Cooking with Olive Oil

Olive oil has been on the news as the healthier choice for cooking. With its higher smoke point and wonderful flavor, it is wonderful in all dishes, from salad dressings to stir-fry. Changing your cooking oil to olive oil is easy and a healthy idea.

1. Learn the difference between the three types of olive oil. They are extra virgin, virgin and olive oil. Extra virgin is less than one percent acidity. It is made from the first pressing of the olives. Extra virgin is the most expensive and flavorful. Virgin olive oil is the same processes with slightly riper olives. It is one and a half percent acidity. Olive oil or pure olive oil is from the second pressing or the chemical extraction of the oil.

2. Use extra virgin olive oil in your cooking when you want the flavor of the oil to come through. This will be for sauces, dips and dressings.

3. Employ virgin olive oil for the cooking that you want to have a subtle olive taste. Cooking strong tasting fish with olive oil is an idea. Coating pasta noodles with olive oil and spices before adding sauces adds another layer of flavor to your dishes.

4. Bake with pure olive oil. This oil has a mellower flavor. When used in your baked goods, it brings the healthy quality of the oil to your baking.

5. Fry with pure olive oil, especially when deep-frying. Olive oil has a smoke point around three-hundred and seventy-five to four-hundred. It can take the heat of frying. The pure olive oil is less expensive and ideal for this purpose.

Excessively heating olive oil will evaporate the alcohols and esters that make up its delicate taste and fragrance.

In the end, what matters most is your personal taste! Keep in mind, however, that a tablespoon of olive oil has roughly 120 calories.

Baking with Olive Oil
Conversion Chart

Butter/Margarine	Olive Oil
1 teaspoon	3/4 teaspoon
1 tablespoon	2 1/4 teaspoons
2 tablespons	1 1/2 tablespoons
1/4 cup	3 tablespoons
1/3 cup	1/4 cup
1/2 cup	1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons
2/3 cup	1/2 cup
3/4 cup	1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon
1 cup	3/4 cup

Olive oil can be readily substituted in most main course dishes where margarine or butter is used for frying or sautéing. In olive oil producing countries, olive oil and butter/margarine are sometimes also used together to enhance each other's flavor in some recipes.

The conversion chart above is appropriate for most cake and pastry recipes where quantities are critical. Keep in mind, however, that it is not always a good idea to use liquid shortening (olive oil/vegetable oil) instead of solid shortening (butter/margarine). For instance, since cake frosting must stay solid at room temperature, butter and powdered sugar work nicely, but olive oil and powdered sugar don’t.

You should also consider the taste factor. A mild tasting late harvest olive oil could be used in most cake and pastry recipes because cooking will get rid of the aromatic olive oil flavors. Uncooked confections such as cake frosting would taste more than a bit unusual if made with olive oil.