Roasted Garlic, Three Ways
If they’re reading this, my close friends are probably laughing.
“Oh garlic, of course!!” they’ll say to each other. “After all, the Mouse has vampires on the brain lately.”
They would be right.
I probably shouldn’t admit this publicly, I know. But…I just read the Twilight books.
AND LOVED THEM. (I’m sorry, did I just yell?)
Sigh.
It’s true.
I’ve moved on to Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse books (the ones that HBO’s True Blood series is based on), on loan from my good friend over at Rippen Kitten.
Harris’s books are southern vampire detective novels, and they’re good, delicious fun. Pick one up. You’ll see.
So, suffice it to say that there are a fair amount of corny garlic jokes floating around our house these days.
My great love of garlic
Which brings us in a (very) roundabout way to my great love of garlic. I’ve always loved garlic—even before I started obsessively reading campy vampire fiction like a fifteen year old.
I mean, remember my trip to the garlic farm last year? Proof positive.
Now, I like garlic in pretty much all its forms, but roasted garlic has to be one of the best substances on the planet. And making it is one of those ineffable acts of culinary magic.
I mean, really: Take one of the strongest, stinkiest kitchen critters out there.
Drizzle it with olive oil, wrap it up tight, and toss it in the oven for less than an hour. And…voila! It’s mellow, creamy, nutty—and spreadable.
Magic, right? Pretty darn close, in my book.
You can toss it with pasta, spread it on bread, or (my favorite) make compound butter. That’s what I did with this batch. I’ve included instructions for how to do that at the end of this post.
When I roast garlic, I tend to use extra olive oil, so I wind up with garlic-infused oil. It’s deeply flavorful. I keep it in the fridge, and use it to fry potatoes and eggs. I also like to rub it on chicken before roasting.
Roasted garlic, three ways
So, this post will show you how to make:
- Roasted garlic
- Garlic-infused oil
- Roasted garlic compound butter
The best kind of garlic for roasting
You can use any kind of garlic for roasted garlic. That said, purple stripe garlic is generally acknowledged as the best, sweetest kind of garlic for baking.
Roasted Garlic
Whole heads of garlic
Olive oil
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Off with their heads!
Grab a baking dish large enough to hold all your garlic comfortably. Set it aside.
Take one of the heads of garlic. Whack off maybe a half an inch of the top.
Basically, you want to expose the garlic enough so that it’s easy to get out once it’s roasted. Set the garlic in your baking dish.
Pull out all the tips from the top and toss them in, too.
One word of warning: I always include the tips, because hey, that’s more garlic to love. That said, these pieces are much smaller than the actual heads, so they can burn more easily. Just keep an eye on them when they’re in the oven.
Repeat with the rest of your heads of garlic. I made a ton this time. (Yep, you leave the skins on. Roast ‘em right in their wrappers.)
Drizzle the garlic with olive oil
Drizzle the garlic with olive oil. Pour it over the heads, so the oil seeps down between the cloves. If you want to wind up with garlic-infused oil, pour generously.
Toss the heads and pieces to coat in oil.
Cover your pan with aluminum foil. Crimp the edges tightly.
Into the oven!
Pop the pan into your preheated 350-degree oven. Roast for 30-45 minutes. Start checking the garlic after 25 minutes or so (remember: you don’t want those tips to burn).
Your roast garlic is done when it’s lightly browned, and soft throughout.
How do you know for sure? Poke it with a fork.
The garlic should be so soft that you can do this:
(Nom, nom, nom. Mmmm, pardon me for a moment.)
Remove each clove with a sharp paring knife, or squeeze the whole head until the cloves pop out. Up to you. Just remove as much of that golden, buttery goodness as you can. If any of the garlic tips got hard and crunchy, just toss them.
Put the garlic in a bowl and set it aside.
How to Make Roasted Garlic Compound Butter
Cut up a stick of butter (that’s 8 tablespoons) and set it in a bowl on the counter to soften up for about 20 minutes.
How much butter you use depends on how much roasted garlic you made, and how garlicky you want your butter. I used 2 sticks of butter for 5 heads of garlic, which makes a ridiculous (and strongly flavored) amount of compound butter.
(Trust me, I’ll use it.)
When the butter is soft, mash it up with a fork.
