View Full Version : Olive oil -- the power of suggestion
Pedaling Fool
05-16-2010, 17:19
On every hike I've been on I've gotten olive oil, because I've always heard that it is the best. I've also got tons of the stuff here at home. However, I recently (accidently) had some sunflower oil and it was great, much better than my olive oil.
Which got me thinking that maybe olive oil may not be the best tasting oil out there, despite everyone saying, "You got to use olive oil".
Anyone have a favorite oil, other than olive oil? Looking for a change, but first I got to use up all this crap:mad:
BTW, The Tour of California bike race is NOW happening on the Versus channel:banana
safn1949
05-16-2010, 17:27
Give it to a food bank if the bottles are sealed.I haven't tried pure sunflower oil,I will ask the better half about it.
Or...rub it on your dog to make his hair shine,or your hair if you have any....I don't.:D
Sunflower and Canola definitely don't have the "flavor" of olive oil - which for some is better as it doesn't over power the food, those also heat better.
Save the olive oil for home use - in dressings and on veggies.
People push Olive Oil because its healthy compared to most oils and actually has beneficial effects for your body. Not all oils or fats are equal when it comes to healthy living.
Sesame oil for flavor for me, but I leave it at home, don't know why. I think it's mind set, thanks for the post, I will change my oil now! Olive oil is a close 2nd, so it's not a bad choice for me, I'm just having a "DOH!" moment.
Olive oil is like nuts; best in moderation
Mountain Wildman
05-16-2010, 20:01
I've heard Grape Seed oil is pretty good.
There are so many different flavors of olive oil. It is a lot like wine in that respect. Read the labels to get an idea what each is best for. You can 'fry' with some but others will burn. Basically, light color=light taste and better for many uses. Dark color=heavy flavor and may be best for dipping bread along with balsamic vinegar, another wine-like product as flavor goes. An acquired taste, for sure. I like it and think it is worth the mess it usually makes.
I also like sesame oil.
If you are keeping a lot of half used olive oil bottles, it tends to go off quite quickly, then it is time to learn the simple art of soapmaking. Olive oil makes the best soap. If you know a soap maker, give it to them in exchange for a few bars of soap.
I think the push for Olive Oil is primarily for its healthy properties...it's is very low in saturated fats, and very high in monounsaturted fats. It has loads of antioxidants. Even better for hiker-health, it stimulates the secretion of bile and pancreatic hormones, which increase the efficiency of the digestive system. All of these factors combine to help you get the most from your fat.
All that aside, I have to confess that I usually find the flavor of olive oil to distract from what I'm eating (especially in pancakes!!), which is where a good neutral oil (like safflower or sunflower) comes into play.
Personally, I tend to blend oils; a very light olive oil with some sunflower in about equal parts.
Which got me thinking that maybe olive oil may not be the best tasting oil out there, despite everyone saying, "You got to use olive oil".
My last name is Magnanti. Every Sunday, Grandma would make something yummy that had, at its base, the holy trinity of garlic, onions and olive oil.
EVOO all the way... :) (Never use 'light' olive oil..its crap. Except for baking, I do not use an other type of oil. I will use butter on occasion, though. )
Coconut oil makes everything delicious but maybe is not good for hiking as it is solid under 70 or so degrees...maybe it could be used like peanut butter in cooler weather:)
If you are just defining the "BEST" oil as in best for flavor than you should try Macadamia Nut, Grapeseed, Walnut, Coconut, Sesame, and definitely various brands and types of Olive Oil grown in various regions(mainly Spain, Greece, and Italy) and processed in various ways. The least processed olive oil, which is EVOO, tends to be generally regarded as the best quality in Italy because it is first or singularly pressed(milled).
Extra Virgin Olive Oil(EVOO) tastes differently than Reg. Olive Oil(can be a blend of olive oils or just one type of olive oil or from olives grown in one field or olives grown in one particular area of one olive growing orchard) or Light(refers to color) Olive Oil. Different oils, even if we just look at olive oils and their flavoring, have different ways of adding flavor to food based on how the food is prepared. Some olive oils are bestwhen used to add flavor to cooked foods. Some olive oils are best at adding flavor in non-cooked foods. Different olive oils can have very different flavors just as different coffees can have very different flavors. For example, a dark Spanish olive oil grown and processed in the northern mountains of Spain is going to have a distinctly different flavor than an EVOO grown near the sea at Naples Italy.
