I used Serious Eats’ recipe with a few modifications. Swapped the peanuts out for sesame seeds, and used powdered bouillon in place of salt.
Make sure to keep that in the fridge and throw it out after a few weeks. Solids in oil that don’t remove all water and exceed 250F for an extended period of time can still be capable of Botulism spores.
In the fridge this should keep 2-3 months especially if you follow safe practices like sanitizing the jar and lid for storage
If the crisp is submerged in oil, cooked thoroughly till dry and crispy, and it’s stored in the fridge the risk of botulism is extremely low.
You are correct that it’s not 0 though. Tbf it never is. To make it safer and extend shelf life you can add an acid at the end like 1-2tbsp black vinegar or rice vinegar after cooking. This will adjust pH enough to inhibit botulism spores further but again the risk still isn’t 0
I forgot to mention that I added a tbsp of vinegar. It also makes it taste good, too. And I’ve got it in the fridge. Honestly the only thing in it that has a significant amount of water is the ginger. I’ve thought about replacing it with dried ginger because of that.
Dried Ginger is earthy instead of spicy and would change the character a lot. Not a problem but something to probably test before committing to a full batch.
Yes, thus my hesitation. I might do it next time I make a batch. This recipe isn’t really worth small batching due to the time investment, but I could set aside maybe 1/4 of it to use dried ginger in and see how it differs.
Another thing I’ve thought about is just frying the fresh ginger like I do with the garlic and shallot, but some of the ginger flavor may get lost.
I was thinking of just doing a test with just oil and just dried ginger.
Can do that as well. But with all the other flavors going on I feel like it might be a better test to separate some of the batch next time.
Frying everything first, then pressure canning to get to 250 for several minutes puts it at what would be commercially safe and shelf stable. There’s guides from culinary university extensions online, but that’s the gist.
Should the store bought variety be refrigerated too? Cause I go through a large jar of the stuff every month and it just stays on my table
I don’t refrigerate them and they’ve been fine. IIRC there is not a refrigerate after opening notice on either LaoGanMa or Fly By Jing.
Store bought stuff goes through a much more rigorous process to sterilize the finished product. It’ll be clear when you first open it, but open to mold and everything else once opened. That’s why you always see the “Refrigerate After Opening” line on labels.
that looks fantastic! nice job!
yo! buillon instead of salt is a hell of an idea, guessing that paid off?
Oh yes, definitely. Adds a lot of flavor.
Bouillon? Bullion is something else
Thanks, I’ll fix it. Autocorrect is a bitch.
