by Mueller, Tom
• As you would with a wine, choose a style of oil that fits the role it will play in your meals. Pick a powerful oil—variously described as “robust,” “early harvest,” or “full-bodied”—to accompany foods with strong or distinctive flavors, such as pepper steak; bruschetta or fett’unta (toasted bread with oil and salt, often rubbed with garlic); fresh, flavorful vegetables like arugula; or to drizzle over vanilla ice cream (try it before you scoff!). Choose a milder oil—often called “mild,” “delicate fruit,” or “late harvest”—for foods like fish, chicken, or potatoes.
• Olive oils may be flavored with a range of fruit, vegetable, and other extracts; some of the most popular are made with lemons, blood oranges, and other citrus fruits. While many olive oil cognoscenti (and most Europeans) turn up their noses at these oils, they have a wide following in North America and Down Under. The best are made by crushing whole fruit or peels together with the olives, a process called agrumato. Make sure that the base oil flavor isn’t rancid, and that the flavoring itself is fresh and not artificial tasting.
• Avoid bargain prices, because producing genuine extra virgin oil is expensive. Though high prices don’t guarantee great oil, low prices—under about $10 for a liter—strongly suggest that the oil you’re buying is inferior. Having stated these general guidelines, it’s worth considering two potential exceptions. First, new, mechanized methods of olive growing and harvesting (such as super-high-density cultivation—see Glossary) are reducing production costs, allowing excellent oils to be made at lower prices than with traditional methods. Second, government subsidies to olive growers and oil-makers in the European Union and elsewhere allow subsidized producers to charge far lower retail prices for their oils than producers in the US and Australia, where no subsidies exist.
• Once you’ve bought your oil, store it in a place where it’s protected from light, heat, and oxygen, the three enemies of good oil, which speed spoilage. And don’t hoard it! Even great oils deteriorate with each passing day, and all too soon will become ordinary, even rancid, if not used quickly.
• There is a great deal of disagreement, and a fair bit of misinformation, concerning whether to use extra virgin olive oil, rather than refined (“pure,” “light”) olive oil, for frying. Quality extra virgin olive oil is a fine choice for sautéing and shallow frying, so long as its flavor doesn’t overpower the food; an aggressive early harvest oil would be a poor choice to sauté fish, for example. Using extra virgin olive oil for deep-fat frying at higher temperatures is uneconomical and can even be counterproductive, because the cooking process sometimes accentuates the harsh flavors in the oil, and many of the flavors and aromas of fine oils will volatilize and disappear. Refined olive oil is probably a better choice for deep-fat frying, though there are undoubtedly many milder extra virgin olive oils that hold up well to frying—the lower an oil’s free fatty acidity, the higher its smoke point (the temperature at which it begins to smoke and produce unpleasant, unhealthy by-products), and the more times it can be reused. (Each time the oil is heated its acidity rises, meaning that its smoke point and quality both decline.)
• Depending on their composition, most olive oils harden when chilled to around 3 degrees Celsius. As they cool, a waxy sediment settles out of them. Freezing does not harm an oil—in fact, it’s a good way of preserving oil—but may reduce its shelf life if substantial sediment is produced. The idea that the freezing point of an oil indicates whether an oil is adulterated is a myth. For more details see the excellent précis at www.oliveoilsource.com/page/freezing-olive-oil.
• See www.extravirginity.com for a wide range of web resources about oil. Websites for further information on extra virgin olive oil include the following:
• Olive Oil Times (www.oliveoiltimes.com): The best source for daily news from the olive oil world.
• Olive Oil Source (www.oliveoilsource.com): An excellent and diverse array of resources covering many aspects of olive oil chemistry, tasting, and production.
• Teatro Naturale (www.teatronaturale.it in Italian and www.teatronaturale.com in English; the Italian site is better and more comprehensive): Olive oil news from many European perspectives, sometimes taking the side of larger producers and bottlers.
• UC Davis Olive Center (http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/): The new olive oil research center at one of America’s most important agricultural universities, which has an IOC-recognized taste panel and performs important research into sensory analysis. The UC Davis Olive Center has the potential to become one of the world’s leading voices regarding extra virgin olive oil.
