How to Infuse Oils for Cooking

I love getting emails from my readers, especially when they ask questions I know lots of people might be interested in.  Recently, Michele asked me how to infuse oils for more flavorful cooking, etc.  She wrote:

Hi Mavis!

I love your site and check in daily and comment.  I’m working on a garden and having failures and successes.  My best success is Basil (I have massive plants about 3ft high & wide I don’t know what to do with) along with other herbs and Serrano Peppers (Texas heat has great hot peppers).

I wanted to ask if you have ever tried to infuse olive oil with peppers or herbs and how you did that.  I searched online and see that they say to keep in the fridge, but I know you can buy it infused and leave on counters.  I have more herbs and peppers than I know what to do with right now and thought of infusing some oils for cooking.  Do you have suggestions?

It’s actually pretty simple to infuse oils for cooking.  And no, they don’t necessarily have to be refrigerated {I’ll get to that in a minute}.  To start, you’ll need some mason jars, a nice quality oil {Zoe is my favorite}, herbs, spices, peppers, garlic, etc.  {whatever combination floats your boat} and a sunny location.

Start by washing and COMPLETELY drying all of your herbs.  Moisture is the enemy here, because it promotes mold and bacterial growth.  So, if you don’t want to store your oils in the refrigerator, it is best to dehydrate your herbs, peppers, etc.  first.  Fresh taste best, but they also make it so the oils don’t last as long, so fresh will need to be stored in the fridge.

If you want to speed up the flavor infusing process, you can heat the oil and herbs, garlic, spices, etc. in a pan on LOW heat for about five minutes first.

Put the herbs, spices, etc. into a clean mason jar.  Pour oil over the top of the herbs.  {If you heated your herbs in the oil, pour the whole mixture into the jar.}  Put on the lid, and store in a sunny location for about a week–this will allow the flavor to infuse into the oil.

After a week, open the jar and taste the oil.  If you are satisfied with the flavor, the infusing is done.  If not, put the lid back on and let it sit a bit longer.

When the flavor is satisfactory, grab a fine mesh sieve and pour the infused oil into a clean glass bottle.  If you like the look of the herbs and you dried them first, you can keep them in the oil.  Otherwise, you will want to strain them out, to prevent them from growing mold.  If you used fresh herbs, you can always add a sprig of dried herbs to your final bottle for the look of it.

I hope this helped, Michele.  And, as always, if YOU have any tips on infusing oils, let me know in the comments below.

~Mavis