Grab your roasted garlic and toss it in the bowl with the butter.
Mash it together with a fork until you have a uniform paste. If it’s kind of soupy, that’s just fine. It’ll firm up in the fridge.
Rip off a piece of waxed paper or parchment paper. Scoop the butter on to it.
And roll it up.
Keep tucking it under to make it firm, just like making a burrito.
Roll it up into a log.
And twist the ends tight.
Set the butter in the fridge for a few hours, until it’s nice and firm. When it’s hard, it’s ready to use! Use it to make garlic bread, stir it into mashed potatoes, garnish a grilled steak with a nice, fat slice. It will keep for a few weeks in the fridge—if it lasts that long.
Strain the Garlic-Infused Oil
You’re not quite done yet. Can’t forget all that delicious, fragrant oil.
Grab your baking pan. It will be full of oil and littered with garlic skins. Set a strainer over a small bowl. Strain the oil.
Push the garlic skins down with a spoon to squeeze any extra oil out of them.
Keep your garlic-infused oil in the fridge for up to 2 weeks (check this out for food safety tips on keeping garlic in oil).
Like all oil, it will solidify when it’s cold. That’s just fine. Just scoop it out by the spoonful when you want to use it. It will liquify again when it hits the heat.
Enjoy!
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86 Comments
Well, stick me with a fork! I had no idea how to roast garlic and better yet, use it three ways. Can you put the garlic or butter in the freezer?
Hey Frieda,
Thanks so much for stopping by! Ya know, I’ll bet the butter freezes really well. I’ve never frozen the garlic straight, but I’ll bet that would be fine, too. Let me know if you give it a whirl?
Cheers!
+Jessie
frozen garlic works really well.
I LOVE roasted garlic! Every time I fix a roast (a beast or prime rib) I get extra garlic to roast. The garlic is ready to eat just about the time that the aroma of the roast is driving me crazy. I’ve never thought to use extra oil to have for another use ~ how perfect for a roast chicken! And the garlic compound butter ~ heaven! This is one of my favorite posts by you. Three recipes in one post, thank you! BTW, I “had” to read the Twilight series to make sure it was appropriate for my granddaughter to read. (Team Jacob) She’s asked me to read the Vampire Diaries series next to pre-screen it for her. Tough job.
Definitely try the oil on roast chicken. It’s a-ma-zing.
Oh, and you totally have to let me know how the Vampire Diaries are. Because, ya know, I’ll be done with this 10-book series soon…
+Jessie
OMG. I make this too and LOVE it! I love squeezing out the roasted garlic out of its skin, like squeezing toothpaste out of its tube. I certainly will try the compound butter—hadn’t tried that yet. Your photos are fantastic!
Thanks so much! Definitely try the compound butter. It’s out of this world.
+Jessie
I’ve done roasted garlic all three ways but my favorite use is to toss it with roasted tomatoes, olive oil and basil in a light pasta dish. Garlic is seriously my favorite cooking ingredient and perhaps a bit abused by me, especially in the winter with lots of roasted garlic soups!
Oh yum! Your pasta sounds heavenly! And I’m totally guilty of abusing garlic, too. Yay.
+Jessie
They look soooo delicious… great way to ward off the sickness bugs for the winter months! Garlic butter is my favorite sprinkled with a little fresh oregano on a toasted baguette..yum!
Oh! I totally forgot the health angle for garlic. (Clearly distracted by all my vampire books…) Great point!
+Jessie
I have a pool of drool in front of me right now! I’ve roasted garlic heads, but never incorporated them into butter or olive oil…apparently, I’ve been missing out! I have a whole bunch of peeled garlic cloves (got them when I was feeling super lazy), do you think I could still use them in the ways you described? What adjustments would I have to make? Thanks for the post!
Hey Kristin,
Thanks for stopping by! Ya know, I’ve only ever roasted ‘em in their wrappers, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for peeled cloves. You probably won’t need to roast them nearly as long, since they won’t be clustered together. I’d wrap ‘em up tightly, follow my instructions, and start checking them after maybe 15 minutes. Let me know how it goes?
