<p>Interesting and somewhat funny report in today’s Dining Section of the NY Times. It got me thinking about all the “wow” over extra-virgin olive oil in recent years, promoted by high-powered chefs and celebrity cooks like Rachael Ray.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed that these days prices for allegedly luxurious brands have shot way up. Yeah, I can taste the difference between good olive oil and run-of-the-mill stuff, but there’s lots of tasty brands that are much less expensive than house brands and boutique brands from specialty markets.</p>
<p>Do you have a preference? Italy? Spain? Greece? In standard supermarkets (not mega chains) recently I’ve bought extra-virgin olive oil from Portugal and from Turkey, at much less cost than other imported brands. Personally I found that they had very good flavor.</p>
<p>daughter brought home a cheap-y bottle from Israel this past summer; amazing; use it primarily for salads…</p>
<p>I remember reading somewhere that olive oil used for cooking can be any type/country etc, but if you’re using it to directly eat, extra virgin from Spain is actually excellent…Goya (even though not that expensive) is supposed to be great!!; I think that was a Consumer Report survey at one time…</p>
<p>I think the crux of the NYT article was that once heated, the better olive oils lose their edge. I keep a bottle of cheap evoo for cooking. I use a mid-priced Kalmata olive oil from Trader Joe’s for other things. For me, the fruity flavor is worth the extra bucks.</p>
<p>Oh, I am so glad you confirmed what I had suspected all along! It’s nice to know that the simply good-tasting, extra-virgin oils that I have known all my life, with such plebeian names as Bertolli, are still appreciated. I have never have bought into the “rare vintage” malarkey that likens olive oil to gold. This is not some rare substance after all.</p>
<p>Those oils may or may not be extra virgin, according to research published last summer from UC Davis–“The research team found that 69 percent of the imported oils sampled, compared with just 10 percent of the California-produced oils sampled, failed to meet internationally accepted standards for extra virgin olive oil.”</p>
<p>[UC</a> Davis News & Information :: Most imported olive oils dont match extra virgin claims, study finds](<a href=“News”>News)</p>
<p>If you are just cooking with it, almost any olive oil will work. It does not even have to extra virgin if you are just doing something like browning meat. For most everyday use the extra virgin olive oils you find in the grocery store should be fine. A really good olive oil should be used for something like brushing on bread, as the sole dressing on tender lettuce, etc. </p>
<p>In Tuscany we went to several olive oil tastings in the fall. It was amazing the range of colors and flavors! From burnished gold to grass green, from fresh cut grass to mushrooms notes. And many of them were very affordable. All of them were the kind of oil you ate in a way that featured the taste of the oil I could live most of my life on just bread and a really good Sicilian olive oil.</p>
<p>The article actually confirms that pricey olive oils are worth it, when used uncooked. The professional tasters easily picked out the better olive oils. </p>
<p>However, the article in effect says there is no need to use even cheap olive oil when cooking because cheaper vegetable oils will do just as well.</p>
<p>I don’t think the other oils (canola, for example) contain the anti-oxidant polyphenols that olive oil does. That is one of the big benefits of a Mediterranean diet.</p>
<p>1moremom, thanks for the link to the UCDavis report. There’s so much intentional misinformation distributed regarding “speciality foods,” especially imported products. For example, much of the olive oil produced in Italy is actually made from olives from abroad [from Italian-owned companies] and only pressed in Italy. Sounds similar to the new reality about Florida Orange juice, a lot of which is made from oranges grown in Brazil in American-owned orange groves. In Europe I thought the E.U. was supposed to be strict on regulating such matters with its ‘designation of origin’ rules. By the way, didn’t China get caught last year for mis-labeling honey by diluting premium North American product with inferior honey stuff from 3rd World nations?</p>
<p>Rodney, I love the taste of Spanish olive oil and I used to buy Goya regularly. But the price of Goya has risen in recent years, so I gave it up for other brands. I still love oil from Greece, but that stuff is also pricey nowadays. The stuff from Portugal and Turkey work fine for me and taste great “naked” on bread, pasta or vegetables.</p>
<p>I buy Olive Oil literally by the gallon from my wholesale club. It is Berrio, I think , but sometimes I buy smaller bottles from the grocery store. I use it a lot for cooking and salad dressings…no complaints</p>
<p>I use a reasonably inexpensive extra-virgin olive oil for nearly everything. (I think it’s currently Trader Joe’s, next up is a basic one from Fairway.) Our local Fairway has the most amazing tasting bar for olive oils - they must have two dozen out. My husband and I try some every time we are there, and have come to the conclusion that a lot of the expensive ones taste like grass, but they are definitely not all the same. </p>
<p>I cook a lot with olive oil (anything Mediterranean in style for sure.)</p>
<p>To put it in proper context, olive oil still has 14 grams of fat and 120 calories per tablespoon—all of them fat calories.
