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[jough]

There's nothing unsafe about minced garlic in water, as long as you keep it in your fridge once you've opened it.

And I mean, use common sense.  If it's been sitting in there for three years, throw it away already.

[jay-ell]

Erm, it is unsafe. It can develop a particularly nasty bacteria. So while people do it fairly often, it isn't wise.
The best thing to do is slice garlic very very thinly and melt it in the oil before you use it. Takes longer, but you're not going to kill people that way.

I looked at my garlic last night and realized that it is, in fact, packed in water.  I guess it just shows how little attention I pay to things while grocery shopping.  Maybe that hottie was working in the deli that day...

Edit: P.S: I know how to chop garlic.  I'm just lazy.

[CortJstr]

I distinctly remember Alton saying he makes all his flavored oils except garlic  because of the fear of botulism which he buys. So I get the impression that storebought garlic oil is safe.

[slink]

So I get the impression that storebought garlic oil is safe.

Indeed. It is pastuerised. Getting the required heat doing it at home however would not be easy.
In water is indeed fine.
The other thing to note, since I hate getting garlic smell on my fingers, what with it lasting fuck*ng days, is that coating your hands in oil before chopping garlic works a treat. I tried it once and couldn't smell anything once I was done.

[CortJstr]

Rubbing something made of stainless steel under running water gets garlic and onion smells out too. Or you could  wear gloves but that would just be silly.

[slink]

Rubbing something made of stainless steel under running water gets garlic and onion smells out too. Or you could  wear gloves but that would just be silly.

Oh man I am so tired. That sentence took me about 30 seconds to compute.
And as for gloves, well, yea, it just feels crazy wearing gloves to cook.

[wombat]

Hey Aloha, we made the potato-pillowed giraffe, but the wily spouse bought the potato flakes from the natural food store, which I find highly suspicious.  It was good and we will definitely make it again, but do you think I should make sure to get some potato flakes from the supermarket with all the right evil chemicals in them?  I don't really know if they even contain any chemicals - I have actually never bought any before - but it just seems like the wrong sort of thing to buy at Whole Foods.

[AlohaDawg]

CortJstr is right; in many 'culinary' stores you can buy a small rectangle of stainless steel which you 'wash' your hands with and no smell. But anything stainless steel will do, so don't spend money on some handy-looking 'device'. A butter knife made of stainless will accomplish the same thing.

In reply to the Botulin question, even though it is Saturday I put on my official US Centers for Disease Control ID on my bathrobe and looked for some answers. Here's something like the skinny on the risk:

There have been some undetected outbreaks of botulism related to the consumption of garlic. The problem, mainly, is that the symptoms of botulism are not always well recognized by physicians, and if the victims are spread out, it's hard to notice that there are multiple sufferers. In Canada, there was this story:

Botulism from chopped garlic: delayed recognition of a major outbreak.

St Louis ME, Peck SH, Bowering D, Morgan GB, Blatherwick J, Banerjee S, Kettyls GD, Black WA, Milling ME, Hauschild AH, et al.

Enteric Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia.

Diagnosis of botulism in two teenaged sisters in Montreal led to the identification of 36 previously unrecognized cases of type B botulism in persons who had eaten at a restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia, during the preceding 6 weeks. A case-control study implicated a new vehicle for botulism, commercial chopped garlic in soybean oil (P less than 10(-4)). Relatively mild and slowly progressive illness, dispersion of patients over at least eight provinces and states in three countries, and a previously unsuspected vehicle had contributed to prolonged misdiagnoses, including myasthenia gravis (six patients), psychiatric disorders (four), stroke (three), and others. Ethnic background influenced severity of illness: 60% of Chinese patients but only 4% of others needed mechanical ventilation (P less than 10(-3]. Trypsinization of serum was needed to show toxemia in one patient. Electromyography results with high-frequency repetitive stimulation corroborated the diagnosis of botulism up to 2 months after onset. Although botulism is a life-threatening disease, misdiagnosis may be common and large outbreaks can escape recognition completely.
___________
Now, before you all stop eating garlic permanently there are a few more pieces of important information.

