James King wrote; > We love hot peppers on popcorn! > > I take a bottle of olive oil and stuff it full of split peppers of choice > and a crushed garlic clove. Let it age a while. Gad, this stuff's good. I > buy so much popcorn from the Boy Scout troops now they deliver it to me in > cases. Your recipe is for botulism. You might want to consider heating up the oil with the garlic and peppers to 275F. Remove veggies before storing. Or use a preservative like potassium sorbate. Remember, the incidence is low but the mortality is high. >From the UDSA: http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap2.html "In the last 10 years, two separate outbreaks of botulism have occurred involving commercially canned salmon. Restaurant foods such as sauteed onions, chopped bottled garlic, potato salad made from baked potatoes and baked potatoes themselves have been responsible for a number of outbreaks. Also, smoked fish, both hot and cold-smoke (e.g., Kapchunka) have caused outbreaks of type E botulism. " "Most recently, a bottled chopped garlic-in-oil mix was responsible for three cases of botulism in Kingston, N.Y. Two men and a woman were hospitalized with botulism after consuming a chopped garlic-in-oil mix that had been used in a spread for garlic bread. The bottled chopped garlic relied solely on refrigeration to ensure safety and did not contain any additional antibotulinal additives or barriers. The FDA has ordered companies to stop making the product and to withdraw from the market any garlic-in-oil mix which does not include microbial inhibitors or acidifying agents and does not require refrigeration for safety." -- St. Kit