Enrique Diaz-Alvarez wrote:
> Greg Nowell wrote:
> >
> > Responding to an aside on this issue, let me say that I
> > am not expert on the many kinds of olive oils. In
> > Italy people get quite "into" it. But in any case it
> > is the staple cooking lubricant in our house; butter is
> > rarely employed. Basically we buy the big 3-litre cans
> > of Beria or its competitors, including the usually
> > cheaper Spanish brand whose name escapes me.
> >
>
> Buy the cheaper Spanish brand. Beria oil is also Spanish, just like
> nearly all
> Italian olive oil sold here; they buy it in bulk, package, market it and
> collect all the profits. Spanish exporters, apparently, still work under
> the delusion that the way to make profits in the US is to sell excellent
> products at cheap prices.
>
> If you look at the label in Italian olive oil, it says _packed_ in
> Italy. Italy doesn't even make enough for domestic consumption.
>
> One more plug: try the red wines from Ribera de Duero, which have
> started arriving in the US. In particular, try the Penascal and its
> classier cousin, Realeza. If they aren't the _best_ $5 and $7 bottles of
> red wine you've ever had, I'll eat my hat.
>
> The quality of olive oil depends on
> the acidity level, i.e., the free fatty acids present in the oil. The
> lower the better. This acidity level has little to do with flavor, but
> affects the healthfulness of the product. There are three basic kinds:
>
> 1) Extra Virgin: Acidity under 1 degree (which I think means 1% of
> weight).
>
> 2) Virgin: Acidity under 2 degrees
>
> (Both of these are extracted directly from the olive, with very little
> processing).
>
> 3) Regular: Made by refining low-quality virgin oil (> 2 degree
> acidity), removing excess fatty acids (along with flavor, color and
> taste) and partly replacing the latter by adding virgin olive oil.
>
*******one important point is which to use for cooking. . . .extra virigin and virgin shouldn't be used for cooking, especially frying since they have a very low smoke-point. Pure oil, which you refer to as regular grade, is actually meant for cooking. It's smoke point is ~425 F. The others are in the 200's. If you use virgin for cooking, you are just changing it into a pure oil *and* you've created some nasty byproducts that you don't want to ingest if you can avoid it (and you've spent a premium on the virgin).
> There is also Pomace olive oil, made by extracting the oil from the
> solid residue left over from the process and adding virgin oil.
>
> Spanish legislation is very strict when it comes to labeling olive oil.
> Not so here, I suspect. The acidity levels are rarely displayed. I do
> think that the distinction between virgin, regular and pomace still
> holds, though. Just bear in mind that, absent clearly label acidity
> levels, there is no reason why the more expensive virgin oils should be
> better than others. There is, however, a big difference between virgin,
> regular and pomace.
>
******I had the pleasure of visiting the Olive Press in Glenn Ellen in Sonomacounty California and toured their facility. There was an in-depth opportunity to taste oils with an expert and sure enough, it is much like wine tasting. The virgin oils really do have a character to them you want to preserve for special dishes. But certainly you don't want to burn them up in cooking. -s.grube
> > Gregory P. Nowell
> > Associate Professor
> > Department of Political Science, Milne 100
> > State University of New York
> > 135 Western Ave.
> > Albany, New York 12222
> >
> > Fax 518-442-5298
>
> --
> Enrique Diaz-Alvarez Office # (607) 255 5034
> Electrical Engineering Home # (607) 272 4808
> 112 Phillips Hall Fax # (607) 255 4565
> Cornell University mailto:enrique at ee.cornell.edu
> Ithaca, NY 14853 http://peta.ee.cornell.edu/~enrique