Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (2012) • Hacker News Board

Re: Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (2012)

#91

Post by westicle » Tue, Aug 06, 2013, 7:31 AM UTC

willthames wrote: post #89

westicle wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My family actually runs a small oil-producing olive grove in Tasmania, Australia. Our olives are hand-picked and cold pressed within 24 hours of picking. We produce about 200-250L of oil per year so it is a boutique operation. We are currently bottling our 2013 oil and have a few bottles in excess of our pre-orders. If anyone on HN is interested in a bottle of gold medal standard Tasmanian oil, please message me for…

I clicked through to your profile but there's no obvious way to contact you.

Sorry - I had registered my email address with HN but hadn't included it in the public "about" section. Should be fixed now.

Re: Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (2012)

#92

Post by bobdvb » Tue, Aug 06, 2013, 8:22 AM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #37

elorant wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best olive oil is Greek. Italian or Spanish ones are nowhere near the quality of Greek. In Greece more than 80% of total production is extra virgin while in Italy the percentage is less than 40% and in Spain 20%. Italians buy bulk olive oil from Greece and they mix it with their own oils to raise the quality. There are small brands that offer high quality extra virgin oil and I guess you could look some of them at yo…

Seconding this. It also tastes somewhat different, which is a matter of preference admittedly. I personally love the typical flavor of oil from Kalamata olives, which makes up a large part of the Greek-labeled production (i.e. bottled as Greek olive oil, rather than exported for blending). Greek marketing and distribution has been poor, however, and very slowly improving. The traditional place to buy it in the U.S. h…

Agreed, if you can find the name of the exact location on the bottle then you are probably protected under a European PDO. Kalamata is an island famed for the quality of its olives. In the UK I buy Iliada oil from the supermarket, it is a good quality Greek olive oil that is one of the most popular brands in Greece (not just a made up brand for export).

Remember that each oil has its own smoke point and you shouldn't take Olive oil to it's smoke point. If you need to cook with smoking oil (some Asian cooking) then you need a different oil. I once saw a chart of which oils were best for different uses but I can't find it now.

Re: Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (2012)

#93

Post by tptacek » Tue, Aug 06, 2013, 12:32 PM UTC

TwiztidK wrote: post #86

tptacek wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you're buying olive oil at the supermarket, it's going to be a crap shoot. But you're going to know immediately that you've got bland oil (if it tastes anything like other supermarket oils, it's bland; the difference isn't subtle --- again, think about the difference between an IPA and a lager). Again, a good way to handle this is to drop $35 on a bottle from some place like Zingermans, and just use it as a b…

Zingerman's is like oil overload. Last time I was there I couldn't even dream about picking a single one out of their entire stock. I just wish there were a way to reliably find reasonably priced, quality oil since I can't afford to spend anywhere near $35/bottle on olive oil more than once or twice.

That's true, but the good thing about them is that they don't stock any crappy oil; you can pick at random.

Re: Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (2012)

#94

Post by gpjt » Tue, Aug 06, 2013, 1:44 PM UTC

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #85

gpjt wrote: post #10

My parents retired to Italy a number of years ago, to a place with a hundred or so olive trees in the garden, and each November some of us head over to pick the olives (much to the amusement of the locals, who think we're crazy to do agricultural work in our spare time) and take them to a nearby pressing plant (where you can wander around and see the process to make sure your harvest isn't being mixed up with other,…

That's actually cool. I am from Italy (Umbria), and I can appreciate why you do it. In which area are you doing it? Just curious.

In Sabina, just north-east of Rome. I guess the climate's not too different to Umbria's...?

Re: Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (2012)

#95

Post by andrewl » Tue, Aug 06, 2013, 4:10 PM UTC

vixen99 wrote: post #19

clumsysmurf wrote: post #13

Many people buy into the supposed health benefits on olive oil, which probably boils down to its phenolic content. However, this depends on many things and drops over time. The end of this article has some tips to ensure getting the best oil. http://news.discovery.com/earth/plants/olive-oil-health-bene...

Hardly 'supposed'. There are plenty of peer-reviewed studies indicating the benefits of olive oil.

Good olive oils contain an anti-inflammatory substance called oleocanthal, which is similar to ibuprofen. It's been suggested that it's part of what makes the Mediterranean diet so healthful:

http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/olive_oil_contains_...