5 ms·

I'm always amazed that this sort of blatant false advertisement is just allowed anywhere in the world. In other news: > Historically, there is at least some m

by adlpz 10y ago

I'm always amazed that this sort of blatant false advertisement is just allowed anywhere in the world. In other news: > Historically, there is at least some mention of Italians infusing olive oils with real truffles, and Urbani Truffles sells truffle oil that it says is made from real truffles I actually do that myself. Get a truffle, cut it in a couple of pieces and leave it soaking for a month or two in good olive oil. Not that hard, not even that expensive either if you live remotely close to where they grow. It's a bit funny how they try to make this look like if it was some arcane secret.

bpicolo 10y ago
Do be careful with making your own infused oils. Truffle/Garlic variants (and I'm sure others) definitely carry botulism risk.
- fdgdasfadsf 10y ago
  The only careful way to make your own flavoured oils at home it to not make them.
  - tptacek 10y ago
    It's safe to make truffle or garlic oil at home. What's not safe is storing it for long periods of time. I make garlic oil at least once a week (by very slowly simmering cloves in olive oil for an hour or so, which also produces spreadable roasted garlic.)
    - fdgdasfadsf 10y ago
      Eaten that day or the next? Long periods of time include a week - and certainly a couple of months in the GPs case has a huge hazard and a non-zero risk. I hope you and she continue to have good luck.
      - tptacek 10y ago
        This is Russian Roulette with a gun with literally hundreds of millions of empty chambers, because virtually nobody ever gets botulism from garlic. Look up the stats, remembering the implicit denominator. Heat of any real kind quickly denatures botulism toxin. Significant heat --- above 120c --- detroys spores, which are not themselves toxic. The roasted garlic itself isn't brought uniformly to 120c, but the oil is, for well over the few minutes it takes to get a 10D reduction. Botulism spore germination is retarded (though not eliminated) in refrigeration. Paranoia about garlic oil doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering how many food systems we happily introduce not just cooked garlic into but also raw garlic. In many of those systems garlic is isolated in anaerobic environments and little if anything is done to retard its germination and doubling. But we happily eat Chinese food leftovers every day. Garlic is also not a uniquely dangerous food. It's just a low-acid vegetable that happens to grow underground. There are lots of low-acid vegetables that are also potential settings for botulism; we just don't preserve them in oil. But, like garlic, we use them in all sorts of food systems that could easily germinate botulism. And still: almost nobody gets food-borne botulism. To sum up: Yes, I agree, don't jam a bunch of raw garlic cloves into a bottle of olive oil and forget it in the back of your refrigerator. You'd almost definitely be fine if you did, but a small risk of great harm is something worth taking seriously. But don't act like combining garlic and oil is the culinary equivalent of combining pure sodium and water. It is not. If you want to be paranoid, put some lime juice in your garlic oil and make a mojo. Whatever.
knodi123 10y ago
as someone who appears to be claiming a bit of experience in the olive oil area, > leave it soaking for a month or two in good olive oil I've heard an olive oil merchant explain that olive oil has a range of complex flavors of its own, but that it has a relatively short shelf life before it becomes genericized and boring, and loses the majority of its flavor and complexity and such. Is there any truth to that?
- xapata 10y ago
  Depends whether or not you're going for that early harvest taste. If you want your olive oil to taste peppery, almost difficult to eat, then yeah. I find that flavor lasts a month or two in a dark bottle kept out of the sun, though I have no idea how long the bottle has been on my grocery store shelf.
grecy 10y ago
Australia has very strict false advertising laws. If you advertise it, there are severe penalties if it's not true. Two examples come to mind: General Motors (Holden) had a sale called "Employee pricing for all", after which it was discovered that customers were not getting quite the same deal as employees. GM had to either take the car back at full refund, or refund the price difference plus some other stuff, along with paying a huge fine. A glitch on a website offered laptops for something like $300 instead of $3000 and a ton of people ordered them... the company was not allowed to back out (I think it was HP..)

by adlpz 10y ago

bpicolo 10y ago

Do be careful with making your own infused oils. Truffle/Garlic variants (and I'm sure others) definitely carry botulism risk.

fdgdasfadsf 10y ago
The only careful way to make your own flavoured oils at home it to not make them.
- tptacek 10y ago
  It's safe to make truffle or garlic oil at home. What's not safe is storing it for long periods of time. I make garlic oil at least once a week (by very slowly simmering cloves in olive oil for an hour or so, which also produces spreadable roasted garlic.)
  - fdgdasfadsf 10y ago
    Eaten that day or the next? Long periods of time include a week - and certainly a couple of months in the GPs case has a huge hazard and a non-zero risk. I hope you and she continue to have good luck.
    - tptacek 10y ago
      This is Russian Roulette with a gun with literally hundreds of millions of empty chambers, because virtually nobody ever gets botulism from garlic. Look up the stats, remembering the implicit denominator. Heat of any real kind quickly denatures botulism toxin. Significant heat --- above 120c --- detroys spores, which are not themselves toxic. The roasted garlic itself isn't brought uniformly to 120c, but the oil is, for well over the few minutes it takes to get a 10D reduction. Botulism spore germination is retarded (though not eliminated) in refrigeration. Paranoia about garlic oil doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering how many food systems we happily introduce not just cooked garlic into but also raw garlic. In many of those systems garlic is isolated in anaerobic environments and little if anything is done to retard its germination and doubling. But we happily eat Chinese food leftovers every day. Garlic is also not a uniquely dangerous food. It's just a low-acid vegetable that happens to grow underground. There are lots of low-acid vegetables that are also potential settings for botulism; we just don't preserve them in oil. But, like garlic, we use them in all sorts of food systems that could easily germinate botulism. And still: almost nobody gets food-borne botulism. To sum up: Yes, I agree, don't jam a bunch of raw garlic cloves into a bottle of olive oil and forget it in the back of your refrigerator. You'd almost definitely be fine if you did, but a small risk of great harm is something worth taking seriously. But don't act like combining garlic and oil is the culinary equivalent of combining pure sodium and water. It is not. If you want to be paranoid, put some lime juice in your garlic oil and make a mojo. Whatever.

knodi123 10y ago

as someone who appears to be claiming a bit of experience in the olive oil area, > leave it soaking for a month or two in good olive oil I've heard an olive oil merchant explain that olive oil has a range of complex flavors of its own, but that it has a relatively short shelf life before it becomes genericized and boring, and loses the majority of its flavor and complexity and such. Is there any truth to that?

xapata 10y ago
Depends whether or not you're going for that early harvest taste. If you want your olive oil to taste peppery, almost difficult to eat, then yeah. I find that flavor lasts a month or two in a dark bottle kept out of the sun, though I have no idea how long the bottle has been on my grocery store shelf.

grecy 10y ago

Australia has very strict false advertising laws. If you advertise it, there are severe penalties if it's not true. Two examples come to mind: General Motors (Holden) had a sale called "Employee pricing for all", after which it was discovered that customers were not getting quite the same deal as employees. GM had to either take the car back at full refund, or refund the price difference plus some other stuff, along with paying a huge fine. A glitch on a website offered laptops for something like $300 instead of $3000 and a ton of people ordered them... the company was not allowed to back out (I think it was HP..)