Something I like to do before a Thanksgiving meal is to prepare everything I can ahead of time. The week before the meal, my kitchen is bursting with pie fillings, spice blends, chocolate ganache, various doughs, and flavor bombs such as bulk roasted garlic. 

Garlic can be prepped a number of different ways. For a meal like Thanksgiving, I like to put roasted garlic in just about every savory dish—so that means I need a lot of it. Enter, garlic confit.

Confit

First: it’s pronounced “con-fee.” “Confit” is a French term that means “to preserve.” It is often used to talk about meat dishes, such as duck confit. However, the term “confit” can be applied to foods that have been cooked in fat for a long period of time at a low temperature. 

With that definition in mind, you probably have a pretty good idea of what this technique will entail—cooking a bunch of garlic in a bunch of oil, for a long time, at a low temperature. 

Ventilation Required

That said, I advise you to pull out a good fan, or at least cook this dish in a well-ventilated kitchen. The garlic scent gets pretty strong by the time the confit is done. This is another reason I like to make the garlic before the day of the feast. Having the garlic pre- “roasted” saves time in many savory dishes, adds excellent flavor to turkey marinades and veggie dishes, and keeps the oven clear for the other dishes, like turkey. 

Oil and Garlic Cloves

You will get two products with this method: roasted garlic cloves and garlic-infused olive oil. The garlic oil will protect the cloves in the fridge or freezer. If you have extra oil, you can freeze it with the cloves or separately. I like to freeze some separately in case I have guests that need a low-FODMAP diet, or who have other dietary restrictions that allow for the oil but not the cloves. 

Freeze

Freeze the garlic cloves in a ziplock bag laying flat, along with enough oil to protect the cloves from air to prevent freezer burn. I like to freeze it in a thin layer so I can easily break off what I need for a recipe. Freezing the cloves/oil in ice cube trays, then moving them to a freezer-safe container, can also serve this purpose. 

Garlic Confit Recipe (bulk roasted garlic)

3 cups peeled garlic cloves

2 cups olive oil or grapeseed oil

Herbs or peppercorns, as desired

1. Heat the oven to 300*F.
2.  Put the garlic cloves into a dutch oven. Pour olive oil over them to cover; it may look a bit like garlic-clove soup. You can add more oil if you want extra infused oil, but don’t fill the dutch oven too full to carry in and out of the oven safely.
3. Cover the dutch oven with a tight seal of aluminum foil (even if it has a lid). Cook for 30–40 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven, stir. Do not stir in the oven, because you risk spilling oil onto the hot oven—stay safe; take the extra time to put the dutch oven onto the counter.
5. Check the cloves for color. If they are golden and soft, they are done. Likely, you’ll need to put them back in the oven for 10–20 minute intervals until they are the color you want them, stirring occasionally so the garlic doesn’t stick and burn.
6. Cool the confit before putting it in sterile food-safe containers. Make sure all cloves are covered in oil while stored.
7. Only use clean, dry utensils to remove garlic cloves to help prevent molding and cross-contamination. Garlic confit keeps in the fridge for about a month, if stored properly. Freeze for longer storage.