I could go on but I'll stop. I've had many Greek and Italian(Sicilian) friends, some in the food service industry(chefs, restaurant owners, etc), that I've had to listen to give many talks about olive oil and why their alive oil was the "BEST!"
I use olive oil in just about everything, including pancakes. The trick is simply to know what kind of oil to buy. As Mags says, EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) is best, and go for a good brand of Italian. There is a lot of other stuff with stronger flavours that I wouldn't use for anything but regional cuisine from the locale of the oil, esp. spanish green olive oil. One time a year or so ago, my local supermarket had a special on a good brand of EVOO (Bertoli). I bought as many bottles as I could carry, and I'm still using it. It does not go off if the bottle is unopened, and even after it is opened, you can store it unrefrigerated for a long time (EVOO only: lesser grades may have water and various other organic stuff in it, which may go off.)
As for other oils: ghee, or butter is you prefer. Can't beat the taste. All the others are good for specific tastes and uses, mostly in salads. Some have specific health properties, like grape seed or hemp oil. Mostly those ones don't keep very well. The heavy cooking oils are not as good for you as EVOO, but there are a few that are favored by some. EYOO (Eat your own oil!)
I like sesame oil as an alternative. Something else you could try would be to infuse your EVOO with other flavors. Set some rosemary or sage leaves in it for a few weeks and it takes on some of the herby flavor. you could also do things like chillies or sundried tomatoes. I think this really adds more flavor and still lets you use a 'healthier' oil.
Appalachian Tater
05-27-2010, 20:12
First press or extra virgin olive oil has a stronger flavor than "light" olive oil so if you don't like the strong flavor try the lighter version. Real chefs (not television chefs) don't use the first press for frying or other cooking uses, just for flavoring and making salad dressing. Not only does it have too much flavor, it is too expensive and has a low smoke point.
For making mayonnaise I use grapeseed oil and for other salad dressings, walnut oil is nice. Mayonnaise made with the first press olive oil has a really bad flavor to me.
Peanut oil is great for cooking Chinese or any kind of frying and sesame oil is nice to use as a flavoring but not for actual cooking.
Appalachian Tater
05-27-2010, 23:56
Funny, I was just reading the May 27 issue of Time Out NY and on page 28 there is an article where Mario Batali tells how to stock the "Essential Italian Pantry" and make it into a meal and he says "I use a lighter oil to cook with, but prefer intensely flavored ones to finish [a dish], because I really appreciate that powerful olive taste."
I guess he is a real chef as well as a TV chef!
As others have noted, many people prefer olive oil for its health benefits...something most people probably aren't aware of is the difference in how olive oil is extracted versus other oils.
As some noted, olive oil is pressed out of the olives.
Not so with corn and other vegetable oils and oils derived from seeds. They'd only get about 10% of the oil pressing it. So they use a chemical process to break down the corn or seed and release the oil...usually they use benzene to release the other 90% of the oil.
They say the benzene boils off...
extra virgin coconut oil (evco) hands down the best! extremely healthy and delicious saturated fat. Got a bad rap from our Gov't and medical comunities years ago, but I think we all know what a...holes they are!
I guess he is a real chef as well as a TV chef!
My Grandma was neither on TV or was paid to cook.
She must have been doing something wrong...
Then again, she probably did not have 5 different oils to choose from from the corner grocery... ;) And HER mother did not even have a corner grocery. :D
I still stand by the EVOO statement. :)
Several websites more or less have this statement:
""Light" olive oil is a marketing concept and not a classification of olive oil grades. It is completely unregulated by any certification organizations and therefore has no real precedent to what its content should be. Sometimes, the olive oil is cut with other vegetable oils.
I doubt any real cook uses 'light' olive oil. LIGHTER tasting (like wine, different brands of olive oil have different tastes)
No real cook would use synthetic Olive oil... celebrity, 'real' or in my Grandmother's kitchen! :)
(I should also add that I don't deep fry...only saute' then simmer or bake/roast. If I deep fried, probably use a real oil of some sort..but then again, deep frying ain't exactly healthy! :D)
My lighter tasting oil is Sunflower oil. I seldom see it on the store shelves.
I thought grapeseed oil has health problems associated with it. I had purchased some, sold as for putting on the grill itself. I haven't used it.
