Olive Oil

It’s easy to take olive oil for granted. It is so often what goes into the pan first or is drizzled on the soup or the beans last. Like salt and pepper, it is a workhorse in the kitchen whose contribution to any dish is both a given and for that very reason sometimes seems like an afterthought.

Also, since it comes in a bottle and lasts at least a little while, olive oil perhaps seems not to be limited to the season in the way that tomatoes or cherries are. But since we live amidst olive groves, and steer our bicycles around the fallen fruits, we know that olive oil is indeed seasonal. 

This has not, unfortunately, been a particularly good season. The oil we have has been delicious and we are big consumers, as the size bottle we buy from Yolo Press should attest. But conditions conspired so that last year’s harvest wasn’t a big one. That liquid gold is going to be in short supply in late summer and early fall. Local producers will probably run out in a few weeks. And they won’t have a fresh pressing until October or November. So let’s take a moment to celebrate the privilege of local oil since we’re about to have to start rationing it.

Recent studies have demonstrated that much of the oil on supermarket shelves is spoiled. Many consumers may not even know the difference between fresh and stale oil, because they are so used to the taste of spoiled oil. You can download the UC Davis Olive Center’s study of freshness here: http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/what-we-do

On oil freshness, see also: http://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-basics/good-olive-oils-gone-bad/8900

The recognition that olive oil should be fresh seems like a new discovery. But Pliny the Elder recognized it almost two millennia ago. Pliny was a Roman scholar and writer who lived in the first century A. D. Supposedly, his wide-ranging curiosity led to his demise when he decided to investigate the volcanic activity he observed on Mount Vesuvius and wound up a casualty in Pompeii. In his ambitious and influential History of the World or Natural History, which was first printed in 1469 and had gone into 55 editions by 1600, Pliny praises olive oil as parallel to wine as one of the two “liquors” which are “most pleasing and acceptable to mens bodies.” Of the two, though, he explains, “Oil is necessary, and Wine may be better spared." According to Pliny, this necessary and pleasing liquor must be fresh: "Oil-Olive commeth to have a rank and unpleasant taste if it be old kept and stale, contrary to the nature of wine, which is the better for age. And the longest time that oil will continue good, is but one year."

While we have various strategies for preserving oil unavailable to Pliny, the lifespan of a pressing is still considered to be about one year. To enhance freshness, Mike and Dianne Madison of Yolo Press keep their oil in stainless steel tanks, bottling it (in dark glass bottles to protect it from the light) just before they bring it to market.  According to Mike, if the tank is less than full, the air space is filled with argon gas, an inert gas that keeps oxygen away from the oil.  So the last of the 2011 pressing tastes as fresh as the first. But there just wasn't enough to make it to the coming pressing. So now is the time to snap up Yolo Press olive oil at the market just as you would the last cherry, blueberry, or apricot.

We are such boosters for local olive oil that we often offer guests a range of oils to taste and we send bottles of oil from the farmers market as presents. We always have a bottle (or jug) of Yolo Press oil in the kitchen, and we go through it at a brisk clip. But even if we are already converts, we can still be surprised by what a difference good, fresh oil makes. And that surprise comes most often in simple dishes. Olive oil is a crucial seasoning in two of the simple soups we've written posts about, fava bean and cauliflower. Recently we cooked some white beans with a little onion and garlic in the water, and served them first whole, warm, with a spoonful of cooking liquid, and plenty of olive oil, salt, and pepper. It might sound almost punishingly plain, but they simply blew us away: such sublime and exquisite simplicity!  We then pureed the leftovers, again with olive oil, a little more garlic, salt, and pepper, and served the puree room temperature as part of an antipasto plate with bread, salami, and a simple salad. Again, the beans acted as a carrier for the oil, whose flavor stole the show.

We used to wonder why so many recipes, especially from Mediterranean cuisines, instruct one to drizzle olive oil over finished dishes (such as homemade hummus).  We once thought it added nothing but calories. But that  was before we got used to cooking with truly fresh, truly extra virgin olive oil. A puree of cooked fava beans--which we were surprised to find at Saturday's market, since their moment has largely passed--was as simple as fava beans,garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.  The olive oil added not only luscious mouth-feel but a peppery bite and a grassy note.  Similarly, pesto can seem to be all about the basil.  But olive oil is as important a part of that green wonder, adding not just lubrication but flavor.  We like our pesto in pieces, with the toasted pine nuts and parmesan on top of the pasta, which is dressed in a simple suspension of basil, garlic, olive oil, and salt.

The coming season promises to be a good one. That should mean an abundance of fresh-pressed “oil-olive” in October or November.

And here’s hoping that there will again be enough olives to cure. We loved Yolo Press’s salt-cured olives and the project of curing our own, which we did with their olives, purchased at the market, two years ago.