• Slick Extra Virgin (www.aromadictionary.com/EVOO_blog/): A highly entertaining and informative blog by Richard Gawel, Australian chemist, oil taster, and consultant who is as meticulous about facts as he is caustic about slippery behavior in oil. Gawel also sells an ingenious plasticized wheel laying out the terms used in oil tasting, which is a convenient reference tool.
• ONAOO (www.oliveoil.org): A good site, in Italian and English, by one of the premier olive oil associations in the world, the National Organization of Olive Oil Tasters, located in Imperia, Italy.
• Association 3E (www.super-premium-olive-oil.com): A perceptive look at both the philosophical and the pragmatic aspects of quality in olive oil, and an introduction to “super-premium olive oil,” which 3E proposes as a new designation for top-quality oil, to replace the by now meaningless adjective “extra virgin.”
• Modern Olives (www.modernolives.com.au): The premier laboratory for the chemical analysis of olive oil in Australia, and in the world.
• California Olive Oil Council (www.cooc.com): The leading association of olive growers and oil producers in America, which compiles a list of certified oil producers (www.cooc.com/pro ducers_certified.html) and offers a range of other useful information. The COOC has its own taste panel.
• North American Olive Oil Association (http://naooa.org/): The trade association of the olive oil importers in the United States, which runs quality tests and a certification program, and recently encouraged the USDA to upgrade its trade standard for olive oil to meet international norms.
• The Olive Press (www.theolivepress.com): The slick website of the equally slick Sonoma oil mill and shop.
• Australian Olive Association (www.australianolives.com.au/web/) The trade association of the Australian olive oil industry, whose stress on olive growing and oil-making skills as well as innovative chemical testing has pushed the envelope of olive oil quality throughout the world.
• Merum (www.merum.info): The superb, opinionated, highly informed website of Andreas März, which considers a wide range of Italian oils and wines (in German).
• Zingerman’s (www.zingermans.com): One of the best selections of olive oils—and a great many other exotic foods—available by mail-order in America.
• Harold McGee (http://news.curiouscook.com/): Journeys through the science of food, including olive oil, led by a world authority in the chemistry of food and cooking.
• International Olive Council (www.internationaloliveoil.org): The historic intergovernmental olive oil body representing growers in countries around the Mediterranean, whose tasting protocol helped create the modern definition of extra virgin.
• Corporazione Mastri Oleari (www.mastrioleari.it): An authoritative group of top extra virgin olive oil producers (in Italian).
• Veronica Foods (www.evoliveoil.com): A high-quality source of olive oil for a growing number of specialty stores across America, as well as its own outlet Amphora Nueva in Berkeley, California (http://amphoranueva.com).
• Marco Oreggia (www.marco-oreggia.com/default/htm): An independent olive oil taster who writes one of the more important yearly guides to top olive oils worldwide (in Italian and English).
• UCCE Sonoma (http://cesonoma.ucdavis.edu): High-class technical resources for olive growers and millers.
• Slow Food (www.slowfood.com): The global food NGO offers important information on top oil
s and oil producers, and compiles a yearly guidebook (in Italian) that is required reading for oil aficionados.
• Gambero Rosso (www.gamberorosso.it): A leading Italian wine and food association whose new guide to Italian extra virgins, updated each year, is a useful reference.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Though olive oil has been made for millennia, little has been written about producing good oil, and surprisingly few generally accepted truths exist, even among generally accepted experts, about oil quality, production, nutrition, chemistry, regulation, labeling, crime, and punishment. Therefore, the vast majority of the data on which this book is based came not from written sources, but from conversations on the front lines of oil, with growers, oil-makers, salesmen, and scholars. Because of the absence of canonical wisdom about olive oil, these authorities themselves often disagree, even violently, about the basic truths of oil. I’ve frequently had to navigate among their widely disparate views, while endeavouring to avoid the treacherous shoals of opinion, rumor, and half-truth. The satisfactions of making great oil (and even bad oil) normally go far beyond money, since earning a living in high-quality oil has become extremely difficult in many countries. Olive oil soaks into people’s family histories, their cultural roots, their mythic and poetic imaginations. Oil is a substance of strange intimacy, and making it is a very personal occupation.
