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Keeping olive oil in the fridge


Fat Guy

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I've taken to keeping my olive oil in the refrigerator.

Not all of it. But I tend to buy a liter at a minimum and it takes me long enough to go through it that, if it's left out at ambient kitchen temperature, it degrades noticeably by the end of the bottle. So what I do is keep a small cruet of olive oil in the cabinet with the spices and other cooking basics, and I keep the main bottle in the fridge.

The olive oil clouds and solidifies in the fridge, but this seems to have no impact on flavor. When I need to refill the cruet, I take the bottle out of the fridge before I start meal prep. By the time I'm done, it is liquid enough to fill the cruet and go back under refrigeration.

Anybody else do it this way? Or this it's a terrible idea?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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i do it with fancy-pants olive oil i want to extend the life on--stuff i've spent a lot on, or carried home from italy personally, at great peril to my packed sweaters. i do it with all nut oils, as i use them less often, and they are more quickly rancid.

"Laughter is brightest where food is best."

www.chezcherie.com

Author of The I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook ,The I Love Trader Joe's Party Cookbook and The I Love Trader Joe's Around the World Cookbook

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i do it with fancy-pants olive oil i want to extend the life on--stuff i've spent a lot on, or carried home from italy personally, at great peril to my packed sweaters. i do it with all nut oils, as i use them less often, and they are more quickly rancid.

Ditto, more or less. Always nut oils. And the small-farm oils I bring back from Spain (the best oo in the world, to my taste) or Italy. I keep them in the dark cupboard, then refrigerate them in summer. Mostly I think I am just trying to stretch them out rather than use them up (til my next trip). I intentionally do not buy giant quantities of olive oil unless I plan to use giant quantities (like for frying).

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I keep all oils in the fridge, to minimize the oxidation.

Oxidised oils arent good for you. I use plenty of coconut oil too

which doesnt oxide or break down in cooking as cheap industrial

vegetable oils do.

I have a little brown glass bottle with olive oil for daily cooking.

Which i take out of the fridge before cooking to come up to temp.

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Keeping it in a cool place makes sense, but refrigerating it is a terrible idea, because you really notice the change in flavour in refrigerated olive oil, and pretty quickly, too. I know the stuff gets pricey, but given the fact that its flavour is a primary reason for using olive oil, it makes more sense to just get smaller bottles, and use them more quickly.

People here in Denmark seem to refrigerate all their oils (and their chocolate!), even though the climate is quite cool... makes me nuts, every time I find a river of flat-tasting, coagulated oil lavishly poured over a salad.

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

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One supposedly expert in EVOO (he was a wholesale distributor of EVOO) told that OO has 3 enemies: cold, light and oxygen. In Spain nobody I know of freezes OO, and it is always stored in dark places (a stainless steel or ceramic non-translucent jar better) and if you are worried about oxidation (I am), redistribute your OO to smaller jars so the ratio of OO to oxygen is as high as you can make it (this is a problem especially with big 5l carafes).

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I was told the same thing as Andrestorrubia. I was told: cool, dark, place. Stored in dark glass preferably. However, I've really questioned it. So I can't explain why (if it even is) it's better than way.

We buy our olive oil in bulk at the time it is pressed and don't really buy again til the following year at the next pressing so it's never really been a problem for us. Yes, the flavor absolutely changes, as anything would, I guess. But it does not become in any way inedible.

Edited by ambra (log)
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My refrigerator has a compartment for wine and beer, it keeps about 14C

I dont notice any loss of flavor. I put my EVOO to small brown bottles.

I only use good olive oil, usually i dont cook with it, i just you it in salads.

When it comes to room temperature it tastes fine to me, but i am not

experienced cook. But i never buy cheap oils. Finland is so crazy about

rapeseeed oils, i think its unhealthy stuff.

I may sound crazy but sometimes i even bring my own little bottle of oil,

if i know that they use canola oil in salad dressing.

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. . . . Stored in dark glass preferable. However, I've really questioned it. So I can't explain why (if it even is) it's better than way.

. . . .

The dark glass helps occlude light, if the storage place happens to be, say, an open, dim (not fully dark) shelf.

Incidentally, if you really want to minimize the exposure to oxygen, you can add (carefully cleaned) marbles to the olive oil to keep the volume at 'full', as you use it up (I've done this with photo chemicals for the same reason, but not olive oil; I buy small bottles I use up in a couple of weeks).