1) The Bug: Clostridium botulinum is the name of a group of bacteria commonly found in soil. These rod-shaped organisms grow best in low oxygen conditions. The bacteria form spores which allow them to survive in a dormant state until exposed to conditions that can support their growth. There are seven types of botulism toxin designated by the letters A through G; only types A, B, E and F cause illness in humans.  C. botulinum can be processed with garlic all the way through the manufacturing process.

2) The Environment: This is an Anaerobic bug; that is, it requires an oxygen-free environment. Oxygen kills it. This is why garlic packed in oil is a good environment, but packed in water is less so.

3) All Bacteria require certain conditions in order to live: Temperature,  osmotic differential, Ph, level of oxygen and moisture are all continuums across which different organisms live and die.  There may be others but I'm too lazy to go find the textbook. Anyhow, the point is that these are the kinds of conditions you address when saving/preserving food.  It's easy to see why our forefathers ate Jerky, Salt Pork,  honey. hardtack, dried fruits and beans, jams/jellies/preserves and such things as much as they did - they had no refigeration. Salting or sugaring food down, pickling, canning/jarring, and other methods of preservation address one or more of these germ needs and makes food preservation possible in the absence of refrigeration.

In the case of Botulism: It's not the germs that kill you, it's the poisonous by-product of their respiration. The toxin is destroyed by heat; boiling canned foods for a few minutes will render it safe in terms of botulism. So should frying or sauteeing over the course of 5-10 minutes. Refrigeration of the product should prevent it from growing and secreting toxin also, but will not affect toxins already secreted. Using fresh is no hazard since fresh garlic is very unlikely to have been in an anaerobic environment.

Sorry about the voluminous post.

[AlohaDawg]

I have actually never bought any before - but it just seems like the wrong sort of thing to buy at Whole Foods.

It's slightly dismaying that you can buy such a thing at Whole Foods (note: I LOVE Whole Foods and one MORE thing that bugs me about living here on Danger Island/The Land of the Lost is the lack of such places). However, I doubt that it should make much of a difference. The best way to find out if there is much of a difference would be to make some mashed potatoes according to the box directions. If they make passable mashed potatoes, you know they are different than the mainstream commercial brands.

Kidding aside: If you got a nice, somewhat puffy, airy and potatoey crust on your giraffe, you did it right and I hope you enjoyed it. Now you can dream up more uses for the substance in question and send them back to me because all we ever do with them is the potato crust thing. Now that I am thinking about it: I wonder if potato buds would work as a thickener...

[AugustWest]

I love the smell of onions, garlic and/or chlorine bleach on my hands.

[wombat]

Ooo, AD, you work for the CDC?  That is the coolest federal agency, mine is only second coolest in comparison.

See, I was sure I remembered something about garlic and botulism.  Can we convince JL to buy a garlic press maybe? I know some people don't like them but it's still better than fatal neurotoxins.

I really am tempted to try making potato-pillowed Spam, unless you wouldn't be my friend anymore.

[wombat]

I love the smell of onions, garlic and/or chlorine bleach on my hands.

There is nothing sexier than the smell of garlic on a man's hands.  Because it means he's been cooking dinner while I've been sitting around not cooking dinner.

[slink]

See, I was sure I remembered something about garlic and botulism.  Can we convince JL to buy a garlic press maybe?

Well, as 'Dawg pointed out, heat should make it safe, so as long as you're cooking the garlic/oil it ought to be safe. It's more when you see people flavour olive oil and then drizzle that over something post-cooking that would be unsafe.
It would explain why, despite it being unsafe, you see relatively few cases, and little recognition of it being an issue on TV cooking programs.

[wombat]

I dunno.  I'm still not comfortable with the idea of sauteeing a fatal neurotoxin into submission.

Backstory: I read an article about botulism at an impressionable age.  Other people worry about gettting, say, cancer.  I worry about canned goods.

[AugustWest]

Wasn't there an All in the Family about botulism?