I have heard a light "fritter" type batter is okay, for frying, because it cooks without absorbing a lot of oil. I understand less oil is involved than for pancakes. If I feel deprived that I don't have fried food, fritters are really an easy fried-food trail food treat. I like banana fritters.
I have fried fish, Icelandic cod. I use Panther brand 100% pure peanut oil I purchase in San Francisco "Chinatown". It does not "smoke" or breakdown at 450 F. Icelandic cod already has the right oil content. Temperature and the frying oil has everything to do with it. I do not use a heavy batter.
I will not use food oils that have been chemically washed and chemically clarified, as are many brand name oils sold.
I have experienced "olive oil tasting" at the farmer's market in Point Reyes Station, CA, in West Marin. They also have heritage tomato tastings, and like that.
There really is a great deal of difference in the flavor of different olive oil.
I like Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I would say: find one you like. But look for food quality.
grape sed oil is the best high flash point hard to burn
Pedaling Fool
06-02-2010, 09:33
I think the push for Olive Oil is primarily for its healthy properties...it's is very low in saturated fats, and very high in monounsaturted fats. It has loads of antioxidants. Even better for hiker-health, it stimulates the secretion of bile and pancreatic hormones, which increase the efficiency of the digestive system. All of these factors combine to help you get the most from your fat.
All that aside, I have to confess that I usually find the flavor of olive oil to distract from what I'm eating (especially in pancakes!!), which is where a good neutral oil (like safflower or sunflower) comes into play.
Personally, I tend to blend oils; a very light olive oil with some sunflower in about equal parts.
Actually sunflower oil is lower in saturated fat and higher in monosaturated fat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_oil
100g of Sunflower oil has:
10g of sat fat
84g of monounsat fat
4g of polyunsat fat.
100g of Olive oil has:
14g of sat fat
73g of monounsat fat
11g of polyunsat fat.
However, there's a note about Omega-6 fatty acids:
Negative health effects
A high consumption of omega-6 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-6) polyunsaturated fatty acids (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyunsaturated_fatty_acids), which are found in most types of vegetable oil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_oil) including sunflower oil, may increase the likelihood that postmenopausal women may develop breast cancer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_cancer).[9] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_oil#cite_note-Sonestedt-8) A similar effect was observed on prostate cancer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostate_cancer).[10] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_oil#cite_note-9) Other analysis suggested an inverse association between total polyunsaturated fatty acids and breast cancer risk.[11] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_oil#cite_note-10)
But after reading other things about this issue I have to say that it kind of reminds me of all the other food warnings we've seen come-and-go over the years. There's even evidence that counters the "Negative health effects" warning.
Who would have guess so many natural things are so harmful to your health.
:sun
Odd Man Out
06-07-2010, 14:08
Who would have guess so many natural things are so harmful to your health.
:sun
Botulinum toxin is natural.
Ricin is natural.
Digoxin is natural.
Cyanide is natural.
Alpha Amanitin is natural.
If you eat too much salt you will die.
Drinking too much water will kill you.
Never equate "natural" with "healthy". Just don't eat castor beans, foxglove, the wrong mushrooms, etc... For the rest, moderation is the key. But given a choice, I go with natural over artificial.
As for oils, it seems to me that for the most part, when backpacking, oil in your diet is there mostly for calories (most per gram) and flavor. So if you like the taste of olive oil, use it. If you want something neutral, use something else. If it is a liquid at room temperature, it will be relatively rich in unsaturated fats. Differences among fat profiles among the various vegetable oils will be an insignificant, as are trace amounts of "antioxidants, etc..." . Just avoid trans fats (anything that says "partially hydrogenated"). You are better off eating butter. It won't hurt you either.
Canola oil is about the cheapest, and is as healthy as any other vegetable oil. Not the most flavourful for salads and such, but good for cooking, and very good as fuel. I prefer olive oil for flavour, but will use cheap canola oil when experimenting with using an ediblle fuel for oil lamps and oil stoves. For stir frying something I will use one or the other, depending on what sort of flavour I want. Canola oil is ok for fish. For lamb I would use olive oil for sure.
