Olive oil (the good stuff)

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PaulineM

Olive oil (the good stuff)

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17-04-08 11:29

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Any other lovers of really good olive oil in here?

I was commenting in Mugg's thread about the "extra virgin" and "first cold pressing" descriptions, saying that I'd only ever encountered olive oil that was the result of one cold pressing. In fact if you ask anyone in Greece who produces the stuff about a second pressing they look either totally blank or as if they're clearly wondering what planet you've dropped in from.

Since then I've had a little look around, and found this and this.

And the penny has dropped - we don't usually buy ours from a shop; we get it from someone who has grown the olives and then taken them along to the local press and made them into oil.

Note to estate agents: the smell around these presses in autumn might put off some buyers.

It's rather depressing to think that this traditional way of doing things is probably dying out, as the younger generations tend to leave the countryside for the urban horrors of Athens (though quite a few of them still nip back from time to time to check on their olive trees).

I was a tad amused at the remark about olives that have dropped to the ground, as opposed to being picked, not being good for oil. In Corfu, at least, the traditional harvesting method was to lay sheets on the ground and then beat the branches to make the olives fall onto them. Maybe it's a matter of how long they've been on the ground?

A lot of mystique, marketing and plain snobbery is doubtless involved. All I can say is that really good olive oil is fabulous stuff.

Laura Penstemon

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17-04-08 11:34

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I must admit to being a bit of an olive oil snob, or rather I would be if I had enough cash. I only use Extra Virgin olive oil (except for frying eggs). I have had some fantastic olive oil and olives in Greece, Spain and Italy but the Greek stuff was IMHO the best... As always with these things I think you get what you pay for!

Pens

Mrs Muggleton

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17-04-08 11:36

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I did post in the other thread, but will put it here instead

We visited a monastry (as you do on greek island holidays) where they were making their own olive oil. They told us in no uncertain terms that there was no such thing as extra virgin olive oil and it was all a marketing gimmick. I've never bought it since and only buy a mid-range oil now. I think we've got Phillipo Berio oil at the moment.

I don't like the flavoured oils either, I would rather add my own flavourings to them if needed.

I remember when we visited Corfu in some places that was how they still collected the olives, by banging the branches.

We came back from that holiday thinking Olives were rather an obsession with the greeks

cwmhill

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17-04-08 11:56

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Well I must say I like olive oil , I remember a few years back now going to the good food show and trying out diff olive oils ,I came across a Greek stand and they had little cups of oil for tasting and one of the sales men gave me a cup to try which I told him I don't drink neat oil only whiskey and he assured me that I would fine the taste very pleasant and not sickly at all , so I did and it was really good, he was selling it at £36 for 5 litres which I could not afford at the time so I took a card which to say I lost it, I have tried a lot of oils after that but none to equal it, remember him saying it was the first press of the year and was about a month old , so as I have never been to Greece I have never found one that tasted as good, maybe I will do the food show again this year you never know that might still be going there but dout it as the quality was so good they would not need to advertise

CWM

gillessex7

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17-04-08 17:45

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Del is also an Olive oil snob, and he thinks the extra virgin much nicer. We always bring a bottle back from our holidays. We too saw the sheets for the Olives on the hillsides when we went to Corfu. Del will often eat a bowl of salad or peppers or both drizzled (heavily) with olive oil. We cook with it also , don't use any other oils or fats

Pip at Home

#5

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17-04-08 18:31

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I have heard it said that it is pointless to use extra virgin olive oil for cooking. Anyone know the truth behind this?

PaulineM

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17-04-08 18:44

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Depends what you mean by pointless, Pip. I've been told that it's only raw olive oil that's polyunsaturated, or whatever it is. Have no idea if it's true but the vet seems to accept that it is.

But if you've ever tasted chips fried in it - oh wow!

Not that I would do such a thing, but that's part of my simple rule for keeping the kitchen clean - I never deep-fry in it!

