I am curious about how safe this would be to store? Normally, I can keep olive oil on the shelf for months without trouble, but I've been warned that I need keep my homemade oil in the refridgerator and only for around 10 days.

Could any of you wonderful canning ladies shed some light on the subject for me? I want to store my oil and be safe. I do not own a water-bath canner, I just have my fridge and freezer. Usually, I store my chile harvest by drying them and turning them into powder. This would be my first attempt at making flavored oils.

I had a book out from the librarly last year, by Ellie Topp and someone else, called _Put a Lid on It! Small Batch Preserving_ or something like that, and the authors had devised a method of making infused oils that involved putting them in used coffee cans and heating htem in the oven, then pouring and straining (you don't ever want to keep the oil with food actually floating in it). The method was approved by Health Canada, which has pretty much the same standards as the USDA.

Alas, I don't own this book, but I was going to see if I could find it at the library this week anyway as I would like to try some more recipes.

Does anyone out there have this book and can share the method? I think there is a Put a Lid on it! one and two, and can't remember which volume the oils were in.

Zabby

FDA recommends that home-prepared mixtures of garlic-in-oil be made fresh for use and not left at room temperatures. Leftovers should be refrigerated and used within three weeks, or frozen or discarded. (In other parts of the country where Type E Botulism is more prevalent, 10 days is the recommended storage time limit in the refrigerator.) Remember, the growth of bacteria and toxin-causing botulism does not alter the taste or smell of the product!

The danger of other vegetables in oil (whole chilis, fleshy vegetables or herbs) is less documented than garlic in oil. They are, however, best made fresh, then refrigerated and used within 10 days. To ensure safety, dried tomatoes and herbs in oil also should be stored in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.

Experimenting with one's favorite herb flavors is a creative cook's prerogative. One chef made infusions with basil, peppers and garlic in olive oil, which he used for salads, lean chicken and fish dishes. He suggested vanilla oil for lobster and juniper oil for venison.

I think that instead I will dry and powder my exotic chiles and give gifts of chile powder instead. It should be safer that way.

I can save whole dried chiles to make small batches of oil for myself and I'm going to throw out that one test batch I made two weeks ago. I have a feeling it has gone bad.

Even so, the author still recommends that all oils infused with fresh herbs and vegetables be refrigerated.

I can provide the method if anyone wants it.

Last Christmas I made a Fiery Chili Oil using dried red chilies. The Oregon State Extension says, "Use dried vegetables, garlic or herbs to flavor oil. These do not contain enough water to foster bacterial growth. Dried vegetables, garlic or herbs-in-oil mixtures can be stored safely at room temperature. Refrigeration may delay rancidity." However, I still attached a tag telling the recipients to refrigerate the oil. I didn't want even the tiniest worry that someone might be at risk with something I gave.

The Pdf document below is a very helpful one covering just about all aspects of homemade infused oils.

Carol

That's some pretty terrible gender stereotyping. Does that mean you don't want my input? I'm a man and I can.

Long term storage is probably a bad idea. If there is even a small risk, wouldn't it be much safer to just make it 12 hours before you need to use it? Dried peppers and oil are much safer separatly.

On the other hand, flavoured VINEGARS are much safer, and keep well....

ANd you can make & can hot sauce with peppers and vinegar. You probably knew that, though. I know, giving little flavoured-oil bottles would be fun! I save all my empty bottles from olive oil, etc. with this idea that I'll make pretty gifts from them one day.

If I did, I would do as Carol suggests, and attach a tag saying to keep it in the fridge.

ANother idea is to bring a little bottle of flavoured oil and vinegar to a pot luck with a salad, so they can be used right away for the dressing. Then you can put the leftovers right into the hostess's fridge, and tell her clearly to use them by whenever (I have the vague idea that Ellie Topp's book suggested a month? carol?)

Zabby

I've decided to make the oil, but I will do it in small batches of no more than 1/2 cup at a time. I will keep the bottles in the fridge and try and use them up in a month or two. I think that for gifts, I'll give homemade chile powder in a spice jar instead. :)

I didn't make the hot sauce this year since I don't own a waterbath canner. I tend to eat plenty of fresh chiles from my garden, but I wanted some long term solutions for storing the extras. Powder and smoking are what I'm doing this year. I really should get the canner before much longer. All the ideas here on the forum sound like a great deal of fun to prepare.

Anyway, thanks again!

If you want to start small, you can to water bath canning in any pot, as long as it is deep enough to cover your jars by an inch or so. I can my hot sauce in one-cup or half-cup jars in my pasta pot. So all you need to try it out is a box of jars --- though it sounds like you're a big chile fan, and maybe would want to make larger quantities of hot sauce than I do! ;-)

opqdan,

Did you see the thread we had here a while back about the "men who can can"? It ended up disentegrating into many a silly joke about dancing the can can, but in the midst of it all us "ladies" agreed that we're delighted to have company of both genders around! Keep reminding us you guys are here, eh?

Cheers,

Zabby

i recently got back from a holiday to find a couple of the fresh chiles in my oil had gone a bit mouldy where they showed at the surface! i recieved the oil as a gift an believe the man who gave it to me had a batch ageing for a few months before bottling it and giving it away to friends. should this oil disposed of straight away?? sounds like this stuff can be dangerous.

thanks

organic_benjy

Zabby, on a different note, I no longer "gift" infused oils. Even with the tag and specific instructions my friends insisted on leaving the chile oil out and kept it for longer than I recommended.

Of course they're responsbile for their own behavior but still, I was uncomfortable. From now on I'm gifting more conventional items and keeping the infused oils at home.

Carol