What Olive Oil can I use for Cooking?

Cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil has been done for centuries. Eventhough olive oil can be used for cooking not all olive oils should be used to cook. There are a few things to considered.

Consider the quality

The are different olive oil qualities

1. Early Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil (premium, harvested in october)

2. Extra Virgin Olive Oil (harvested between November and December)

3. Virgin Olive Oil (harvested in January)

4. Olive Oil (this is oil is differs from the other qualities because this oil is not obtained during the first "Press" it is extracted from the olives after the first oils are extracted.)

Cold-Pressed and Extra Virgin for cooking

It is common to find very expensive Cold-Pressed EVOO however this label can be misleading. Olive oil is qualified depending its properties and not its manufacturing process. Most EVOO is produced at room temperature because at lower temperatures oil becomes solid.

The best quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) is produced under 22ºC (usually done for early harvest EVOO) and a more common EVOO can be produced at no more than 28ºC.

Never cook with an Early Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil, but its totally okay to cook with a normal Extra Virgin olive Oil quality oil.

Virgin olive oil for cooking

Virgin olive oil for cooking is also a very good idea. The flavours the oils leave in the food will change depending on the oil quality and and the olive variaty.