I've read about garlic in the bag numerous times on this subreddit and the botulism risk and took it as fact but here Chris Young states that it is safe to do so.
I know some people also state the garlic wouldn't cook at sous vide temperatures so you'd only get the flavour of raw garlic anyway, but usually it's the botulism that's brought up first.
by SummerOfGeorge89
29 Comments
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Never killed me
If it’s good enough for Chris, it’s good enough for me.
I’m a big firearms guy. There are people in the shooting world called “Fudds,” as in Elmer Fudd. They’re people that spout the most ridiculous takes, often only supported by the scientific equivalent of “some guys once told me.” This leads to myriad nonsense commonly understood to be “Fudd lore.” Such statements like, “a 50cal doesnt even have to hit someone to blow their torso apart,” or “the AR15 was designed to wound because it takes more enemies to care for a wounded soldier” are bread and butter to these people. Do they know? Absolutely not. Have they been told these things and readily accept them without, and often despite, real evidence? Of course.
I propose a similar term in this sub and we can call it “Vide Lore.”
1. I cook a lot of meats below 130…
2. Raw garlic just doesn’t taste good on meat
There are a lot of wivestales in cooking…like “don’t defrost frozen fish in vacuum sealed containers in the fridge”. I do this all the damned time
Yeah, the food safety podcast dug into this. Unfortunately, pointing Redditors to the facts attract dickwads who cream their jeans whenever they get to tell people they’re going to die of bootylicious. Which we’re not even allowed to call by its name, because the issue is supposedly settled, it’s dangerous end of discussion.
The botulism has always been a over complicated fear.
My thing for garlic is that it doesn’t really taste great if you put raw garlic in the bag. Because you don’t really cook it, you just heat it. It will be still raw.
It’s the same way you often put garlic in after the onions have cooked a bit, because temperatures and times are different to develop both.
If I want to put some garlic in the bag, I either use cooked garlic (like confit) or powdered.
I always thought it was funny that you can’t cook garlic in a sous vide bag but you can put it in salsa and nobody says anything.
I’ve always put less credence on the food safety aspect and more on Guga’s years old video doing a direct comparison of garlic powder, fresh garlic, and jarred diced garlic, and liking the garlic powder most of the three.
Honestly I’m ashamed we need to address this at all.
Basic cooking and food storage principles.
I cook with garlic period. Not changing that
I never did this because it doesn’t taste good. Garlic powder works fine.
I read one Sous Vide cookbook, and it said it was fine. It even had a recipe for confit garlic. Then I read a cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen on Sous Vide. It more or less said to never cook raw garlic sous vide, use garlic powder if you want to add garlic flavor. I would at least assume that a group dedicated to studying and, perfecting recipes would have a solid take on this myth.
never had issue and only when i started reading and lurking here, i found that people felt unsafe about it.
I’m so glad someone brought this up FINALLY! It’s always mystified me that a subreddit dedicated *TO SOUS VIDE* would literally _NEVER_ discuss the dangers of garlic poisoning!!!??!!!*
* /s**
** it pains me to have to /s comments but there we have it.
I season with garlic salt. It tastes better in this specific application anyways.
I add confit garlic to my bags if I want garlic flavor.
Frankly the biggest reason not to use garlic is the dimple it makes in the meat
This should be pinned.
Free at last
Never cared, I do my thing until I get sick.
Just asking about it on here brings warning flags to say asked and answered 100 times. Seriously bro meat isn’t grown in dirt so the logic in the image is dead wrong. Do I put it in my sous vide…yes I use it in steaks cooked for an hour or less. You’re gambling on if the garlic was safe or not and you have no way of knowing. If it was bad you just put it in its favorite environment which means if a hundred people bought the same garlic from the same grocery store and yours was the only one that went into sous vide you would be the only one getting sick.
I hate how people speak in posts these days with the “thats not x – thats y and z” format these days and I 100% blame chatgpt.
I’ve been so traumatized by this sub there’s no way I’m ever putting garlic in my sous vide.
Anecdotal evidence – the few times I have done long cooks (chuck) with raw garlic added, I always have 1 bag out of 2 or 3 outgassing and forced me to throw away the food. I’ve since not used raw garlics in any longer cook and just used garlic powder.
To be clear, there are people who sous-vide at temperatures under 130F for extended times, even meat for a pasteurized rare cook. Those are not safe for garlic or any ingredient sourced from the soil. Chris Young says that above 130f is fine, and I would think that would be good. So he is right, and possibly so are others that warn about sous-vide with garlic, if it is under 130f.
There’s an easy way to get the desired effect without any risk whatsoever.
1. Induction cooker set below the boiling point.
2. Pot with oil.
3. Minced garlic.
Poach that garlic at 95c for an hour. Set low enough, the garlic will never change color. Now you’ve got garlic oil and poached garlic. This can be poured — hot — directly into sterilized canning jars. Keeps for months this way. The oil is useful basically anywhere that isn’t dessert. The minced garlic is instant flavor.
I always buy two bags of garlic at a time. One for poaching. One for using normally.
Garlic powder is easiest anyway so I’ll keep doing that
People seem to be taking an either/or approach on this and it’s hurting my brain. It strikes me as Lan Lam is saying, “hey, this is a serious risk, so please hedge your bets and don’t do this” while Chris Young is saying, “Hey, here’s the science, don’t do dumb shit when you’re cooking something sous vide.” Both things can be true and represent differing types of cautiousness.
Exploring sous vide cooking leads a lot of people to explore differing times and temps. Without a bit of warning, someone is going to think, “well, I just love a rare steak, I bet if I cook that steak at 120 f it’s going to be perfect after I sear it” throw in raw garlic, and give it a bit of extra time for whatever reason. Both Chris and Lan Lam are giving you guidelines. Chris, being the more scientific communicator, gives to the safe range while Lan Lam is writing for people like my wife who want to follow recipes and not “play” with their food.
Raw garlic in sous vide is not tasty. One use was enough to completely ruin the flavor of the meat, so I always use only powdered/granulated garlic.