Awhile back I added tips for storing garlic on the Kitchen Tips page at Shenanchie’s Kitchen, and the advice went as follows:

Storing Peeled Garlic: Store peeled garlic in a sealed container with vegetable oil (or ideally, olive oil). The garlic will stay fresh, and you'll also have seasoned oil for cooking and salad dressings.

However, someone named Rob posted the following message at the food forum:

Storing garlic in oil, without other preservatives, is dangerous! The oil blocks air circulation and without oxygen, botulin toxin can build up, even in the refrigerator. Botulism can be fatal. Please research this. I'm not asking that anyone take my word for it--just look into it for yourself before storing garlic in oil.

I did some investigating, and sure enough Rob was right. I feel somewhat abashed as two years ago I wrote an article about garlic and the only mention I made about uses and/or storing garlic was “Once minced or finely chopped, garlic can be used in a variety of ways. The most obvious is adding it to dishes that call for garlic (such as sauces, meats, soups and salads). I like to make garlic butter ahead of time, and this is great for spreading on bread or French bread for broiling. You can also try mincing the garlic and keeping it in a small jar in the refrigerator (similar to the brands purchased in the grocery store), but garlic prepared this way does not keep for very long and needs to be used within a few weeks before turning rancid.”

 

During my look about, I found the following at the Walton Feed web site (which perhaps best explains the fallacy of storing garlic on oil):

(Refrigerate, Refigerate. Refrigerate and use quickly.) It is a practice with some of us who want garlic immediately handy for cooking, to peel and store it in oil. Garlic is a low acid vegetable, so it needs to be acidified to prevent the growth of micro-organisms and especially to prevent the formation of botulism toxin (caution: undesirable side-effect: DEATH!). Acid treatment also prolongs the quality of garlic and prevents browning. The method is as follows: Cover peeled garlic cloves with vinegar and soak the cloves for 12 to 24 hours. Drain off the vinegar. It can be reused as garlic-flavored vinegar. Cover the garlic cloves with oil. Refrigerate the jar of garlic and oil, and use it within 3 months. (Source of this information is Dr. George York, the University of California at Davis.)

I stand corrected, and thankfully so. I have since removed the original garlic tip from the Kitchen Tips page at Shenanchie’s Kitchen.