I shudder at buying any type of oil by the gallon.</p>
<p>I also buy my cheaper olive oil by the gallon and have never had a problem using it before it goes rancid. A lot of it goes in pesto. Beyond that I use it to saut</p>
<p>" I shudder at buying any type of oil by the gallon " </p>
<p>I sincerely hope you didn’t mean that to come off as snotty as it sounded.</p>
<p>And in the context you used that sentence , you might want to consider the volume of cooking one might do and the time it takes to use that much oil</p>
<p>I toured a vineyard in Tuscany last spring and during the wine tasting, the owner poured me about a 1/4 of a glass of his olive oil and insisted that I drink it. (he had been very generous with the wines, so I was somewhat agreeable) It was very good and did not have that heavy “extra virgin” taste of the stuff I buy at home. He told me the secret was in the ph level of the soil. He gave me this tip for determining quality oil. After you swallow a spoonful kind of do a gagging type movement that makes the thing in the back of you throat move. If the oil is poor quality then will notice a heavy feeling or “coated” feeling in your throat. Again - only try this after several glasses of wine! :p</p>
<p>I was watching “The Next Iron Chef” on Food Network. In a recent challenge, the chefs were cooking using the kitchens from some high end Las Vegas restaurants. One of the kitchens had bottles of some olive oil that they claimed was extremely good, so they were excited to use it. I wish they had mentioned what it was. Not that I would buy it, since it is probably also extremely expensive, but I was just curious.</p>
<p>cbreeze, this is what I consider the proper context-- DH and I eat a low fat diet (<20% of daily kcals). We rarely eat processed food or dairy. Lean animal protein maybe three times a week. The remainder of the fat calories are coming from whole grains, nuts and oils (and avocados :)). If we each use a tablespoon of olive oil a day, which is easy with all the fresh greens and roasted vegetables we eat, that’s one ounce. 365 ounces in a year would be almost 3 gallons of olive oil. If you’re not getting your necessary fat intake (the RDA is 30%) from healthy oils, where is it coming from?</p>
<p>sharpenedpencil, Try the Martini’s Kalamata EVOO from Trader Joe’s (when you’re not heating it, so it lasts quite a while). I think it’s about $12 a litre and has good flavor.</p>
<p>From a forum where food & science writer Jane Brody spoke, I learned quite a while ago that in terms of calories, there’s no distinction among different kinds of fats, but like 1moremom said, getting your fat intake from canola and olive oil or from nuts is healthier than EXCESSIVE intake of animal fat. I mean sure, pork lard makes the absolute best pie crust, but it’s wise to use it infrequently unless you’re a high school quarterback or distance runner.</p>
It was very good and did not have that heavy “extra virgin” taste of the stuff I buy at home. He told me the secret was in the ph level of the soil. He gave me this tip for determining quality oil. After you swallow a spoonful kind of do a gagging type movement that makes the thing in the back of you throat move. If the oil is poor quality then will notice a heavy feeling or “coated” feeling in your throat. Again - only try this after several glasses of wine! :p</p>