The Dangers of Garlic
I’m a garlic lover. I put garlic in lots of things like my homemade tomato sauces and I use it when I sautee vegetables. Though some dislike the after affects of garlic, the health benefits are extensive. It has power antioxidants and is said to help cure the common cold. I even have some garlic tablets for those occasional times I feel under the weather.
Though I love cooking with it, preparing it can be a pain. I really don’t like the garlic smell on my fingers. When I was a teen I worked in a restuarant as the garlic bread girl. That’s all I did, slather garlic butter on bread and make garlic bread. I smelled like garlic for days and couldn’t get the smell out.
Years later in my own kitchen, I used garlic cloves, still reeking like garlic after cooking, then I discovered minced garlic in a jar. It was convenient and did the job. Then one day I bought a huge container of peeled garlic cloves. I thought I’d save a little money, make my own minced garlic and store them in oil in jars in my frig. And I did and it worked great. I even gave my sister a jar of my preminced garlic, and now she’s hooked on the minced instead of the cloves.
Fast forward to today where I read on someone’s blog that storing garlic in oil can lead to botulism! My mind races back over the years to one of my favorite shows as a kid, Quincy, M.D., where there’s a case of botulism, from rancid food in a can or from a water fountain. My memory is fuzzy about the details, but I remember that episode so clearly, probably because of the word…BOTULISM. It was a new one for me and the idea of dying because of bad food must have stuck in my brain.
I usually have a stomach of steel. I’ve been known not to throw food away just because a label said it’s a couple of months overdo (though I do confess this is not the best practice and now I call the company to make sure it’s safe.) But when I read this about the garlic in oil, I started to panic. Could botulism be breeding in MY kitchen?
After doing some research I learned there is a higher chance of botulism growth in garlic stored in oil at room temperature. Whew! I keep my in the frig, but I’ve often wondered how long it can be stored safely. The site I found says a couple of months. I think I’ve gone over. I remember giving my sister a jar back in April. Guess it’s time to play it safe and get rid of the garlic before I sautée my zucchini, and store this information in the back of my mind next time I need to kill someone off in my next novel. Oh, and of course, let my sister know about the dangers of garlic!
For more information on botulism and garlic visit:
