin Holcomb
So your recipe is a great idea and you quote the NCHFP, however they nor, Ball or others have a "validated" recipe. By that I mean you are correct that you are likely to kill Botulism, but are you sure? has it been validated by putting garlic with botulism in them (inoculated) then processed with various times and altitude ranges and pressures then tested to make sure that the Botulism spores are killed? That is what NCHFP, Ball and other do. Canning is not cooking....canning must be based on science or people can die.
Mike B
Lin, Canning is science and cooking is science. The same science to keep any food from making you sick or killing you is used in both. Canning requires aboslutes in order to be safe from the worst, botulism. Yet anyone who cooks with an immersion circulator knows the science behind it and cooks with that in mind. Modernist cuisines uses 2 hours at 15psi to provide the largest safety margin based on science of the bacteria which is well documented information available to anyone. You argument is no different than the 165 for cooking it. It the dumb persons safety number for the most common food borne pathogens to be killed instantly, just like uht for milk. If the margin of safety is 4 times what it would take to kill the bacteria then one can expect that it is safe barring that you followed all the other procedures and prerequisites like 15psi!
ePressureCooker
Mike, I've seen that recipe, just re-checked it, and you left out an important part of the instructions. (Pardon me, but I want people to be safe, and some may not be aware of this.) After tightening the lid, you're supposed to loosen it a quarter of a turn. Actually, let me give you the quote that explains:
"Always leave at least 1.3 cm / ½ in of headspace when filling the jars. The jars should also never touch the bottom of the cooker. Set them on a metal rack or trivet – or, in a pinch, on crumpled sheets of aluminum foil. Add enough water to cover the rack so that the pressure cooker can build up steam. After fully tightening the lids of the jars, loosen them a quarter of a turn; otherwise, the pressure may crack the jars or
blow their lids off inside the cooker. After using a jar for pressure-cooking, inspect the glass for cracks before cooking with it again." (p. 33 of Modernist Cuisine at Home)