Cooking with Olive Oil

[SuzySushi]

I'd save the EVOO for dishes where the flavor will make a difference. As bigbear said, EVOO has a lower smoking point than more refined olive oils. I once burned a pan irreparably by using EVOO to try to create a "Mediterranean stir-fry." For frying, it needs to be mixed with other oils.

[jhlurie]

In theory, heat supposedly changes the taste of Olive Oil. So I suppose the advice to not use finer tasting oil is based on the fact that the "particular taste" Michael is talking about might be lost in many cases anyway.

It's purely a marketing concept, and not a real grade, but several brands of Olive Oil have started selling what's called "Light Olive Oil". They are often blends, and tend to have high smoke points--in other words they would tend to be better for high heat cooking. The Olive taste is, of course, weaker so if that's a consideration then you would't want to use them.

[Nathan P.]

I do the majority of my cooking with extra virgin oil these days. Right now I am using Napa Valley Naturals Organic at around $9 /750ml. It is good enough to use in a salad dressing or bruschetta but not so pricey that it bothers me to cook with it. I also have a pricey bottle http://oliomontalbano.it/Eng/montalbano.html (the Dalle Terre di Leonardo) for when I want something subtle and complex for drizzling. I also have a small bottle of a local CA olive oil. Anyone found any good value extra virgin in larger volumes? I'd like to try out some of Italian deep fry recipes but would like to find a good value oil since I am assuming it will not last for very many uses.

[EdS]

I use good extra virgin olive oil or none at all. I don't think using olive oil to cook at anything other than rather moderate heat provides any significant benefit. Pour some good olive oil into a sauce pan, bring it up to heat, let it cool off, and then smell it and taste it. It won't be as good. The higher the heat, the greater the damage.

One thing you can do is use a neutral-tasting oil--my favorite is grapeseed oil--and then drizzle some good extra virgin oil on your dish as a finish.

Edited June 27, 2005 by esvoboda (log)

[Pan]

Do people commonly sautee at very high temperatures?

[silverbrow]

I was always an EVOO man or nothing. Recently I decided to try cooking with lower grade olive oil and frankly the results were much better. Because ordinary OO smokes at a much higher temp you can cook it, whether that's on the grill or in the oven, without the nasty smoking side-effect. The improvement was most noticeable when I roasted some beef recently. Before roasting I massaged in some olive oil (previously I'd used EVOO) and S&P. This time round I got the nice crisp outside, but none of the eye watering smoke in the oven.

I now keep three olive oils - a bog standard for cooking, a medium EVOO and a top quality EVOO for salads.

[Shalmanese]

My EVOO never touches a hot pan. If I want the EVOO flavour, I will drizzle some over the finished dish. Extra Light Olive Oil or canola oil for cooking only.