Olive oil vs EVOO - Which has more flavor?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I dont like olive oil, or evoo myself. I prefer canolla. Olive oil is too pungent for me, depending on the dish of course, but mostly I find that it over-powers my meals.
 
Use the EVOO. But try a couple of brands as they have different flavor characters. For instace, Carapelli has green, clorophyl aftertones that remind me of leaves, while DaVinci is more fruity. I personally like the Carapelli, while my eldest daughter adores Coliveti (sp).

And take that focacia bread dough, place it into a good cast iron pan, and fire up the kettle bbq/grill. Put the pan over the coals and close all vents 3/4 closed. Bake until done. The smoke provided by the bbq will raise your focacia to new levels.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
 
Whenever I visit olive producing nations, I buy the local EVOO and even buy EEVOO. I was in Portugal in February. I bought some of their EEVO. I liked it, it was a little peppery and although I thought it might be the same as Spanish, it was distinctly different.

I still have some Corfiote and Tuscan and Ligurian and French EEVO from last year. All are quite distinctive when used as dipping or salad oils.
 
For the person who doesn't like olive oil, try a different brand. They are all very very different. BUT they do have flavor, unlike the very neutral vegetable oils. Don't use oo for frying--sauteeing is OK but not frying that calls for "deep" oil.
 
Some authors of cookbooks say 'buy a fairly expensive ev-oo especially for finishing dishes etc etc' I say rubbish to that. I buy a ev-oo from Crete (I think it's called Minos) in a big 4L can that lasts me for about a year (it does not spoil at all).

I love it, deliciously peppery. Absolutely fantastic for drizzling over some lightly grilled pana di casa or ciabbata with a sprinkling of salt, or drizzling over a pasta dish or as a finish to a soup (especially minestrone!).
 
Haggis said:
Some authors of cookbooks say 'buy a fairly expensive ev-oo especially for finishing dishes etc etc' I say rubbish to that.
I agree. Good EVOO does not have to be expensive. Yes it can be, but price does not always equal quality. Currently my favorite EVOO is Santini from Trader Joes. A bottle costs 3 bucks and change. I love the stuff and am tempted to just take shots of it sometimes :chef:
 
That's true. I think I pay between $7 & $8 for the gallon of Bertolli's extra-virgin oil I get from CostCo.

I also agree that it's neither cost efficient nor a good idea in general to use it for deep frying, as it, like most flavored oils, tends to burn faster than neutral oils.

You can, however, use it for shallow frying quite successfully. I add it half-&-half with vegetable oil when frying oysters, & a Martha Stewart recipe I use to make homemade shallow-fried potato chips specifies olive oil, & they end up tasting fabulous!!
 
Deep frying with EVOO is fine if you don't mind spending the money. The temp of oil for deep frying is generally around 350-375 which is below the smoke point of EVOO.

Lots of people, including Mario Batalli, use EVOO to deep fry.
 
Deep frying with EVOO is fine if you don't mind spending the money. The temp of oil for deep frying is generally around 350-375 which is below the smoke point of EVOO.

Lots of people, including Mario Batalli, use EVOO to deep fry.
Although that temperature range may be below the smoke point for ev-oo the actual flavour compounds in ev-oo are quite volatile and I believe (going off the top of my head here) it begins to lose its defining flavour around the quite low temperatures of 50-60'C. Hence the reason it features so prominently in salad dressings and as a finish to a dish.

I may be mistaken though.
 
Yes the flavors do suffer with the heat, but it is still an oil that you can deep fry with. Most people are not looking for flavor out of their deep fry oil anyway.
 
That is true.

I would feel that it would be a misuse of ev-oo (putting aside the flavour factor) as there are oils out there that are cheaper, have a higher smoke point, neutral flavour (who wants a faint taste of olive oil when they are deep frying nori-wrapped tempura prawns) and also have a healthy fat (large proportion of mono/poly unsaturated) content.
 
I agree that there are better oils for deep frying than EVOO. I am just taking issue with people who say it is not a good idea or that you should not do it. If I had a ton of EVOO on hand and not a lot of anything else then I would have no problem using it to deep fry.

Hey if Mario Battali uses it on purpose to deep fry then that is good enough for me.
 
IF the dish will benefit from the flavor of OO in deep frying, that is fine. But for some things it would not be complementary, in my opinion. In countries where OO is THE common oil, it's used in cakes, etc.
And I do enjoy keeping 3-5 different olive oils for their different flavors and uses. Don't limit yourself.
 
Back
Top Bottom