+Jessie
I’m following up on our last convo…It works perfectly fine with unpeeled garlic too!! Yay! Still enjoying all forms of its deliciousness…thanks again!
oh I am dangerous in the kitchen with garlic, I’ve been known for putting lots of garlic in everything lol I need to make roasted garlic more often because I just love how it has a much different flavor compared to raw garlic. I need to try that garlic infused oil, that is something I would use in everything
Definitely give the oil a shot. It’s really, really good. (And a fast way to add a ton of flavor to almost anything…)
+Jessie
Garlic is those ingredients I just simply cannot live without. I use garlic in stir-fries, stews, cold dishes, fried rice and everything else. And for Valentines Day… garlic is considered an aphrodisiac.
It’s good for you…and it’s an aphrodisiac! Hooray!
+Jessie
I hear rumors of botulism with garlic and olive oil if held over 3 weeks in teh fridge. Do you know? By the way, I discovered your website about a week ago and really appreciate it.
Hey there,
Thanks for stopping by. That’s actually a really good question.
I updated the post above with a link to more info on making flavored oils and vinegars safely (http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/FOODNUT/09340.html).
According to the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/dfbmd/disease_listing/botulism_gi.html), there are about 145 cases of botulism per year, 15% of which are foodborne.
So while the risk seems minimal, botulism can thrive in low-acid, anaerobic (no oxygen) conditions–which is exactly what you have with garlic-infused oil.
To be safe, the FDA recommends refrigerating your flavored oil, and using it up within 10 days. So, make it fresh, keep it cold, and you should be OK.
Cheers!
+Jessie
And you’re not talking about raw garlic, so it’s safer than if you were to put raw garlic in and infuse the oil that way.
Cannot ever get enough gahhhhhhhlic….these are all wonderful ways of preparing.
CCR
=:~)
Oh amen! (Thank you!!)
+Jessie
Wonderful, wonderful! Both excellent techniques to infuse fats with that roasted garlic goodness. Very nice post, thanks!
Roasted garlic is always good! Looks amazing!
I looooove roasted garlic; my favorite thing to do with it is stir it into cooked pasta with slow-roasted grape tomatoes. SO good!
Fabulous! I love all things garlic – great post!
I like roasted garlic. Sometimes I include them making fried rice. It makes the fried rice more delicious. Thanks for posting this. Big help!
YUM. This sounds fantastic! I was planning on making some baked tilapia in butter w/dill… but I think I may just wait so I can make some of that butter and use it! OHHH MAN does that sound good!!!
I’m definitely bookmarking your page. I’ll be checking back for more goods! Thanks a ton!
Jessie,
I love this article. My wife and I love garlic and finding new ways to prepare it. Do you have tips on where we might find purple stripe garlic? Thanks and keep up the good work!
-Justin
Wow, looks delicious. Thanks for posting, I will be trying this soon!
I use roasted garlic all the time. Great in mashed potatoes. Sometimes I cheat a little. I buy the peeled garlic and put it in an oven proof bowl, and just enough olive oil to cover, then in a 350 oven. The garlic infused oil is great for anything, salad dressing, name it.
Thanks so much for the recipe. I love garlic and can’t to to roast some using the technique you’ve suggested.
Thanks, Shannon! Let me know how it goes!
+Jessie
what can I say, but yum, Yum, YUM!
did I say I love garlic?
That Looks Soooo Good. I’ve been meaning to try this, but just never got around to it. This is great inspiration.
Um…YUMMY!! I love love love GARLIC (and sadly Twilight the books, not the movies though…I have so much reading to do now that you have mentioned the other ones!!) Thanks for this!!! SO much easier to make the butter with roasted than fresh lol
Oh yay! So glad you like it.
And I’m with you. I loved the books, but couldn’t stand the first movie (haven’t seen the second one yet). If folks base their opinions solely off the movies and all the associated hype, I don’t blame them one bit if they hate Twilight! Let me know how you like the Sookie books. I’m a huge fan. They’re very entertaining.
Cheers!
+Jessie
Garlic is a great spice, but a pain to take apart the cloves.
