Garlic Confit
RECIPE UPDATED 5/16/2026
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Ode to Garlic Confit
I'm not sure if anyone has written an ode to garlic confit, but if I were a poet, I might just pen one.
Cooking garlic in olive oil mellows its sharpness and rounds the flavor. The result is a buttery, subtly sweet component with a spreadable texture. The magic is in how garlic confit can play a supporting role where its brash raw sibling would be overpowering. Pizza, roasted vegetables, pasta, dressings—the applications for both the cloves and cooking oil are endless. You will almost always find a container of garlic confit in my refrigerator or freezer.
And though it may sound fancy and possibly complicated, garlic confit is straightforward. "Confit" is just food that has been slowly cooked in fat. Duck, bacon, and tomato confit (to name a few) are all good examples. In terms of this recipe, the Gjelina version has four ingredients, takes 15 minutes to prep, and cooks in about an hour. For that minimal effort you'll end up with a "secret" ingredient that lasts for weeks or months (depending on how you store it) and you'll wonder where it has been all of your culinary life.
Recipe Tips
Food Safety
Don't store your garlic confit at room temperature or leave it on the counter for an extended period of time, full stop. Garlic that's sitting above 40°F in an anaerobic environment (i.e. in oil) is a botulism risk. Refrigeration is safer, but I take it one step further and store my garlic confit in the freezer. I vacuum seal the cloves separately from the oil, then it's easy to break off whatever I need for a dish. Airtight ice cube trays could also be an option if you want to freeze the garlic and oil together. You may find some websites that suggest the garlic is safe if cooked long and hot enough, but why take any chances?
Blonde vs. Brown
In the Gjelina cookbook, Chef Lett suggests cooking the garlic until it's lightly browned around the edges—the bottom photo is more in line with those instructions. The garlic confit pictured at the top was cooked to the "blonde" stage. Soft and spreadable but without much or any browning. Either way, you can't go wrong.
Windrose Farms - Santa Monica Farmers Market
Farmers | Artisans
I make an effort to source from local California artisans with a special focus on the Santa Monica Farmers Market. Below is a list of the talented folks who contributed to this dish.
- Milliken Family Farms // Garlic
- Windrose Farm // Garlic, Rosemary
- Trattore Farms // Olive Oil
- Maggie's Farm and Schaner Farms // Thyme
Ingredients
- 8 heads of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
- 2 cups extra-virgin olive oil or enough to cover the garlic
- 12 sprigs of fresh thyme Note: A couple sprigs of rosemary also works.
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with foil and set aside.
- Move the rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
- In an oven-safe dish, combine the peeled garlic cloves, enough olive oil to cover, thyme sprigs (or rosemary), and bay leaves. Note: Ensure that the garlic cloves are completely submerged in oil.
- Place the dish on the lined baking sheet and bake until the garlic is softened but not disintegrating (45 minutes to an hour). Note: The garlic should spread easily.
- Cool the garlic confit in the oil, then remove the herbs.
- Garlic confit can be refrigerated in an airtight container for a week, with the cloves completely submerged in the oil, or frozen for months. As mentioned under Recipe Tips, never store garlic confit at room temperature—submerged or otherwise.
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Subscribe at the bottom of this page for the Chic Eats roundup. It includes new and updated recipes along with a grab bag of unique content that was interesting enough to share around the dinner table.
