Olive Oil

General Considerations

Buying:

Select the grade appropriate to your use, Extra Virgin isn't necessarily what you want (see below).
Caution:   Some cans and bottles with pretty pictures of olives all over them are actually "blended oils" with more Canola Oil or other oils than Olive Oil. Read the Ingredients statement on the container.

Storing:

Grades:

The IOOC grades are listed below, with the ones you're likely to encounter in North American markets underlined:

• Extra Virgin

  is cold pressed (first pressing) oil with 1% or less oleic acid. The European Union is expected to lower this to 0.8% to make it more meaningful because 1% includes 70% of European production (and just about 100% of California production). Use this oil for salads, condiments and other low temperature uses to preserve the flavor you are paying for.
• Fine Virgin is cold pressed oil with 1.5% or less oleic acid. Use the same as Extra Virgin for salads and condiments.
• Virgin is cold pressed oil with 2% or less oleic acid - used for salads, cooking and low temperature frying (up to 320°F/160°C).
• Semi-Fine Virgin can have oleic acid as high as 3.3% and is best used for cooking and low temperature frying.
• Lampante Virgin can have flavor defects and oleic acid higher than 3.3% and is not used for direct human consumption but rather as feed stock for making refined olive oil.

• Pure Olive Oil

  (also called just "Olive Oil") is generally a blend of 85% refined oil and 15% virgin oil. It's a good general cooking oil for use at higher temperatures than virgin oil (up to 410°F/210°C) and accounts for 80% of the oil consumed in Spain and Portugal. With very little olive flavor it is suitable for all ethnic cooking where a specialty oil is not called for. It is the best general purpose oil for the kitchen.
• Refined Olive Oil is virgin or second pressing oil refined to remove flavor defects and high acidity. The final acidity is 0.3% or less, and it has no characteristic olive oil flavor. It is a good cooking oil that can stand higher temperatures than virgin oils. Unlike other refined oils, chemical solvents are not used for this grade.

• Light

  or Mild olive oil is filtered to remove much of the olive oil flavor, and is in some cases a blend of olive and other oils. These products are sold mostly to the yuppie market at "value added" prices. "Light" refers to flavor and it has just as many calories as any other olive oil.

• Olive Pomace Oil

  is olive oil extracted with heat and solvents from the crushed residue left from making better grade oils and is then refined. This process is similar to that used to produce seed oils, but olive better stands up to the process because of its low polyunsaturate content. Olive Pomace and Avocado Oil are the best deep fry oils you can afford.
  Olive Pomace lacks any olive oil character and is not generally found in supermarkets, though markets serving ethnic populations often have it, generally in 3 liter cans. Most is sold to commercial food processors who use it because it is low cost and can stand higher temperatures than any other olive oil, but can still be listed as healthful "olive oil" in the ingredients. In truth, the health benefits of olive oil are uniform throughout the quality grades.
  Caution: the term "Pomace Oil" is insufficiently specific, and some oils under that label are actually mostly Canola Oil or some other inferior oil. Read the Ingredients statement on the container. Some Olive pomace oil is blended with a small amount of virgin oil to improve flavor, but for deep frying pure olive pomace is better.

Important Note:

Usage Guidelines:

• Extra Virgin is used for "drizzling", for condiments, salad dressings and other low temperature applications where a distinctive olive oil flavor is desired. It can be used for low temperature frying and braising but will lose its distinctive flavor if heated to 300°F/150°C or beyond.
• Pure Olive Oil should be the main cooking oil in your kitchen - a superb multi-use oil. It can be used the same as Extra Virgin wherever the distinctive flavor of ExtV is undesirable. It's flavor is sufficiently neutral for Asian and other ethnic cooking. Über-expert Julie Sahni considers it just fine for Indian recipes. It can be used for all moderate temperature sauté and braising applications and for moderate temperature deep frying, anything below 400°F/200°C.
• "Lite" Olive Oil is for when you want to avoid polyunsaturated oils but want a flavorless oil, and don't mind paying more. Effectively, it's the same as refined olive oil but "filtered" rather than "refined", so the price is a lot higher - it's sold mainly into the yuppie market. Caution: some "Lite" olive oils are blended with Canola Oil or other inferior oils.
• Olive Pomace is used for intense deep frying with temperatures even up to 450°F/235°C. You can also use it as you would "Lite" olive oil if the words "solvent extracted" and "refined" don't scare you, but I'd instead recommend Pure Olive Oil which you should always have on hand.
• Olive Canola Blends seem a way to make a cheaper oil and still use "olive oil" on the label. A decent moderate temperature frying oil (to 400°F/200°C) with little or no distinctive olive oil flavor. Certainly healthier than corn or soy oil (way lower in polyunsaturates) but less durable (higher oxidation factor) than pure olive oil for deep frying. Use it for short "use once" applications.

Reusing Olive Oil

Because it is more durable than any other common frying oil except beef tallow, olive oil from deep frying can be reused within limits. It should be immediately strained through a plain white paper towel and stored in a sealed jar. It should not be kept long before reuse because it could have picked up less durable components from what was fried in it. If it was used for frying fish it should not be used for any other application than frying fish.

Health & Nutrition

Olive Oils are the safest, most healthful and generally useful oils you can buy. Of course the Coconut Oil proponents would dispute that, but their Virgin Coconut Oil only goes to 350°F so it fails "generally useful". Refined Coconut oil does go to 450°F/235°C, but most Coconut Oil enthusiasts insist of Virgin. See our pages Oils and Health and Oils - Smoke Temperature & Composition for a lot more on this subject.

Fraud

Olive oil fraud is rampant, particularly in Italy (also noted for wine made without grapes) and Spain. Usually this amounts to dying a cheap oil like sunflower greenish, but people have died in Spain from industrial grade rapeseed oil (see Canola Oil) colored with a toxic dye. Little of this crap gets to North America, but how much less serious cheating does get here is currently a mater of intense debate.

What does get here is plenty of oil labeled "Italian" with little Italian content. US law requires full disclosure but the law is widely ignored. In Europe olive oil with any Italian content can be labeled "Italian".