Aceite de Oliva

 

What can I say about olive oil. By now most people know about the health benefits of olive oil, and just this morning, I heard of a new study that found that women who ate a Mediterranean diet plus four tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil per day had a significantly lower risk of breast cancer compared with women on a low-fat diet.

If I had to choose one ingredient that epitomizes Spanish cooking, this would be the one. As an anecdote, amongst my belongings being shipped from Spain when I moved to Canada was a box containing twenty four bottles of extra virgin olive oil, pressed from olives from, and bottled, in Onteniente, my hometown. That’s how worried I was about not finding olive oil in my new country of residence. It was with relief that I found the gold liquid in Canada, and even though the bottles I started purchasing might have been labeled as coming from a mediterranean country other than Spain, I knew that most likely the liquid inside the bottles was olive oil from Spain, or from Spanish olives. According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), as of 2014, 54.3% of the world’s olive oil production came from Spain, 14.1% from Italy and 5.8% from Turkey, the three major producers of olive oil.

Olive oil is a vegetable oil extracted from the fruit of the olive tree (Olea europaea). Almost one third of the pulp of the olive is oil, maybe one of the reasons why 90% of the worldwide production of olives is used in the elaboration of olive oil (as opposed to other uses, like culinary or cosmetic).

The first olive tree plantations can be traced to 4,000 b.C., in the wide area between Siria and Canaan. Production in Greece started around 2,000 b.C., and the Hellenic expansion brought it to Italy around the VII century b.C. The Phoenicians brought its production to the southern coast of Spain, Andalusia, in the XI century b.C. It was during the Roman Empire that Andalusia—or the Baetica, as the Romans called it—was established as the principal olive oil producing province in the Empire. Mount Testaccio, in Rome, is an artificial hill created by millions of broken clay vessels, or amphorae, that once contained olive oil, carelessly piled there from the I to III centuries a.D. Archeological findings trace 90% of these vessels to the Baetica, Andalusia. Back then, and to this day, the center of olive oil production was located in the valley of the Guadalquivir river, and particularly in the province of Jaén. The Moors, or muslims, who invaded and settled in the south of Spain from the VIII to the XV centuries, perfected the irrigation methods for farming and for pressing the olives.

Olives are harvested in late Fall to early Winter, when their fatty acid content is at its peak. Olives collected at this time produce a greener oil, while the color changes to golden yellow as harvesting is delayed. In colder areas, harvesting is done earlier in the Fall, to prevent the olives from freezing, which would reduce the quality of the oil. Harvesting of the olives is a delicate operation that greatly influences the quality of the resulting olive oil, and olives harvested by one method have to be processed separately from the ones collected by a different method. For instance, if harvesting is delayed and the olives fall naturally from the trees, they suffer a series of changes that alter their characteristics, and the olive oil produced will be of less quality and more acidic. Even a small quantity of these lesser quality olives, if mixed with regularly collected olives, can change the organoleptic characteristics (flavor, aroma, color) of the resulting oil.

Olive oil is elaborated in facilities called almazaras, mills (from the arab al-mas’sara, that means to press, or to squeeze). Almazaras are divided into three different zones: reception area, elaboration area, and storage. Ideally, olives will be pressed no later than 24 hours after they have been harvested in order to guarantee the lowest level of acidity (acidity would increase by their piling and fermentation).

Depending on the variety of the olives, their harvesting method, transportation and elaboration method, the resulting olive oil will be classified as:

extra virgin olive oil: obtained from perfect olives, harvested by mechanical methods and with the best flavor and aroma. Acidity (measured as percentage of oleic acid, or free fatty acids) can’t be higher than 0.8º. This means that the oil must contain less than 0.8 grams of oleic acid per 100 grams of oil

virgin olive oil: similar to extra virgin olive oil, but with higher acidity, between 0.8 and 2º. Both extra virgin and virgin olive oil have not undergone any treatment other than washing, decanting, centrifuging and filtering.

olive oil: made of a combination of lower quality olive oils, which might have been refined (subjected to chemical or thermal methods in its elaboration), mixed with virgin or extra virgin olive oil. Acidity can’t be higher than 1º. The refined oils are tasteless and odorless, therefore they have to be blended with virgin or extra virgin olive oils to acquire flavor and aroma.

orujo olive oil: this is the oil extracted from the solid parts or the olive (skin, seed, and other solid parts)

In order to guarantee the origin and quality of the olive oil, regulatory councils within each producing region, called Denominación de Origen (DO), watch over their elaboration process, and affix the DO label only if the oil meets the highest standards of the council.

