I've mentioned before that I've followed recipes where it was obvious the author never actually made that dish. I've offended 2 online places by sending emails and merely asking questions (such as "Why does this recipe for shrimp ravioli [starting with raw shrimp] say to boil the ravioli for only 2 minutes, while this other one says 6 minutes to ensure that it's fully cooked?" And these are full-time chef "bloggers." I'm real fussy about avoiding emergency rooms and stomach pumps.
I inherited my mother's germ-phobic gene; she took housekeeping to a whole new level. I have never been able to participate in "covered dish" events or anything else where I'm not eating something I (or someone I know very well) cooked. I'm sure if I saw commercial kitchens I'd never eat at another restaurant, either. I prefer to fool myself about that. The thing about botulism is that it is not simple food poisoning...it can kill a person in a matter of hours or leave them with physical disabilities. I'm just not willing to chance it.
Your comment about potatoes growing in the ground and the risk of botulism reminded me of admonitions against infusing olive oil with garlic. Garlic is also grown on the ground, and when you submerge it in olive oil and deprive it of oxygen (anaerobic environment), the botulism (if present) thrives. I just read that opinions on using raw garlic in sous vide cooking (low temp/vacuum sealed) are mixed. Regarding concern over commercial kitchens: online health inspections are not your friend. There's lots of icky detail, and most of them have some issue.
When I make garlic oil, I follow a "recipe" I got from a TV cooking show and I heat the oil to 180 F. with the crushed cloves in it and hold that temperature for 10 minutes, then remove the garlic completely. The danger appears to be from leaving the garlic in the oil. Botulism needs protein to grow, so removing the garlic removes all protein. Olive oil should be only fat. If it still makes you nervous, store the oil in the fridge, but you will have to warm it of course to make it liquid again.
I make my own ghee from Amish butter. I take part of the log and make garlic butter much as you described, simmering off the whey as the crushed cloves of garlic cook. I, too, fish the cloves out and then strain it through a cheesecloth into a pint canning jar. Then it stores in the fridge. I use the same method to make an Ethiopian clarified butter. Left to right: Garlic butter, ghee, Ethiopian clarified butter. Now I'm getting hungry!
It's clarified butter simmered with spices and other stuff: onions, ginger root, garlic, cardamom, stick cinnamon, whole cloves, turmeric, Fenugreek seeds. It's very good. The "recipes" are all over the map, but the first one I tried is a nice balance of flavors. I really like it on all green veggies (asparagus, Brussels sprouts, broccoli) and it is great on corn-on-the-cob. The recipe said it's good on fish & meat, but I've yet to try that. I posted the recipe here last year.
I don't know. I don't know how the flavor of the coconut might be with everything else in there (especially the onion and garlic.) I guess one could scale it down to a small test batch. If you search for recipes, you'll find that there really are none. The basic ingredients are common, but the ratios vary greatly.
My wife loves all those flavors, but cannot tolerate butter in any quantity. She also cannot eat garlic or onions without distress, but she can use my garlic oil with no problem. We usually use refined coconut oil, which has no discernible coconut taste. I may try the test batch as you said.
I did not know that coconut oil did not have a coconut flavor. I've not cooked with it often. Regarding your wife's dietary stuff: what about margarine and other refrigerated yellow spreads?
She can use other "butter substitutes" but generally avoids soy. Only the "refined" coconut oil doesn't taste like coconut. Sometimes the coconut taste is okay, like with coconut shrimp or chicken, but for general use, we use the unflavored stuff.
I have a jar of unrefined. I add it to those hot grain-based drinks I have after dinner, along with some cacao powder. It adds a nice coconut (and chocolate) flavor. I did not realize you could refine the coconut flavor out of the oil. I'll have to get some and try it for cooking. ps: Look at us, scrawling in Beth's diary. Ain't SHE gonna be mad?