Questions

Questions  I am always asked that I love to answer:

1) What is the best oil? It depends on where you use it! There are three oil intensities: light, medium, and intense. These oils can be used to enhance different dishes. For example, you are having steamed sea bass use light oil that goes to cover the flavor of the delicate sea bass, but if you have a tartar of tuna or bluefish which is more flavorful than sea bass, use an oil of medium intensity instead. Using heavy oil with fish is not recommended; however combining Tuscan oil that is intense and bitter, to a crustacean dish that has a type of sweet flesh provides a very pleasant contrast. But this is all a question of taste. To enhance the flavor of meat use a medium to heavy oil with a hint of bitterness and pungency. On a plate of pasta with tomato sauces use a Sicilian olive oil that excites and intensifies the tomato. Ultimately, there is no “bad” or “good” oil to use with food. The important thing is the quality of the oil you use, but more importantly the oils should meet your taste. My task is to select oils for you that have no defects, are good, and are tasty; however after that, personal taste comes into play and no advice can be given.

2) In which region is the best oil produced? There are good oils from every region. The hard thing is to find the best product amid a sea of oils without special features or is free of defects. So when you are on vacation do not buy the oil advertised by a friend or the brother of the butcher because even if they are convinced they are giving you good advice, you should always try to buy with your own preference and be lead by your own sensations.

3) What is acidity? Olive oil is composed almost entirely of triglycerides, or in laymen’s terms, esters formed by a molecule of glycerol and three molecules of long chain fatty acids. Internally a part of the oil fatty acids does not bind to the glycerin and remains wild; this fraction determines the acidity of the oil. The lower the acidity level is the higher the quality of the oil. But what determines the value of acidity? Many factors. The increased acidity in oil depends on the action of the enzyme found within the olive itself. Lipase begins ruining the oil when oil and vegetation water come into contact. Therefore special care must be taken in working with the olives from the beginning of collection, through transportation, and conservation of the olives before pressing. Conservation must be done within a few hours (6-10), and the temperature must be controlled during this process and strict separation between vegetation water and oil is essential. Then there is the matter of peroxides. Unsaturated fatty acids react with oxygen to form peroxides, which can lead to a series of chain reactions and form a volatile odor and a rancid taste that is quite unpleasant. Oxidation of oil depends on a number of phenomena that occur at two different times during processing. As the acidity levels increase during storage, thanks to that enzyme, over time the oil is able to bind chemically to the oxygenated fatty acids. Oil with a high peroxide content will tend to go rancid well before oil with a low peroxide content. This is the importance of a correct process of production, from cultivation to harvest, and the ultimate pressing of the olive. The oil must also be prevented from exposure to air and light, and the temperatures should be kept above 16-18 degrees for the best olive oil production.

4) Is a deep green olive oil better than that of a pale green or yellow? Absolutely not! The color is no guarantee of good or high quality. The color depends on the chlorophylls and carotenoids and the varied cultivars. So you could say that the shades of color whether green or yellow is irrelevant. However if an oil has orange hues the oil is most likely oxidized and therefore defective.

5) How long does olive oil last? "New oil and old wine"! This is a saying of our grandfathers with which, in principle, I agree. The expiration date of an oil is 18 months after bottling, however, I have used oils from three years old and even those as old as five years which were well past the "expired" date but were still taste worthy. Of course these oils did not have the freshness of young oils. Try to buy oil made with the last production date but do not make plays if stop using the oil simply because of the expiration date. Sip the oil at the end of an August production though, because the new harvest of oils comes out in November.

6) And what about olive pumice oil? After oil extraction a mud compound is made from olives and pasta, about 3-5%. To recover this small amount of oil they use solvents and make it edible using the same procedure to obtain seed oil with sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid ingredients and towels with a coal and coil process using water vapor at 200 ° C. In the end remains what I like to call a "fat that serves to stick the food to the pan!” This pumice with this small percentage of virgin olive oil is found and sold in supermarkets and sometimes delivered door to door.

7) I just want oil made from cold extraction! But what is the temperature that defines “hot or cold” oil? In the process of making the oil the temperature must not exceed 27 ° C, which is reached during mixing. Even worse is to speed up the process of separation of oil, water, and vegetation. Water enters the miller at 80-90 ° C so the oil that is extracted is cold but was separated hot and is actually hot!

8) I want oil that is "fruity" in taste! If an oil is well produced, then it is always fruity! The "thing" that we discussed in question nr. 6 unfortunately is what 90% of people refer to as oil and that are accustomed to use and eat.