EVOO Rab.
“Extra-virgin olive oil” is right up there with “easy virtue”.
How do you end up with extra virgin olive oil....start with some really fugly olives.
It was Brutus, I tells ya!
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!
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.
Watch what you say about Olive Oil, pal, our Popeye will murderlize youse.
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.
“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.)
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.
Thanks. I think I'll pass. But do you have any mustard or Tabasco Sauce for my ice cream?
In chemical terms extra virgin olive oil is described as having a free acidity, expressed as oleic acid, of not more than 0.8 grams per 100 grams and a peroxide value of less than 20 milliequivalent O2. It must be produced entirely by mechanical means without the use of any solvents, and under temperatures that will not degrade the oil (less than 86°F, 30°C).
In order for an oil to qualify as "extra virgin" the oil must also pass both an official chemical test in a laboratory and a sensory evaluation by a trained tasting panel recognized by the International Olive Council. The olive oil must be found to be free from defects while exhibiting some fruitiness.
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Now, that said, there is VERY high competition in production of the highest quality olive oil in CA. I know too much about it, having been 'at the fight' in Temecula, seeing how the best is rated (judged) and seeing how they rate quality. It's really quite rigorous.
Olea Farm and Temecula Olive Oil Company have won 'Best Of' many shows, and if I remember rightly, they help harvest and process many olives up and down the coast of CA with mobile olive mills.
Safety ground?
It’s common to filter and acid-neutralize lesser quality olive oils. The result is perfectly edible, if bland.
I prefer them in all cases.
Grown from Sacramento to Redding in the great valley. They are the finest in the world.
Grounded? They must have been rolled on the ground, as in baseball (grounded out) or thrown onto the ground as in football (intentional grounding).
“Extra-virgin olive oil.”
A friend of mine once said “It means them olives ain’t even been kissed.”