Pedaling Fool
12-09-2011, 08:39
I haven't had time to look into this issue; I came across these links on a gardening website. Basically, it's about the ingredients used in olive oil...maybe misleading.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mueller ; http://www.berkeleyside.com/2011/12/08/author-you-may-not-like-whats-lurking-in-your-olive-oil/ ; http://www.extravirginity.com/
I prefer canola oil over olive oil when frying fish or browning oats or making granola.
I prefer light extra virgin olive oil for other cooking, and dark extra virgin olive oil for salads.
As a lamp or wicked fuel oil, canola oil and light extra virgin olive oil work equally well.
I like the price of canola oil. That has a very strong power of suggestion for me. :-)
SunnyWalker
07-01-2012, 16:12
Who is john gault????
Snowleopard
07-01-2012, 18:57
Excellent olive oil is truly great. Italian olive oil is very good but much Italian branded olive oil is grown in other countries and just blended and bottled in Italy. It's hard to find the really good Italian olive oil in the USA and it's rarely in grocery stores. Stuff like Bertolli EVO is decent for cooking but there is much better OO. My current favorite is a Greek olive oil from a Greek deli in Worcester, MA. Many cooks won't use the best olive oil for cooking because it loses some of its flavor when heated. I often add a little of the good stuff as a flavoring. One measure of quality in olive oil is to look at the acidity, the lower the better. My Greek olive oil is max acidity 0.3%; 1% is good, above that is mediocre.
For frying at high temps, olive oil is not the best because it smokes at a lower temp than corn oil or peanut oil. Chinese stir fry with olive oil is "interesting". Italian eggplant fried in sesame oil would also be "interesting".
Sarcasm the elf
07-01-2012, 19:16
It's funny my that this thread just got bumped (btw, you're thinking of Galt, not Gault :p), just yesterday I read several articles about the disturbing level of adulteration that is common among manufacturers of these posed Extra Virgin Olive Oil that so many people, including myself pay a premium to buy. I've pasted one of the articles below.
Oh, and FWIW, I agree with previous posts, that olive oil is good for lots of things, but pan frying is best to other more heat resistant oils.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/04/olive-oil-real-thing
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/contributor/2007/09/28/jon_henley_140x140.jpg (http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jonhenley)
Jon Henley (http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jonhenley)
guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/), Wednesday 4 January 2012 14.59 (tel:2012%2014.59) EST
Comments (…) (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/04/olive-oil-real-thing#start-of-comments)
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/1/4/1325686285153/VIRGIN-OLIVE-OIL-FACTORY--007.jpgFresh olives, being harvested in Umbria Photograph: AGF s.r.l. / Rex Features
Last month, the Olive Oil Times (http://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-basics/jail-term-for-olive-oil-fraudsters/23081) reported that two Spanish businessmen had been sentenced to two years in prison in Cordoba for selling hundreds of thousands of litres of supposedly extra virgin olive oil that was, in fact, a mixture of 70-80% sunflower oil and 20-30% olive.
Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil
by Tom Mueller
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/covers/2012/1/4/1325696659136/Extra-Virginity-The-Sublime-.jpg (http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9781848870048)
Buy it from the Guardian bookshop (http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9781848870048)
Search the Guardian bookshop
Tell us what you think:Star-rate and review this book (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/9781848870048)
In 2008, Italian police arrested over 60 people (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/23/italy.fooddrinks)and closed more than 90 farms and processing plants across the south after uncovering substandard, non-Italian olive oil being passed off as Italian extra virgin, and chlorophyll and beta-carotene being added to sunflower and soybean oil with the same aim.
Most alarmingly, a study last year by researchers at the University of California (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/15/business/la-fi-olive-oil-20100715), Davis and the Australian Oils Research Laboratory concluded that as much as 69% of imported European olive oil (and a far smaller proportion of native Californian) sold as extra virgin in the delicatessens and grocery stores on the US west coast wasn't what it claimed to be.
In Britain, of course, it wasn't so very long ago that the most likely place to find olive oil was the chemist. Today, thanks partly to the health claims made on its behalf and partly to the fact it tastes good, the oil Homer called "liquid gold" is in half of all UK homes and we get through 30m litres of olive oil every year (http://www.foodbev.com/report/uk-olive-oil-consumption-on-the-increase) – more than double than we did decade ago. We're now, in fact, the world's 10th biggest olive oil-consuming nation. So with a litre of supermarket extra virgin costing up to £4, and connoisseurs willing to pay 10 times that sum for a far smaller bottle of seasonal, first cold stone pressed, single estate, artisan-milled oil from Italy or Greece, can we be sure of getting what we're paying for?