I love this post, so informative and beautifully photographed. My boyfriend and I love making roasted garlic, but he always cooks it by wrapping the already peeled cloves in tin foil with olive oil and spices and sticking it on the grill (one of our favorite uses is to spread the garlic on hamburger buns for our gourmet burgers), but anyway I think your methods for cooking seem so much easier and effective. Thanks!
i love love love the taste of garlic but have always been somewhat intimidated by it in cooking. this page makes it seem so easy and yummy! i can’t wait to try all three.
ps – i’m a 38 year old mom of 3 who read the twilight books AND the sookie stackhouse books (all 10 in 5 days!) nothing wrong at all with enjoying a fun book.
keep up the wonderful work!
As I began to read this particular post I started to form a pithy, mean-spirited remark about the Twilight travesty, but then remembered that I really liked them too when I first read them in high school. I can’t blame you for distracting yourself with them
Anyways, I kept reading and discovered easy garlic-ey goodness that I’m going to have to attempt. I’ve never worked with garlic; I stick to onions and chives usually, but am looking to branch out. I may have to try it and then see what my husband thinks.
Ha, thanks. Yeah, I can’t believe how positively righteously outraged some folks are that I’ve read them. (They’re just books, lighten up, folks, OK?) It’s kind of hilarious.
Glad you’re going to try the garlic. Let me know how you like it!
+Jessie
Delicious! Roasted garlic and potatoes for dinner tonight. I’m a happy girl.
Oh man, have room for two more at the table? Yum!
Thanks so much!
+Jessie
Garlic is food from heaven!
I almost stumbled away from this post just because I hate Twilight, I couldn’t even make it through the first book because the writing was sooooo terrible. Plot is interesting but I couldn’t get past Myer’s abuse to lovely syntax. Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t because I can’t wait to make my own garlic compound butter. Mmmmmmmm.
I’m roasting garlic as I am writing this! 11 minutes left and it smells ridiculously good
Thank you for such an easy-to-follow recipe. The pictures really helped. I’m going to use the roasted garlic to make garlic butter with the homemade butter I made the other day with your recipe. It will taste delicious with the buttermilk biscuits I just made from another one of your recipes 
Thanks for such great recipes! Keep up the great work!!
Gotta go check on the garlic
Very kool. Thank you. I’m gonna roast garlic in a butter warmer dish (using a tea light candle under it,) and let folks smear it on bread as an appetizer for an afternoon picnic. I guess I’ll bake it for less time, and add different spices to each of the four bowls. Cheers, and happy eating!
Oh my…
My husband is allergic to garlic, so I don’t really cook with it any more (but I wish I could!). Thank goodness the smell doesn’t trigger his reactions, because I’m definitely doing this
I love to add garlic when I am cooking but my family thinks I use too much. I will do this just to enjoy the smell in my kitchen.
It’s so delicious !!!I love Garlic so much,I try this and see
Just found this site and these are wonderful and delicious ideas. A couple of restruants around here used to serve garlic mashed potatoes and have stopped for some reason. Now we have a better way to make our own.
Thank you.
Very nice way of explaination, i am going to try it this weekend, Thanks for putting it with photos.
“Like all oil, it will solidify when it’s cold.” Well, not really. Only saturated (animal) fats and semi-saturated fats (olive oil, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, nut oils) will solidify when they are cold. Mono- and polyunsaturated fats (corn oil, canola oil, safflower oil, vegetable oil) always remain liquid unless they are put in a blender which breaks their carbon bonds and converts unsaturated fats into the “cis” and “trans” configurations, making them saturated fats (like mayonnaise, shortening, and margarine). I’m sure everyone knows what trans fats do…
totally unrelated to garlic – but, if you liked the twilight series, maybe you might like reading karen moning’s fever series……..just a suggestion
totally unrelated.
just thought that i’d mention a book series that you might like if you loved twilight. karen moning’s fever series or highlander series…..
I stumbled across your blog the other day…quite impressive! The directions (and photos!) are extremely easy to follow. I made the garlic exactly as you did, and it could not have been easier! We made extra as to have a garlic bulb per person as a companion to a whole haddock (we found a GREAT wholesale fish market – Pier Fish at 10 Newmarket Street by South Bay). I’ve tried roasting garlic in the past, but never with this success. We are using the garlic oil to coat another whole haddock this evening, and putting the garlic butter on some bread that will be freshly made before dinner. Keep the wonderful ideas and easy to follow directions coming!
the garlic pops out of the tops so easily, no squeezing required.