I always fry eggs in olive oil, though I usually mix it with a bland lighter one like corn oil for that purpose. For the casserole-type dishes I often use minimum oil for cooking, and add the rest at the end for the taste and all.

Pip at Home

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17-04-08 18:48

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I use rapeseed oil quite a bit for cooking as I was told that it was what is classified as a 'good oil' when it came to fats. I used to have to be very careful with fats when Sox was alive because of his problems but rapeseed oil never appeared to give him any side effects.

I sometimes use olive oil for cooking and find that it cooks much faster than rapeseed oil. Incidentally they are now selling extra virgin rapeseed oil over here and it is not a cheap option.

PaulineM

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17-04-08 18:57

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That rings a bell. A connection with Lorenzo's oil, I think. No time to look it up right now.

What does it taste like?

Saph5

#9

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17-04-08 19:46

I love extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to roast veg, especially scrumptious for roasting cherry toms.

PaulineM

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17-04-08 22:11

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Ho-kay - I quizzed the vet on this topic this evening - not because he's Greek but because he's (truly, madly & deeply) a public hygienist. And I must say, even though he ended his homily with "but I'm not an expert" I got a lot more than I bargained for!

First, if you want to skip my attempt to distill what he said, I do have a brand of Greek olive oil that you may be able to find (or buy online), which is Sitía, which we have been known to buy ourselves when no "home-made" stuff presented itself.

A pan-European survey (sorry I can't quote you a source) reavealed that the healthiest diet of the lot was not just Greek, but Cretan. Apparently they have very good oil in Crete, and they eat an awful lot of it.

I asked about the cooking thing and it is, he says, true. If you heat olive, or any, oil (either in processing to produce it, or in cooking with it) the polyunsaturated fats become (progressively) saturated. I say progressively: apparently very little in the time it takes to fry an egg, but if you deep-fry with it and re-use the oil, you might as well deep-fry in dripping. He thoroughly approves of my suggested technique of cooking with minimum oil and adding it raw at the end.

His verdict on rapeseed oil: very healthy, but no taste.

Oh, and his real villains of the piece are margarines. Again I can't quote you chapter and verse, but he says some of them are infinitely worse than butter: that many contain large quantities of saturated fats and that he absolutely shudders to think what they do to make them spreadable from the fridge.

And if I remember anything else he said that might be interesting or relevant, I'll let you know.

cwmhill

#11

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18-04-08 00:31

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You tell that there vet you can't beat egg and chips cooked in really beef dripping

CWM

Pip at Home

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18-04-08 08:13

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That website is absolutely fascinating Pauline. I have learned so much about olive oil in there. Also I notice that most of the cost of olive oil seems to come from the cost of the bottle rather than the oil. 500ml bottle is £14.95 whereas if you buy the bottle plus a 1000ml can - total 1500ml it only costs £24.95.

I agree with his comment about rapeseed oil having no taste. I must admit I am not a 'pro' when it comes to tasting various olive oils but I certainly wouldn't consider using rapeseed oil for anything other than cooking.

I used to get spreadable butter and, after a number of comments from a friend I bought natural butter and then realised the difference in taste. Guess I had just got used to the spreadable butter.

The health section of that site is very interesting as well. OK I know they are biased, they are after selling the stuff, but put this alongside what the vet has said and it truly makes you think.

bilnrobn

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18-04-08 09:22

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We used to buy pure virgin and also just ordinary unspecified "olive oil". Obviously we are not connoisseurs as we soon stopped buying the extra virgin as we couldn't see the point of paying twice as much for something that didn't seem to do the job any better.

Prior to changing to olive oil we used canola oil, (rape seed to you maybe). We still have some... we use it for making home made White Oil to spray on the fruit trees when they get scale!

Laura Penstemon

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18-04-08 12:39

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But I think the extra virgin stuff tastes soooo much nicer! I also use toasted sesame seed oil for chinese dishes, but agree with Saph about extra virgin olive oil and balsalmic vinegar on salad

I can only really afford the Tesco own brand stuff, but will take a look at that website later.. off to make a salad (and dressing) for our lunch

PaulineM

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18-04-08 13:22

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They make a delicious version of balsamic vinegar in Greece too, but I actually prefer my mother-in-law's home-made rose vinegar.