The answer, according to Tom Mueller in a book out this month, is very often not. In Extra Virginity: the Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, Mueller, an American who lives in Italy, lays bare the workings of an industry prey, he argues, to hi-tech, industrial-scale fraud. The problem, he says, is that good olive oil is difficult, time-consuming and expensive to make, but easy, quick and cheap to doctor.
Most commonly, it seems, extra virgin oil is mixed with a lower grade olive oil, often not from the same country. Sometimes, another vegetable oil such as colza or canola is used. The resulting blend is then chemically coloured, flavoured and deodorised, and sold as extra-virgin to a producer. Almost any brand can, in theory, be susceptible: major names such as Bertolli (then owned by Unilever) have found themselves in court having to argue, successfully in this instance, that they had themselves been defrauded by their supplier.
Meanwhile, the chemical tests that should by law be performed by exporters of extra virgin oil before it can be labelled and sold as such can often fail to detect adulterated oil, particularly when it has been mixed with products such as deodorised, lower-grade olive oil in a sophisticated modern refinery. Nor do national food authorities appear particularly bothered as long as the oil isn't actively harmful, which is rare. In Britain, says Judy Ridgeway (http://www.oliveoil.org.uk/), one of the UK's leading olive oil experts, the Food Standards Agency has not done any checks on olive oil in five or six years. "And it only does chemical tests, not taste tests," she adds.
The EU now also requires extra virgin oil to pass assorted taste and aroma tests, assessed by panels of experts: the oil has to be suitably fruity, bitter and peppery, and cannot display any of 16 different defects, including "grubbiness", "mustiness" and "fustiness". But bad stuff still gets through.
Ridgeway says it is "hard to say what percentage of faulty oil gets through" to Britain. "It will vary seasonally – there will be more at this time of year than in March or April, but it's appreciable. They buy in good faith, but there are faulty oils on our supermarket shelves, without any argument."
The olive, in more than 700 varieties or cultivars, has been grown for its oil in the Mediterranean since 3000 BC. Unlike most vegetable oils, which are extracted from seeds or nuts, good olive oil is made using a basic hydraulic press, or more modern centrifuge, so it is more a fruit juice than an industrial fat. It comes in several qualities, including lampante, or "lamp oil", which is made from damaged or ground-gathered fruit and cannot be sold as food; virgin; and extra virgin, the highest grade. This has to be made by a physical (rather than chemical) process, and meet strict chemical requirements, including levels of oxidation and "free acidity" (a measure of decomposition).
Like any fresh product, olive oil deteriorates over time. "The trouble," says Ridgeway, "is that it's quite easy to clean up, say, an oil that doesn't quite pass the acidity test, and to do it without leaving any chemical markers. It could even taste pretty good, for about three months. Then it will go horribly wrong."
Michael North, an expert who runs a fresh seasonal olive oil club (http://www.theolivetrail.com/?page_id=2), says the problem is "huge. The public are just not aware of what's going on. There's plenty of oil out there that's rubbish: last year's oil or older. Or not even olive oil."So how can consumers best ensure they're not being ripped off? Ridgeway recommends paying a sensible price. Unfortunately, a 50cl bottle costing £15 is, on balance, "less likely to have problems" than one costing £2. North urges people never to buy olive oil in a clear bottle ("It oxidises and goes rancid far faster"), and to buy from somewhere you can taste it first.
Both he and Ridegway, though, stress the prime importance of buying young. "Look for a harvest date," North says. "They're starting to appear now, albeit on only a few bottles, and they'll tell you how old the oil is. It's not an absolute guarantee of quality, but half the battle."
How to buy olive oil
• Find a seller who stores it in clean, temperature-controlled stainless steel containers topped with an inert gas such as nitrogen to keep oxygen at bay, and bottles it as they sell it. Ask to taste it before buying.
• Favour bottles or containers that protect against light, and buy a quantity that you'll use up quickly.
• Don't worry about colour. Good oils come in all shades, from green to gold to pale straw – but avoid flavours such as mouldy, cooked, greasy, meaty, metallic, and cardboard.
