Cooking4Fun
Senior Cook
I was watching something like 20/20 and they did a story on how maybe 50% of olive oil imported is diluted with something. Anyone else hear anything like that? Is there a way to lab test the purity of olive oil?
Buying Spanish/Portuguese olive oil is just like Italian for good reasons...Spain usually does produce more barrels on a consistent basis for less money. Besides, Italy doesn't have the available workforce and Spain does to produce it. So Spanish Olive Oil is regularly labeled as italian..I have been hearing about that for years. I remember watching a long news report about it is incredibly hard to lab test for purity. In one of the Italian cities, they have a special police group to try to combat the adulteration of Italian olive oil. They are chosen, in part, for their sense of smell. Someone with a very acute sense of smell and training, can tell if there are adulterants better than most lab tests. I believe there are expensive, complex tests that can be done in laboratories. The only test I know that can be done in a home kitchen is a test for soy oil or other oil with very low melting point. If your olive oil goes cloudy at 0°C (32°F), that is normal. It does not prove that is unadulterated, but it won't have much soy oil or other low freezing point oil. If the olive oil does not go cloudy after a day at 0°C, that's a pretty good indicator that it is adulterated.
The problem isn't just adulterants to the olive oil, it's that stuff sold as Italian is often actually from other countries, but bottled in Italy.
I buy mostly Spanish, Portuguese, or Greek olive oil. Since they don't have the cachet of Italian olive oil, I figure it isn't as likely to be counterfeited or adulterated. I have no evidence to that effect, but I think it's likely.
You won't find the good stuff in most grocery stores. I buy high quality olive oil in a store that specializes in olive oils and balsamic vinegars. They're relatively expensive, but because they taste so good, you can use less.I've heard the same stories as taxy. I always cringed when I hear some blogger/chef/ or whatever... say "Always buy the Good Stuff"
I have looked in every grocery store I've come across and, not counting the first 25 years of my life, I have NEVER, in 50+ years, found that damn brand called "Good Stuff". If someone knows where I can get it please let me know. Not even Amazon carries that brand.
That term has been around for a very long time. It means the oil is from the first cold pressing of the olives. Then there's a second pressing - virgin olive oil - and other methods resulting in other types of oils.The latest marketing term always gives me a giggle...extra virgin. In my world there is only virgin or not....meaning they either used heat or they didn't. But whatever....
There's are lots of stores around the country these days that specialize in olive oils and balsamic vinegars where you can taste them before you buy. I've learned that, like grapes, there are different types of olives that ripen at different times of the year, so they have seasons, and they all have different flavors. So in the spring, for example, it's not recommended to buy olive oils from the Mediterranean because they're out of season. Instead, get oils that are produced in South America or Australia.The taste and smell is the thing...put two side by side and taste and smell. Going past three different ones for comparison is subject to pallete exhaustion and aroma exhaustion being an influential part.
I bet you could taste the difference if you tasted them side by side. Some taste fresh and grassy, some are minerally, and some are bitter. The type of olive and the season when they were harvested determine how they taste.I use quite a bit of olive oil, and usually buy Spanish. I think it's a personal prejudice since I was introduced to olive oil while spending a year in Spain. Not having a terribly delicate palate and probably being unable to distinguish between any of the other country's oil, the Spanish oil satisfies me, both for dipping and for cooking.
There is an old saying--a man plants an olive grove not for himself, but for his grandchildren. Two hundred year old trees still produce olives.
The latest marketing term always gives me a giggle...extra virgin. In my world there is only virgin or not....meaning they either used heat or they didn't. But whatever....
I understand that...but I started cooking before that designation became common.Giggle if you want, but the designation of “extra virgin” is not recent nor is it a marketing term.
Virgin olive oil has four different grades. Extra Virgin is the highest grade and must meet strict standards, including maximum acidity.
I've bought Chilean olive oil and it was quite good. I'm far from an expert on the production of olive oil; this magazine is a great place to start learning more about it: The Essential Guide to Extra Virgin Olive OilIs South America and Australian olive oil that good? What decides the quality besides the climate? Is soil control easy?
I believe it originated in Tunsia, a Northern African country where a lot of olive oil is produced, and extra virgins are very important.That term has been around for a very long time.