http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/kitchen/2003sp_oliveoil.html
Olive Oil—Buying a Quality Bottle
Plants & Gardens News Volume 18, Number 1 | Spring 2003
by Niall Dunne
We all know at least a little bit about olive oil. It has played a big role in Western culture for millennia, not only as a food, but also as a source of fuel, medicine, and cosmetics. And over the last few decades, because of its delicious flavor, healthful properties (including high levels of beneficial fatty acids and antioxidants), and Mediterranean allure, olive oil has been at the forefront of the grain-and-veggie revolution in mainstream American cuisine.
In recent years, however, bon vivants in the media have been hinting that, as responsible consumers and wannabe epicures, we should all know a little more about olive oil. Boutique stores have opened in major U.S. cities with the aim of heightening our awareness about the magic of the olive.
Olive oil
Photo courtesy www.oliveoilsource.com
Olive oil is in many ways like wine: There’s the decent stuff meant for general use, and there’s the “vintage” stuff meant to be savored. The latter shouldn’t be wasted in a frying pan but rather drizzled on salads, pastas, or grilled foods, dipped into with bread, or even sipped neat so that its “organoleptic” qualities—its aroma and taste—can be fully appreciated. (Note that olive oil, unlike good red wine, does not improve with age. On the contrary, it has a shelf life of about a year.)
Buying a premium bottle is not just a matter of going to your nearest supermarket and picking up any old extra virgin. Many brands available in big stores come from large cooperative plants that inevitably produce blander products. Moreover, they are notorious for leaving essential information off their labels (such as the date of harvest).
But before going on, let’s get a little more background on olive oil, so we know what we’re talking about when we say provocative things like “extra virgin.” (It may not be immediately clear, except perhaps to chastity campaigners like Britney Spears, but some virgins are more virginal than others.)
Olive oil is produced by crushing or pressing the fresh fruit (as opposed to the cured table fruit) of the olive tree, Olea europaea, an evergreen tree native to the eastern Mediterranean. The fruit, botanically a fleshy drupe, appears in late summer and matures in color from bright green to purplish brown. There are hundreds of olive varieties (see the consumer web site www.oliveoilsource.com for a list).
Olives are harvested in late fall and winter. Fermentation of the fruit caused by damage or aging adversely effects the quality of the oil. Therefore hand-harvesting and immediate processing of the olives is ideal (but not quite feasible in mass-market production).
The naming and grading of olive oil is pretty straightforward. “Virgin” olive oil is obtained solely by physical extraction under temperatures that don’t alter the oil. Washing, decanting, centrifuging, and filtering are permitted; chemical solvents are not.
Virgin oil is subdivided into four categories based on aroma, flavor, and levels of free acidity (the less the better). “Extra virgin” oil has very high organoleptic qualities and no more than 1 percent acidity. “Virgin” oil is the same except with an allowable free acidity of 2 percent. “Ordinary” oil has good taste and aroma and up to 3.3 percent acidity. “Lampante” oil has poor organoleptic qualities, higher than 3.3 percent acidity, and needs to be refined for human consumption.
Virgin oil makes up only about 10 percent of world production. The rest is either “refined olive oil,” “pure olive oil,” or “olive-pomace oil.” These are okay for general cooking purposes, but nowhere near as desirable as the virgin oil.
Further jargon for high-end extra virgin includes “first cold-pressed,” which means oil from the first pressing (there can be more than one) of the olives, with no applied heat; “single estate,” which means that the oil comes from a single family business or farm; and “affiorato” or “free run” oil, the rarest and finest there is, obtained from either very coarsely crushed olives or olives piled high and squeezed by their own weight.
I recently took part in an olive-oil-tasting session at Oliviers & Co., a French-based specialty chain with a store in Manhattan. The company charges a high price for its merchandise, so naturally I was skeptical at first. But the folks working there were knowledgeable and relaxed, and if I was being hoodwinked, at least it was with style.
Oliviers & Co. breaks down its many oils into three flavor groupings—floral, herbaceous, and spicy—and provides a list of suggested food pairings for each. I tried a few, including Fattorie di Galiga e Vetrice, Harvest 2002, a first-cold-pressed extra virgin oil from Tuscany in the herbaceous category. A blend of different olive varieties—’Frantoio’, ‘Pendolino’, and ‘Morinello’—it was light and delectable, recommended as a companion for pasta and grilled vegetables. The tasting notes on the container (analogous to those on a wine bottle) read artichoke, green pepper, and bay leaf. But maybe my palate wasn’t developed enough: I thought I tasted hints of lemon and string bean instead.
I bought a 16.8-ounce tin of the Galiga for $28. It was probably worth it. But I think I’ll have to wait for Santa to buy me some oil from Tuscan grower Armondo Manni. Profiled recently in The New York Times and made from hand-harvested ‘Olivastra Seggianese’ olives, Manni’s Per Me and Per Mio Figlio oils are favorites of chefs Thomas Keller and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. You can buy them online at www.manni.biz and have them shipped in special temperature- and pressure-controlled containers—30 ounces for $255. Or there’s always butter.
Niall Dunne is the associate editor of Plants & Gardens News.
Excellent post