Oil You Need To Know About Olive Oil

And no, I’m not actually talking about Popoye’s gangly girlfriend, Olive Oyl!

I first met “Oyl” 3 years ago, in the very first culinary class I attended at APB Cook studio, back in my gap year. Up until then I knew olive oil was tasty, healthy and cool – all the things the TV ads were feeding us with. But it was in that class that I understood a bit more about good olive oil and, well… not so good olive oil.

Now, as a culinary student, every week we read about a new ingredient or food style and make a presentation to the rest of our class. And this week, my ingredient in focus was Olive Oil.

And so, Oyl and I crossed paths once more.

Meet Olive oil –

Types of Olive Oil:

VOO or Virgin Olive Oil – this is pure, unadulterated, cold-pressed (more on this below) olive oil, with zero additives -- thus the term ‘virgin’.

The Famous EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive oil, the coveted Miss Universe of olive oils, is the highest grade of Virgin Olive Oil. The oil must meet certain standards laid down by the law in Mediterranean olive oil countries, to be called EVOO. This category of oil has the most complex aroma and flavour profile, much of which is lost on heating. So, it is best used for salad dressings, poured over bread or other foods, and not for cooking.

Refined Olive Oil – often misleadingly called “Pure olive oil”, it basically means it has been ‘purified’ or refined with the use of solvents and heat treatment to make it stable, and neutral in flavour. Unfortunately, this neutralization removes the very aromas and flavours that good olive oil is appreciated for! On the plus side, it’s much better for high-heat cooking like frying.

Pomace Olive Oil – this is the lowest grade of olive oil – the last drops of oil that are extracted, almost extorted out of the olives after the first press of oil, with the use of chemical solvents and heat. Although it is safe to eat, it is the lowest grade of oil, and usually used for non-culinary purposes like soaps and cosmetics in most parts of the world. However, the Olive Oil lobby in India is heavily promoting Pomace Olive Oil for culinary use – these are the giant jugs of “buy one, get one free” that you often see in the supermarket.

How it’s made:

It all begins with the fruit. The fruit has to be perfect – if they’re too green, the oil will be bitter, and too ripe, the oil rancid. When they’re just ripe, the oil has the perfect mix of fruity, sweet aromas, with hints of bitter flavour.

The ripe fruit is harvested, and then crushed - traditionally with stone rollers and today with metal blades.

Next, the crushed fruit is macerated, or mixed about to loosen the oils. This is then pressed to extract the oils.

The mechanical process of crushing, maceration and pressing can cause the pulp to heat up due to friction, damaging some of the delicate aromas and flavours. So, the whole process must be conducted at a temperature below 25^OC – this is called cold pressing the oil.

When the fruit is processed, it releases a mixture of oil and water. The water is separated using a centrifuge.

The resultant oil is virgin, unrefined, unadulterated olive oil.

The remaining fruit pulp, called pomace, still has 5-10% oil, which, as mentioned above, is chemically extracted and used for soaps, cosmetics, etc., or sold to the Indian market for food. Tut-tut!

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Good vs. Bad EVOO

Extra virgin olive oil is a lot like wine – the variety of olive, the soil, climate, time of harvest, it all contributes to the final product.

So how do you judge a good EVOO?

The best way is to taste it straight up.

Pour a little into a small glass. Cover the mouth of the glass with one hand and warm the glass with your other hand for a few seconds, then sniff the aromas, and take a sip.

(Read about how I had an EVOO Tasting, the right way, at APB Cook Studio)

A good EVOO is has aromas of fresh olives, fruits and grass. If you smell hay, cardboard or mud, it’s probably stale oil, on it’s way to rancidity.

Every year, the best olive oils in the world are judged and graded at the New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC). This year, on the 4^th of April, 820 olive oils from around the world contested to be the best. Most of the winners are from the Old World olive oil countries in the Mediterranean, but many are from the New World countries, like Australia and USA and Croatia.

Fun Fact – Did you know that just like Wine Sommeliers, there are also Olive Oil Sommeliers? I’ve lost track of the fantastic food professions that exist in the world today!