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

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One supposedly expert in EVOO (he was a wholesale distributor of EVOO) told that OO has 3 enemies: cold, light and oxygen. In Spain nobody I know of freezes OO, and it is always stored in dark places (a stainless steel or ceramic non-translucent jar better) and if you are worried about oxidation (I am), redistribute your OO to smaller jars so the ratio of OO to oxygen is as high as you can make it (this is a problem especially with big 5l carafes).

i've been told that heat, light and oxygen are the culprits. i suppose any extreme conditions don't improve the oil.

"Laughter is brightest where food is best."

www.chezcherie.com

Author of The I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook ,The I Love Trader Joe's Party Cookbook and The I Love Trader Joe's Around the World Cookbook

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. . . . Stored in dark glass preferable. However, I've really questioned it. So I can't explain why (if it even is) it's better than way.

. . . .

The dark glass helps occlude light, if the storage place happens to be, say, an open, dim (not fully dark) shelf.

Incidentally, if you really want to minimize the exposure to oxygen, you can add (carefully cleaned) marbles to the olive oil to keep the volume at 'full', as you use it up (I've done this with photo chemicals for the same reason, but not olive oil; I buy small bottles I use up in a couple of weeks).

Yes i am actually photographer by profession and kept my Xtol developer in tons

of small glass bottles, i was so scared of it to die on me :) But it never did.

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Refrigeration negatively affects the flavor of olive oil? I've never noticed that. I can see the argument for freezing causing damage, but what's the problem with refrigeration?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Are you talking about if you use it at refrigerator temperature, or after it has come back up to room temperature?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Canola oil isn't bad for you. It is actually a very good oil for cooking. People who are afraid of it are probably influenced, either directly or indirectly, by an urban legend started several years ago. It said some awful but totally untrue things about it. I am surprised that no one sticks up for it around here. I am surprised but don't know if at myself for not understanding why it is so frowned upon even today or at some of the people who find reasons to dislike it on 'trumped up' charges.

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Are you talking about if you use it at refrigerator temperature, or after it has come back up to room temperature?

By the time I'm eating it, it is room temperature, although the little blobs seem a bit cooler. It's possible that Danish refrigerators are run a bit cooler than US ones, and that that may be responsible for the results (5C/41F is standard).

Canola oil isn't bad for you. It is actually a very good oil for cooking. People who are afraid of it are probably influenced, either directly or indirectly, by an urban legend started several years ago. It said some awful but totally untrue things about it. I am surprised that no one sticks up for it around here. I am surprised but don't know if at myself for not understanding why it is so frowned upon even today or at some of the people who find reasons to dislike it on 'trumped up' charges.

I didn't realize that canola oil generally had a bad rap; I have some vague recollection of a fuss over a pesticide-contaminated batch (?) or something of that sort, but that's about it. I've spent most of the past decade or so outside the US, so I guess I've missed something. It isn't something I've noticed in shops here (it never seemed a very interesting oil, so I never bothered with it much), but plain old rapeseed oil is very standard.

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

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Are you talking about if you use it at refrigerator temperature, or after it has come back up to room temperature?

By the time I'm eating it, it is room temperature, although the little blobs seem a bit cooler. It's possible that Danish refrigerators are run a bit cooler than US ones, and that that may be responsible for the results (5C/41F is standard).

if there are still undissolved blobs, the oil is not at uniformly at room temperature.

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^^

Ah, well I believe the eruric acid content of mustard oil (related to rapeseed actually) is also high but it has never stopped me from using it. It's only a small part of my diet, and on top of this mustard oil has been used internally and externally for a long long time so I'll take my chances. Anyway, I did think that the health effects were not yet fully understood.

ETA: This post is of course directed to brucesw, sorry for confusion

Edited by Jenni (log)
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time I'm eating it, it is room temperature, although the little blobs seem a bit cooler. It's possible that Danish refrigerators are run a bit cooler than US ones, and that that may be responsible for the results (5C/41F is standard).

My refrigerator is at 3.33C (38F) but I never use oil from the refrigerator. I keep a cruet at room temperature, which I refill from the refrigerator every couple of weeks. I just haven't noticed any negative impact on flavor or texture from refrigeration, provided I'm using the oil after a decent amount of time back out of the refrigerator. Whereas, I do notice degradation with unrefrigerated oil after a few months. Just based on my very limited general knowledge, I don't see how cooling short of freezing would damage the stuff. Then again it is said to damage tomatoes, so who knows? I wonder who has studied olive-oil storage and where we can get the data.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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I normally store bottles of oil in my pantry but if I buy in bulk I have stored the excess at the very bottom of my fridge. There was no noticable change in quality over the few months it took me to use it up. I would bring it up to room temp first before using though. Cold fats all have a closed taste to them compared to when when warm I find. As soon as it is warmed up the taste opens and is just like normal.

"Why is the rum always gone?"

Captain Jack Sparrow

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