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With so many types now available in gourmet food stores and supermarkets and experts touting the health benefits there has never been a better time to explore olive oils. Like wine, olives come in many varieties and embrace the qualities of the land where they are grown. Each is pressed to produce oil with its own unique consistency and flavor.
Many of the gourmet stores have oils you can try or you may want to invite a few friends and host a comparative tasting of your own. An olive oil tasting can be a wonderful way to discover which types please your palate.
Mario Batali believes that olive oil is as precious as gold...
...shorts are acceptable attire for every season and food, like most things, is best when left to its own simple beauty. To that end, Mario creates magic night after night in his many New York City Italian hot spots, the flagship of which is Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, an award-winning Greenwich Village restaurant where Mario has seamlessly combined traditional Italian principles with intelligent culinary adventure since June 1998.Read the full article on FoodNetwork.com
Make Mario's Olive Oil and Orange Cake
Mario's site The Italian Kitchen
Discover What You Like
Olive oils found in most supermarkets are typically pressed from a variety of olives and blended to produce a mild, consistent taste that generally appeals to the American palate, Mediterranean oils have a stronger flavor while French oils are more grassy or floral. Estate-bottled oils are produced from olives harvested at one location and carry more of the individual flavor of the region where they were grown. Select Olive Oil As You Would Wine.
Choose three or four oils from a specific region to compare or taste the same type of oil from three or four different regions. Sample no more than 5 or 6 oils because even a trained palate can't handle too many at once. Savor With Your Mouth & Nose Not Your Eyes
The oils color should not be considered since it does not affect the actual taste of. However color is a strong influencer and even professional tasters use cobalt blue tasting glasses so that their judgment is not affected by the oil's color. Educate Your Palate
Pour a tablespoon or two into a glass. Cupping the glass in your hands warms the oil and allows the aromas to be released. Slowly inhale the bouquet. Take a sip and draw the oil to the center of the tongue, holding it there for a few seconds then draw in air quickly causing the oil to spray and coat your mouth. Enjoy the oil's subtleties. Always refresh your mouth with sparkling water and a bite of apple between tasting. Decide If You Will Sample With Food or Without
The feel of olive oil alone in the mouth may be off putting for some people so you may wish to sample on toasted white bread or bland crackers. Keep in mind that the bread or cracker will impart its own taste making it more difficult to discern the full range of flavor inherent in the oil. Make a Note of Your Impressions of Style, Aroma & Taste
A good olive oil will have flavors and aromas that are fresh, fruity, peppery, sweet or strong and that are reminiscent of olives, grasses, nuts, hay, or tropical fruits. The style may be delicate, balanced, aggressive, sweet, fruity, bitter (in this case a desirable quality) or pungent (the sensation of spice at the back of the throat). These last two qualities should be in balance with respect to the oil's other characteristics. Think of How You Would Use Each One You Taste
A well-stocked pantry might include several different types to use for dips and salads, sautéing or even baking.Olive oil's flavor can enhance some simple ingredients turning them into something special. Try drizzling it over boiled potatoes as a flavorful and health-wise alternative to butter. Enjoy the aroma released when olive oil dresses a bowl of warm cannelloni or navy beans. A plain green salad tossed with perfectly married wine vinegar and olive oil is a wonderful way to showcase a new found favorite. Olive oils reveal flavors from around the globe that naturally enhance the dishes of that region or can add a tasty twist to cuisine of any culture.
Three distinct categories of extra virgin olive oils
Types of Olive Oil
From "WhatsCookingInAmerica.net
Olive oil is made only from green olives. Nearly the entire production of green olives in Italy is converted into olive oil.
Flavor, color, and consistency vary, like fine wines, due to different olive varieties, location, and weather. The olive oils of some small producers are treated and priced like fine vintage wines.
Olive oil is made only from green olives. Nearly the entire production of green olives in Italy is converted into olive oil.
Flavor, color, and consistency vary, like fine wines, due to different olive varieties, location, and weather. The olive oils of some small producers are treated and priced like fine vintage wines.
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil:
Any olive oil that is less than 1% acidity, produced by the first pressing of the olive fruit through the cold pressing process. Most olive oils today are extra virgin in name only, meeting only the minimum requirement. Extra virgin is a chemical requirement that does not indicate quality and taste.
