Book Review: Losing 'Virginity': Olive Oil's 'Scandalous' Fraud

npr Books ^ | December 12, 2011

[Rabin]

Extra light on the other hand is a thermal energy yard stick. Go figure.

EVOO Rab.

[SatinDoll]

“Extra-virgin olive oil” is right up there with “easy virtue”.

[festusbanjo]

How do you end up with extra virgin olive oil....start with some really fugly olives.

[LostInBayport]

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

It was Brutus, I tells ya!

[Tucker39]

I thinks it wuz Bluto!

[DBrow]

My Uncle Dan travels to Italy every year, where he lives with an olive oil producing family. He photographs their life, their town, their olive trees and presses. He’s a photographer, obviously.

He brings me oil he has pressed himself, well, he along with a family that has pretty much adopted him for the season.

So I know where my olive oil comes from!

[Palladin]

Olive oil has been adulterated since the business began in Brooklyn under mobster and Godfather Joe Profaci.

[dfwgator]

I thinks it wuz Bluto!

[OrangeHoof]

Obe of my favorite jokes is to go to Italian or pizza restaurants and ask the waitress if she knows what “extra virgin olive oil” means.

After what is usually a long uncomfortable pause, I tell her that it is made of olives that have never even thought of being with a salad.

[Tanniker Smith]

Watch what you say about Olive Oil, pal, our Popeye will murderlize youse.

[Tucker39]

Wasn’t aware of olives committing adultery, but as for the best types to use:
If you are only going to use the oil in COOL or COLD applications, such as salads, use Extra Virgin, as it has more flavor.
If you will be using it for frying, grilling or other HOT applications, use Extra Light. The solids in EVOO will SMOKE when you heat it. The ELOO, which has no solids, will not.

[JRandomFreeper]

That's a lot of heavyweight armor. I unsnapped ONE garter belt. Once.

Girls these days come with much more user-friendly under-whatchamacallits.

Or so I'm told... Me? I do not partake, I let it pass by.

/johnny

[BwanaNdege]

“Losing ‘Virginity’: Olive Oil’s ‘Scandalous’ Fraud”

How sad....

Just another casualty if the 60’s “sexual revolution”.

(Actually, the 60’s sexual revolution is not really a joking matter, I just could not help myself. It just seems like all of the cooking show hosts & hostesses delight in saying “extra virgin” olive oil in the same way pre-teen boys delight in saying a mild expletive.)

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Ah gah gah gah gah gah gah! Well blow me down!

[UnwashedPeasant]

And if the bottle says it is from Sicily, it is probably really from somewhere like Tunisia.

People will pay extra for what they think is Italian-source olive oil.

[Red_Devil 232]

Here is just about everything you might want to know about Olives and their oil. Great read.

Olives and People, Past and Present

[Clemenza]

That’s why this mezzo-Italiano prefers Greek and Turkish Olive Oil.

[Minn]

"Get a bottle of really, really powerful, bitter and pungent oil, and pour it over some really good ice cream. And it is like an injection of liquid sunshine. It's quite a treat."

Thanks. I think I'll pass. But do you have any mustard or Tabasco Sauce for my ice cream?

[Brandonmark]