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.
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.