I’m getting a raw chewy bitter taste from some browned edges.
Thanks! I’m roasting garlic for the first time and these are the best instructions I’ve seen. I can’t wait and wish I’d bought more garlic.
What a wonderful sight love garlic all three ways but just an extra hint. You better put that butter in a air tight container or everything in the fridg will smell an taste like garlic, which hey may not be so bad..
Does anyone know whether roast garlic gives off less of a body smell the next day than raw garlic? I’m hoping.
I’ve been on this ramen kick and finally got the nerve to tackle David Chan’s recipe from Momofuku with 5 lbs of Pork bones, 4lbs of Chicken and a pound of smoked bacon and 8 hours of simmering. Well, it’s really kind of amazing, rich and complex in taste, but lacking something from my favorite ramen dish at Minca, here in NYC: rich, roasted garlic!
You have the best, most detailed and smartest recipe for doing it. The photos help make sense of it. (Not like it’s complicated, but I’m a visual kind of guy.) I’m using sesame oil instead of olive oil and saving it for my next stir fry.
We’d have you over for dinner and a little agency banter and writing stories if you were closer.
Thank you!
You’re photos are so good, I’m drooling. I’m going to try this with San Marzano tomatoes and Parmasan cheese. Got this recipe from the chef at Union Square Cafe, NYC. Wish me luck.
I’ve made roasted garlic before but not the butter and oil. Have a co-worker who looooves everything garlic and he is getting at least two of the three for his birthday present tomorrow. Gotta try the oil for myself and maybe make more later to give away. Wow does my kitchen smell good right now! Only eleven more minutes to go! Thanks for the great ideas.
These methods are so accurate! Im cooking this for my husband!
I love roasted garlic also, but, I like to put it on cheese and crackers, it is the best appetizer ever!!!!
A friend had a bumper crop of garlic this year and I was given about 10 lbs! I made the roasted garlic and infused oil twice and am now making the butter.
I do want to comment that it took closer to an hour to cook the garlic through. I don’t know if was the size of the garlic heads (just a little bit bigger than store bought), the fact that I cooked 9 heads at a time, or the altitude of 4500 ft. that made it take longer. Just a heads up for people to not get impatient; definitely worth the wait!
Thanks for a great post! You have fun and detailed instructions, beautiful photos, and great recipes.
Garlic is one of the best foods in the world that you can put into your body.
Remember two garlic breaths can cancel each other out…another words you can’t smell it on the other persons breath if they eat it too thats why I enjoy roasting it in olive oil, rosemary, romano cheese (Grated) and a touch of red pepper and a warm freshly baked Ciabatta bread for dipping and don’t forget the bottle of Merlot…..or for the sweet wine lovers a bottle of Lambrusco.
Wow! Thanks for the great instructions. I need to see & read to fully understand how to do most things. Thanks again!!
You know I love garlic butter, but I never think to make it myself. I know it freezes well though. Maybe I should make a bunch. I avg it saves about $2cad a month for me if I do that! LOL. We’re Italian and my fiance is Irish so we eat a LOT of garlic.
I wonder how it would taste coating pork chops while cooking?
Thanks for this! I bought an absurd amount of garlic to roast, and this post is the reason.
Well. I don’t know whether I should credit you with making my life wonderful or curse you for ruining it! The moment I finished reading your roasted garlic/garlic compound butter/garlic infused olive oil recipe I zoomed into the kitchen. I had been wanting to roast some red potatoes and garlic all day and I only had two bulbs of garlic in the house. So. I combined your recipe with mine. I cut up some red potatoes, tossed them in a little olive oil, and sprinkled them with rosemary and salt. I left enough room in my baking pan for the two garlic bulbs I had, followed your directions, and roasted away. I was so happy I felt delirious as I ate my taters and schmeered garlic on a roll. That was yesterday. It’s all fun until someboyd goes nuts… Tonight I am finding myself heating up rolls just so I have a vehicle for that butter. I have already gone back three times!!! Enough! oh…btw…the olive oil that was infused with the garlic and rosemary….omg….amazing. Since I cannot seem to get enough, I am going out tomorrow to buy more garlic. When is it going to be enough???? I would ask for somebody to stop me, but I might have to stab somebody with my paring knife if they get too close…..