There’s a wide variety of olives, that produce oils of different characteristics. In Spain alone there are 262 varieties. Of these, there are 24 principal varieties, according to the size of their plantations. And yet of these 24, only five are used in the elaboration of the olive oils used in the kitchen.

When an olive oil comes from only one variety of olive, it’s called monovarietal. More commonly than not, olive oils come from a blend of different varieties: some robust varieties, like Picual, grown in Andalusia, will be blended with fruitier ones, like Hojiblanca, for a more balanced flavor.

The five main varieties of oil-producing olives are Picual, Arbequina, Hojiblanca, Empeltre and Cornicabra.

Picual is the most popular, accounting for 50% of Spain’s production, and 20% of worldwide production. It’s cultivated mostly in Jaén, and also in Córdoba and Granada (all three Andalusian provinces). It produces a very stable oil because of its high oleic acid content, and it’s therefore suitable for frying, very popular in the Andalusian cuisine. It is also very rich in antioxidants.

Arbequina is cultivated in a colder region of Spain, the provinces of Lérida and Tarragona, in Catalonia’s interior. Oils from arbequina olives are sweeter and fruitier, and because they grow near almond trees, have an almond undertone. This oil is more delicate and tends to oxidize faster, therefore it should be stored in a cool, dark place. It’s best used in mayonnaise, ail i oli and sauces in general, light cooking of fish and even in baking.

Hojiblanca grows in Andalusia, and it’s sweeter and more aromatic than picual. It’s best used drizzled over fish, meat, or cold soups like gazpacho and salmorejo. Because it is one of the least stable varieties, it should be stored in a cool, dark place.

Empeltre grows mostly in the interior provinces of Zaragoza and Teruel, and in the Balearic Islands. It produces yellow and sweet oils, of excellent quality. Similar to arbequina, its uses are also similar.

Cornicabra grows in the west-central regions of Spain, mostly in the provinces of Toledo and Ciudad Real. They produce stable oils that are suitable for frying, and because of their fruity almond aftertaste, they are well suited to stews, salads and marinated dishes.

I will mention the Blanqueta olive, the one closest to my heart, because it’s cultivated in the provinces of Valencia and Alicante.

As a general rule of thumb, when cooking in America I use extra virgin or virgin olive oil when drizzling over soups or salads, and regular olive oil when cooking hot dishes.

An interesting fact: the oldest olive tree in the world is 2,000 years old, has a name, Besavi, and is located in Lérida. The second oldest, 1,550 years old, is in Segorbe, in the province of Castellón. In fact, Castellón, the northernmost province in the Valencian Community, has over 4,000 olive trees older than 1,000 years old, which produce an exceptional olive oil.

As a last anecdotal (if informative) comment about olive oil, I’ll debunk a myth about the bottled olive oil found in American supermarkets: light or lite olive oil is not a low calorie olive oil, rather, it is a blended oil that contains less than 5% of extra virgin or virgin olive oil, the remaining 95% being the tasteless and odorless refined oils. In other words, it is an oil “light” in extra virgin olive oil. Therefore, go ahead, get the regular, better variety without fear!

For obvious reasons, I tend to look for Spanish olive oil, and these are some I recommend:

Carbonell Extra Virgin Versatile, I use it for cooking and for salads

Núñez de Prado Extra Virgin, great for salads

Dehesa de la Sabina, USDA Organic Extra Virgin  I use this one mostly on salads

Betis Low Acidity  Good for cooking