Olive oil

Spain

Spain is the largest producer of olive oil in the world. Spanish producers are now subject to strict quality control. The different areas and olive varieties each give the oil its own character. Well-known areas are:

• Catalonia: Siurana and Les Garrigues
• Andalusia: Sierra Mágina, Priego de Córdoba, Baena and Sierra de Segura
• Central Spain: Campo de Montiel and Toledo

The oil from Andalusia is made from the picual olive, which gives the oil a strong taste: intense and powerful, with a lovely balance in the fruit. Oils from the north of Spain are often sweeter and milder, and not spicy.

Some oils have a more grassy or almond-like character, partly due to the surrounding vegetation. Traditionally, for example, almond trees are planted between the olive trees to combat fruit flies and other pests.

Italy

Italy is an important supplier of good-quality extra virgin olive oil. Umbria and Tuscany mainly produce grass-green, characterful oils with a peppery or spicy finish. In Liguria, in the north of the country, milder, fresh oils are made.

Most Italian oil, however, is produced in the south. No less than 80% of production comes mainly from Apulia, but also from areas such as Calabria, Sicily, Campania and Sardinia.

Greece

According to Greek mythology, olive oil is a gift from the goddess Athena. Nowhere else is olive oil so intertwined with daily life as in Greece. The Greeks use around 21 litres per person per year. By comparison: a Spaniard uses 12 and a Dutch person not even half a litre.

Greek oil comes mainly from the koroneiki olive. The best-known olive oil areas are Crete and the Peloponnese.

Portugal

Portuguese olive oil is generally golden yellow in colour, with a pronounced aroma and a slightly overripe taste. In Portugal the olives are deliberately picked later, and sometimes not even harvested directly from the tree. This late harvest produces the golden yellow colour, the strong aroma and the powerful taste.

France

In terms of volume, France plays only a small role. Even so, French olive oil is important for the top segment, thanks to the country’s culinary reputation and the luxurious image of the Côte d’Azur. A handful of estates in the south of France make superb olive oils that rank among the finest in the world. Estoublon, Alziari and Le Vieux Moulin are examples, with a gentle aroma and different fruit notes, depending on the olives.

French oil comes mainly from the area around Nyons (from the tanche olive) and from the coast, where the picholine olive is used.

Other countries

Within Europe, olive oil is also produced in Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Cyprus and North Macedonia. Beyond Europe, olive oil comes from Turkey, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia and other North African countries, and even from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and China.

European production, however, is by far the largest. The European Union is particularly keen to keep its leading role in the quality segment and provides subsidies for its development.

Pressing

The olives are pressed within 24 hours of the harvest. Both the flesh and the stone contain oil: the flesh 30 to 50%, the stone 5%. The paste is kneaded and pressed, in the past with a screw press and later hydraulically, at a pressure of up to 400 bar. The mixture of oil and water from the press is then separated in a centrifuge.

This is called cold pressing, but friction does warm the paste slightly, which makes the oil come out more easily. The temperature must not rise above 28 °C, otherwise the chemical composition of the oil changes. The same applies to the oil once it has been bottled.

At around 15 °C, the first pressing yields some 10 to 20% oil. So 1 litre of olive oil requires 5 to 10 kilos of olives.

Centrifuging

Today the liquid (a mixture of oil and water) is usually separated from the pulp with a centrifuge. The horizontal drum of the centrifuge is almost 2 metres long, has a diameter of over half a metre and turns at around 3000 revolutions per minute. It is enclosed in a sturdy casing, so the process itself cannot be seen.

The advantage of this method is that the olive stone stays intact (a broken stone gives the oil a harsh taste) and that it is a continuous process. With centrifuging, therefore, you cannot speak of a first or second pressing.

Not too hot

When unsaturated fatty acids are heated strongly for a long time, substances can form, some of which are carcinogenic. Olive oil breaks down when heated to 150 to 200 °C for a long time. Heating it once for stir-frying or roasting is no problem, but prolonged and repeated heating, as in deep-frying, is not recommended.

Still being researched

Although the beneficial effects of olive oil have been known for thousands of years and are confirmed time and again, they have still not been fully explained. It therefore remains a popular subject of food research. In 2005 the journal Nature reported that researchers had found a substance in olive oil, oleocanthal, that works in the same way as the painkiller and anti-inflammatory ibuprofen.

Tasting

Taste olive oil blind and warm it briefly by holding the glass in your hand. Smell it carefully. First you taste the sweet, grassy flavour, then comes the bitter and peppery sensation. That pepperiness comes from the natural antioxidants in the oil, such as oleocanthal.

Cooking

Use extra virgin olive oil cold, for pasta, salads, vinaigrettes, tapenades and cold sauces. Extra virgin olive oil is not suitable for deep-frying; ordinary olive oil is purer and better for that. You can fry and roast in extra virgin oil, but most of the flavour is lost when it is heated.

Drizzle a little extra virgin oil over the (warm) dish just before eating. That is when the flavour and aromas come into their own best.

Storage

Store olive oil in a cool, dark place. After pressing, oil keeps for about a year and a half; after that the taste steadily deteriorates.

At around eight degrees, olive oil already starts to thicken. That does no harm: at room temperature it becomes liquid again by itself.