Virgin Olive Oil:
It is made from olives that are slightly riper than those used for extra-virgin oil and is produced in exactly the same manner. It is essentially defective Extra Virgin oil. This oil has a slightly higher level of acidity (1 1/2).
Refined Olive Oil:
Olive oil known as "Refined Oil" is obtained from refining virgin olive oil that has defects (the result is an essentially tasteless olive oil). Among the defects are a natural acidity higher than 3.3%, poor flavor, and an unpleasant odor. This product is also known as "A" refined olive oil.
Pure Olive Oil:
Pure olive oil, often simply called olive oil, comes either from the second cold pressing or the chemical extraction of the olive mash left over after the first pressing. Also called commercial grade oil. It is lighter in color and blander than virgin olive oil. It is more general-purpose olive oil. Pure refers to the fact that no non-olive oils are mixed in.
Refined Olive-Pomace Oil:
Oil which is obtained by treating olive pomace with solvents is refined using methods which do not lead to alterations in the initial glyceridic structure. Don't buy this grade, as it is bad for you.
Olive-Pomace Oil:
Olive oil which consists of a blend of refined olive-pomace oil and virgin olive oil. Don't buy this grade, as it is bad for you.
Light & Extra Light" Olive Oil:
The olive oil that you see on the supermarket shelf advertised as "light" or as "Extra Light" olive oil contains the exact same number of calories as regular olive oil and is a mixture of refined olive oils that are derived from the lowest quality olive oils available through chemical processing. These oils are so bad that cannot be consumed by humans without refining.
Cooking With Olive Oil
- From the Olive Tree World Kitchen
- Some special recipes enjoyed by members of my family and passed on to me through the years.
Olive Oil Online
Where to Buy
- Stonehouse Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar Products
- California Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar Products.
- IsRoil: Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Israel
- Israeli Hebrews first introduced olive oil to the Italians. Hundreds of years later I am introducing
Israeli olive oil to the world... - Frantoio Olive Oil
- Frantoio produces and bottles two kinds of California Certified Extra Virgin Olive Oils. Our olive oils are made with only one ingredient: olives!
- Sciabica Olive Oil
- Today my family (including my grandmother Gemma, my father Nick and my uncle Dan) continue to produce the highest quality 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil available anywhere, the way my great-grandfather did almost 70 years ago.
- The Olive Press
- Olive Oils and Infused & Flavored Oils
- Apollo Premium Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil From Northern California
- Apollo Olive Oil has won 12 medals in the past 5 years and was chosen as outstanding by Food and Wine November 2005.
- Lodestar Farms California Olive Oil
- Located in the Sierra Nevada Foothills of Northern California, we give you the opportunity to experience the true taste of California Olive Oil. Lodestar continues Oroville’s 100-year history of producing a traditional California olive oil pressed from Mission Olives, the signature
Health Benefits of Olive Oil
- Olive Oil's Health Benefits
- Olive oil is our speciality: pick it, press it, love it.
- Health Aspects of Olives
- Natural Properties of Olive Oil
- International Olive Oil Council on Health
- ·Cardiovascular diseases
·Antioxidant properties
·Olive oil and cancer
·Blood pressure
·Olive oil and diabetes
·Olive oil and obesity
·The immune system
·The digestive system
·Pregnancy and childhood
·Olive oil and ageing
·Olive oil and skin
Learning More About Olive Oil
Education Online and Off
- Olive Seminars
- Over a period of six days (five nights), groups of approximately eight guests will be introduced to the world of olives: Cultivation, harvesting, pressing and a comprehensive health unit. Umbrian DOP1 testers will lead you through the different taste characteristics of a range of oils and teach you the primary olive oil defects thereby giving you the power to judge and buy oil independently. Additionally, the entire seminar will be encapsulated with oil history, food and culture. You will leave Mongiovino with the basis for growing olives, tasting and producing extremely fine extra virgin olive oil and living first-hand an Italian country lifestyle.
Interesting Sites
- The Olive University
- Olive oil is our speciality: pick it, press it, love it.
- The Olive Tree World
- Where Olive Oil Is A Passion
Related Lenses and Squidoo Groups
- Italian Travel and Food
- Lensmaster Mark Juliano Shares His Love of Italian Home Cooking and Traveling to Italy
- The Food Group
- A Collection of the Best Food Resources on Squidoo
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