This is produced by filling a bottle with the petals of a highly-perfumed rose, then pouring over your bog-standard white wine vinegar, and leaving it in the sun to ferment.

This might be worth trying with the petals of a fragrant rose (Gallica?) and standing the bottle on a sunny windowsill.

(I don't know she seals the bottle - but I'd use a cork not too tightly wedged in lest the whole thing explode!)

It might not work, but if it does you'll be really pleased you tried!

Extra: It's particularly good for pickling capers. I don't normally like capers - too sharp a taste - but done in the rose vinegar they're utterly different. A few plus a bit of their vinegar added to a tomato and onion salad (with lots of olive oil, of course) make it absolutely scrummy.

The Greeks sprinkle rígani* over their salads, but I can live without that bit.

*Elizabeth David asserts that, contrary to popular belief, rígani is not oregano, but is much more like marjoram. And who am I to disagree with Elizabeth David?

Mrs Muggleton

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22-05-08 14:26

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Whilst perusing the oil shelf in the supermarket recently, I noticed they were selling hemp oil so thought I would give it a try.

It's got a slightly nutty taste and its very very light. I much prefer it to olive oil.

mammaj

#17

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Mature Shrub

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23-05-08 10:10

Mature Shrub

Well here they do 2 pressings, the first is the pure stuff & the second is the skins, kernel or seed or whatever it's called & everything all rung out together. It's supposed to be milder & is less expensive.

Depends why the olives fall from the trees Pauline, my neighbours spread out sheets under their trees & use small olive rakes & little whirly things similar to those hand held battery fans that get the olives off the trees quicker than picking them one at a time. The people below collect up the fallen olives. I imagine if they're falling from the trees because they're over ripe they may be starting to rot. The people here say that if the oil is bitter it's because there were insects in the olives, there's some critter that deposits eggs in them & the eggs hatch & eat the olive unless they & the olive get turned into oil.

I use sunflower oil for most things but always e.v.olive oil for making sauces & on salads

Allyson

#18

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23-05-08 23:50

This is a bit of what i know about FAT......Saturated Fat...usually animal fat...ie butter, dripping, lard, cheese, cream etc. Ok in v small amounts
Polyunsaturated Fat......usually margerine, (unless it is an Olive oil margerine) Sunflower oil, and most Common vegetable oils
Monounsaturated Fat.....THE GOOD FAT.....olive oil of ALL types, it actually can control BAD cholestrol build up. It helps with GOOD cholestrol, Rapeseed oil, or as we call it in Australia Canola oil, is also one but has a revolting flavour (to me)

We use Extra virgin here for salads, and dressing food, hot or cold. LIGHT olive oil is what i use for cooking, as it has little flavour, and certainly not a harsh, olive oil flavour. Great for cooking a typical English roast...it makes it taste English, and not mediteranean, which isn't what you want in English cooking.

If you have heart problems or cholestrol problems (we are talking blocked arteries etc etc ...all the usual problems with FAT, use only Olive oil, and eat a mediteranean diet...statistics show people who eat only a mediteranean diet have a far less chance of heart related problems in later life.....Eat only THE GOOD OIL.
This is what i have learned over the years from a husband in the food industry...eggs in particular.
By the way eggs contain saturated fat, but it is Good saturated fat, and helps control the Good cholestrol. If you have heart related problems you can still very saftly eat ONE egg a day. If you don't have problems, Go for your life, as they won't cause you a cholestrol problem, that is caused by THE BAD OIL.
If you are on a strict budget, a dozen eggs can feed a dozen people......but don't forget if you add Cheese, you add THE BAD OIL.......so use in moderation.

.......shame about the cheese, i love it

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Olive oil (the good stuff)

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