by James Buttler
I have recently become fascinated by Olive Oil. I’m not referring to Popeye’s girlfriend and yes I probably should get out more, but there’s much more to it than first meets the eye. Do you know what you are buying, how to read the labels and what a good olive oil really is?
Not that long ago you would be viewed as some fancy Dan if you had olive oil cluttering your kitchen cupboard. If you actually used it you’d be viewed with even mightier suspicion, but mercifully we have nearly all progressed from frying onions in a mountain of lard and realised that olive oil is good for your heart and tastes pretty decent too.
Someone told me that olive oil is very much like wine. You can buy cheap plonk that is easy on your pocket, but tastes like it’s been strained through Norah Batty’s tights, or you can choose from fine, more expensive options.
The oil is a fat ground from the fruit of olive trees where the oil is removed by mechanical or chemical means.
The fruit is made into paste before being churned to allow the microscopic oil droplets to concentrate. This is done by traditional pressure or more modern centrifugation.
It is has a wide variety of uses. In addition to cooking it is also used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, soaps and for fueling traditional oil lamps. It has become synonymous with Mediterranean countries where Greece consumes the largest amount per head of population.
In the kitchen you can use olive oil for marinades, dressings, baking and frying.
Because hundreds of varieties of the olive fruit exist it creates a range of different coloured, flavoured, smelling oils. France, Spain, Italy and Greece are the main producers and the taste and quality varies with climate and geography just like wine.
The production of olive oil is assumed to have started before 4000 BC and the earliest surviving olive oil dates to 3500 BC (Early Minoan times), although some historians suggest that olives were turned into oil by 4500 BC by Canaanites in present-day Israel.
Retail grades
In countries that adhere to the standards of the International Olive Council the labels in stores show an oil’s grade.
The different names for olive oil indicate the degree of processing the oil has undergone as well as the quality of the oil.
Extra-virgin olive oil is the highest grade available, followed by virgin olive oil. The word “virgin” indicates that the olives have been pressed to extract the oil and no chemicals or heat were used to assist the extraction process. The oil is pure and unrefined. Extra-virgin olive oils contain the highest levels of polyphenols, antioxidants that have been linked with better health and contains no more than 0.8% acidity. It’s basically the one that tastes the best.
Virgin olive oil comes from virgin oil production only, has an acidity less than 1.5%, and is judged to have a good taste.
Pure olive oil or those labelled as Olive oil are usually a blend of refined and virgin production oil with no more than 2% acidity and usually lacks a strong flavor.
Olive pomace oil is is the oil that is extracted from the fruits pulp after the first press. It is fit for consumption, but may not be described simply as olive oil. It has the same fat composition as regular olive oil, giving it the same health benefits.
Lampante oil is industrial olive oil not suitable as food and has long been used in oil-burning lamps.
Refined olive oil is obtained by refining virgin olive oils with a high acidity level and/or defects that refining cures. It is refined with charcoal and other chemical and physical filters.
Test it for yourself
To classify it by taste, olive oil is subjectively judged by a panel of professional tasters in a blind taste test. You can do this yourself and by all means keep your eyes open.
Pour a little bit of extra virgin olive oil into a small glass. Hold it, swirl it, warm it for a minute or two before putting your nose in the glass and take in the aroma. Can you pick up the smell of fresh-cut grass, cinnamon or tropical fruits?
Take a sip and swill it around your mouth, suck air through the oil to bring more flavours from it and then breathe out through your nose.ÂThen swallow some and you may find a peppery sensation in your throat. Depending upon the oil this pungency can by tiny or can make you cough. Aficionados sometimes describe the strongest pungencies as a three-cough oil.
The pungency is an acquired taste as is the bitterness. This also varies with riper olives being less bitter that that obtained from greener fruit. Can you taste nuts, butter and other ripe flavours?
Olive oil at Approved Food
In an attempt to clean my arteries I bought some rather good olive oil from Approved Food and reading the tin aroused my curiosity enough to write this blog piece.
My purchase was a tin of Huile Dolive Vierge Black Olive Oil. At 250ml it sits in a small silver tin and at £0.99 against a RRP of £14.99 it would have been more costly to ignore.
Good olive oils are often pretty expensive. At Approved Food that is not the case.
