Olive Oil obsession

Chong

Following on from Des's coriander hate thread, can anyone tell me why every chef is obsessed with olive oil. For example, watch Jamie Oilver make a dish and everything needs to be finished off with a drizzle of Extra Virgin.Why does everything have to be drowned in the stuff, to me it tastes horrible. I also hate getting a salad that has a vinaigrette but the vinaigrette has not been made correctly and has too much oil.

duploelabs

It's really down to the oil you use, some oils are so good you can drink them (and I appreciate this sounds disgusting) straight, but other oils who also claim to be extra virgin oil are rancid.
Also you should never cook with extra virgin, only use it as a dressing and sparingly as it's very strong. And also never never heat cold pressed extra virgin as it is apparently carcinogenic when heated

Mr.David

duploelabs wrote: »

never never heat cold pressed extra virgin as it is apparently carcinogenic when heated

Thats a total myth (thankfully!)

OP - How you can dislike olive oil is beyond me. What do you use as a substitute? What do you dress salads with or fry food in?

the beer revolu

I like olive oil - in its place - but it is often overused.
We've come from a society that only had olive oil in little bottles in the medicine cabinet to one that has no oil but olive oil in the kitchen cupboard!
Olive oil is not good for frying. It has too low a smoke point. It's also a waste because you will not taste the delicate flavours of EV olive oil.
I had an argument with a friend in the supermarket cause he wanted to get olive oil to fry steaks. He couldn't accept that sunflower oil is not only much cheaper but much better for this purpose!
I'm not saying that you can't cook with olive oil - it's just not good for high temperature frying.
I usually cut olive oil in salad dressings with a lighter oil like sunflower oil too.

duploelabs

Mr.David wrote: »

Thats a total myth (thankfully!)

OP - How you can dislike olive oil is beyond me. What do you use as a substitute? What do you dress salads with or fry food in?

really? I stand corrected (said the man in orthopedic shoes)

antoniosicily

the beer revolu wrote: »

I like olive oil - in its place - but it is often overused.
We've come from a society that only had olive oil in little bottles in the medicine cabinet to one that has no oil but olive oil in the kitchen cupboard!
Olive oil is not good for frying. It has too low a smoke point. It's also a waste because you will not taste the delicate flavours of EV olive oil.

In the south of Italy we fry with EV Olive oil, the smoke point of EV olive oil is around 191C, which is not 'low'.

The rest of the smoking points are here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point

Yes, you don't fry a steak with olive oil (what's the point of that?), but you can fry other things and they taste really good.

When I don't want the oil flavour in the things I'm frying, I use clarified butter. Sunflower oil is not exactly the best for frying.

If you want to do the mcdonald's way use Palm oil, is really good for frying, anyway IMHO nothing beats extra virgin olive oil (probably it's just a memory from when I was a child)

Chong

Can I just say I dont dislike Olive Oil, and I do use it for frying certain things but I hate way its over used, when you go to a restaurant and certain chefs smother everything in Olive Oil is what I dislike.

Fringe

Jamie Oliver is obsessed with olive oil. He constantly adds it. Adds a bit before cooking, adds it during cooking, adds it after cooking, adds it to dress it again. It's insane. I don't get it either.

Toto Wolfcastle

I agree that olive oil is completely overused by some people. When I order something in a restaurant I do not want it to taste like olive oil with a side order of steak for example.

A colleague of mine had a Spanish student staying with her during the summer. She put olive oil on everything from bread to roast dinners. That, to me, sounds horrendous.

Mellor

I agree that its over used. but

the beer revolu wrote: »

Olive oil is not good for frying. It has too low a smoke point. It's also a waste because you will not taste the delicate flavours of EV olive oil.

Extra virgin has a low smoke point (as does unrefined sunflower, much lower than olive oil).
But the difference between sunflower oil and virgin olive oil is on a few degrees, Olive oil can actual be higher if you use the more refined ones (non virgin)