• Ensure that your oil is labelled "extra virgin," since other categories—"pure" or "light" oil, "olive oil" and "olive pomace oil" – have undergone chemical refinement.
• Try to buy oils only from this year's harvest – look for bottles with a date of harvest. Failing that, look at the "best by" date which should be two years after an oil was bottled.
• Though not always a guarantee of quality, PDO (protected designation of origin) and PGI (protected geographical indication) status should inspire some confidence.
• Some terms commonly used on olive oil labels are anachronistic, such as "first pressed" and "cold pressed". Since most extra virgin oil nowadays is made with centrifuges, it isn't "pressed" at all, and true extra virgin oil comes exclusively from the first processing of the olive paste.
For further information, see extravirginity.com (http://extravirginity.com/). Extracted from Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller.
• This article was amended on 5 January 2012. The original referred to Bertolli as owned by Unilever. This has been corrected.
Snowleopard
07-01-2012, 21:05
Sarcasm the elf, the author of that book had a very interesting interview on NPR. He mentioned that there is excellent olive oil from California. To bring the discussion closer to the AT, there is an olive grower that makes olive oil in Lakeland, Georgia; since it's likely to be very fresh it's probably good. http://georgiaolivefarms.com/store.php
A review of supermarket brands of OO: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tastetests/overview.asp?docid=9812
They ranked them as:
Columela premium EVO (Spain)
Lucini EVO (Italy)
Colavita EVO (Italy) (I've had this and it's decent but not as good as my Greek olive oil).
Bertolli EVO (Italy, Spain, Greece and Tunisia) a big step down from the others according to Cooks Illustrated.
Philip Berio EVO (Italy, Spain, Greece and Tunisia) a step down from Bertolli according to CI.
We might have to hike trails in Italy, Spain and Greece to find really good oil in trail towns. :)
In case it's not obvious, I love olive oil and olives.
Odd Man Out
07-01-2012, 23:18
A couple of posts have referred to oils as going "off" with time after opening. Just thought I would add that when oils go "off" after opening, they are not spoiling (contaminated by microbes), but rather are being oxidized in a chemical reaction by oxygen in the bottle. So it isn't opening the bottle, per se, that causes this. It is storing the half empty bottle (now half full of oxygen) for some time. The oxidized oil won't hurt you (as food spoiled by microbes can), although you may marginally decrease some of the health benefits of the unsaturated fats and antioxidants that have been oxidized. Mainly, it just doesn't taste as good.
I'm a Greek -American so I have 3500 years of olives and olive oil history in my veins
Despite it's current " hipness " olive oil is still very much an esoteric oil that should only be used in very appropriate and very limited situations
Since non -Mediterranean people have " discovered " it olive oil has become really expensive
Expense is one disadvantage of using olive oil , it's strong taste is another and it's low smoke point is another .
Since heat destroys the flavor of EVOO it's a waste of money and ingredent to cook with it
For all purpose el cheapo oils your best bet is to go w/ a neutral oil that can handle heat such as Canola ( rapeseed) or Vegetable ( soybean)
Clarified butter aka ghee is also a good alternative to OO
theinfamousj
07-02-2012, 12:59
Clarified butter aka ghee is also a good alternative to OO
And packs much more easily for backpacking because it is generally a solid (gel?) at most (if you ignore this past weekend, geez!) hiking temperatures, so you have no worries about it spilling all over your pack.
Odd Man Out
07-02-2012, 13:18
One other clarification. John Gault's post (#22) about Sunflower Oil being higher in monounsaturated fats than OO only applies to the high oleic sunflower oil. Standard sunflower oil is only about 20% (according to the reference he cited). Also, olive oil had the lowest amount of the omega 6 fatty acid (linoleic) among the vegatable oils listed (unless you can find the high oleic sunflower oil).
fungi601
07-02-2012, 13:25
And packs much more easily for backpacking because it is generally a solid (gel?) at most (if you ignore this past weekend, geez!) hiking temperatures, so you have no worries about it spilling all over your pack.
Ghee is always my oil of choice and its easy to make yourself and load into a squeeze tube. You can use a meet injector to get it into a tube real easy.
Ladytrekker
07-02-2012, 13:28
Coconut Oil and sunflower oil the best I think its also on the Paleo Diet if anyone is doing that
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/12/143154180/losing-virginity-olive-oils-scandalous-industry
Here's the NPR article about olive oil.