Frugal with olive oil

[amyschiff]

I was listening to the most recent Nutrition Diva podcast and it was all about olive oil. If you've shopped for OO before, you have probably noticed that the extra virgin stuff is much more pricey than the regular. The extra virgin stuff is from the first press of olives, which means it has the most plant extracts--meaning the most flavor.

The "quick and dirty" tip is to cook with regular olive oil, and to use the extra virgin stuff for things like dressings and drizzling over things (I guess heating the extra virgin oil can ruin the plant extracts in it anyway). That way, you save the expensive stuff for when you will really taste and enjoy it, while you will still be getting the health benefits from cooking with the regular stuff.

Watching food network you would think that Extra Virgin is THE OIL to use (Rachael Ray has her own brand of EVOO and pretty much every show I watch uses it almost exclusively), but it really turns out to be a mixed matter of purpose, temperature needs, flavor needs, and price.

[Gootsy]

Great post.

It blows my mind how much EVOO/OO some food shows use.

[khorrell]

That is good to know...I always buy the less expensive olive oil just because it is less expensive, but now I will feel better about it.

[lucille]

We use a combination of canola oil, cheap olive oil and good olive oil. Good olive oil gets used at the table for dipping bread, salad dressing or anything that calls for a final drizzle of olive oil before taking it to the table. Cooking we use cheaper brands of olive oil. Anything that the olive oil flavor would throw off like sweet baked goods we use canola.

I read an article recently from either the New Yorker or Vanity Fair about fake olive oil. There have been companies in Italy sneaking low grade oil or other types of oil in and mixing it with Italian olive oil to pad their profits. So I guess you have to watch close what you buy too.

[purplefdu]

We use EVOO and regular vegetable oil. I got lucky and found a great deal on EVOO with a $2 coupon I had so we've got 6 large bottles stocked up. I have to say we use a spray olive oil most often for cooking though as I'm lazy.

[FrugalNYC]

Very good to know. Thanks for the tips. Just goes to show you need to use the right "tool" for the right job.

[FruWiki Meg]

Remember not to use olive oil at high temps! It's not so healthy then. Use other oils that are better at high temps, like canola, peanut, or coconut. I use olive oil for all my room temp or cold recipes, and organic canola for just about everything else.