For all these reasons, Extra Virginity is as much about the people who produce olive oil, good and bad, as it is about the oil itself. While writing this book, I’ve had the good fortune to meet many hundreds of oil people, some larger-than-life, others soft-spoken and shy, but most with a deep pride and conviction in what they do. I’ve walked with them through olive groves and oil mills on four continents, watched them perform chemical analyses, heard them explain marketing strategies and tease out legal arcana. Above all I’ve tasted their oil, sometimes humble, other times magnificent, as they’ve looked on expectantly; then we’ve discussed their views on this mysterious foodstuff. Even where I disagree strongly with their beliefs about oil, or object to their activities, they have taught me much. I wish to thank some of these people here, publically and gratefully. Many more I can’t identify, because they spoke to me on condition of anonymity, but my heartfelt thanks go to them nonetheless—you know who you are!
I am grateful to numerous officials of the Carabinieri, the Guardia Forestale, the Fraud Repression and Quality Control office of the Italian Agriculture Ministry, and other Italian police forces and investigative corps, who took time off from more pressing activities and investigations to speak with me. Particular thanks go to the Guardia di Finanza, without whose superb investigative work and frequent, generous help, from corporals and major generals alike, I wouldn’t have been able to write large sections of this book. Likewise Domenico Seccia, Pasquale Drago, Michele Ruggiero, and a number of other investigative magistrates in Italy provided invaluable information and interpretations, and functionaries in various district courts and appeals courts throughout Italy, including the Supreme Court in Rome, helped in locating and parsing court documents. Officials of OLAF, the anti-fraud office of the European Union, likewise supported my work, notably the impressive Alessandro Butticé and the former director of the agriculture unit, Elisabeth Sperber. Regarding the generous assistance I received from EU officials, I wish in particular to acknowledge Paulo Casaca, Vincenzo Lavarra, Michael Mann, Antonio Bellucci, and Umberto Guidoni. Thanks to Rudy Filko and Mike Drewniak at the New Jersey district attorney’s office for details on oil adulteration cases in America, and members of the Food and Drug Administration, past and present, including Martin Stutsman, David Firestone, and Michael Herndon, for vital data on US government oversight of olive oil and, more broadly, on the American food supply. I received essential legal advice from Ed Davis of Davis Wright Tremaine; Alberto Russo of Studio Legale Associato Russo; Giorgio Fontana of Studio Legale Associato Avvocato Fontana Giorgio; Tim Macht of Macht, Shapiro, Arato & Isserles; Marvin L. Frank of Murray, Frank & Sailer; Bruno Cova of Paul Hastings; and Mark Greenberg at UCLA.
Regarding the history of olive oil from classical times to the present, a number of scholars gave me the benefit of their vast erudition, including David Mattingly at the University of Leicester, Nigel Kennell at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Tom Scanlon at the University of California, Riverside, Angelo Bartoli at the Centro di Archeologia Sperimentale “Antiquitates” di Blera, Giordano Sivini at the University of Calabria, Massimo Montanari of the University of Bologna and Andrea Brugnoli at the Centro di Documentazione per la Storia della Valpolicella. Henry Blackburn at the University of Minnesota told me amusing and illuminating anecdotes about the work of Ancel Keys in the Mediterranean. While I was in Cyprus, Maria Rosaria Belgiorno of the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche was an inexhaustible source of information and splendid images (not to mention meze), particularly regarding the excavations she directs at the Bronze Age site of Pyrgos. Jean-Pierre Brun of the Centre Jean Bérard of the University of Naples and the French Centre National de la Récherche Scientifique, in addition to the treasure trove of his four-volume history of olive oil and wine, generously provided images for my book, as did José Remesal at the University of Barcelona, a leading authority on the amphorae of Monte Testaccio. More help with amphorae came from David Williams at the University of Southampton, and the impressive Amphora Project web resource which he helps to run. Tina Mirra, Paolo Imperatori, Denise Gavio, Simonetta Serra, and the rest of the team at the American Academy in Rome, my old stomping ground, furthered my research in this project, as they have in many others, and dosed me with espresso and fine oil when my energies flagged.
A number of distinguished olive oil organizations aided and guided me. Among these I wish to thank the Corporazione Mastri Oleari in Milan and its indomitable director, Flavio Zaramella, sine qua non. Dan Flynn and his staff at the University of California, Davis, Olive Center helped me understand the vagaries of the US oil market and of California olive-growing. Bob Bauer at North American Olive Oil Association shared important information on the US market and its various players. Thanks also to the International Olive Council in Madrid, especially Francesco Serafini and former director Fausto Luchetti, and to Fabrizio Vignolini and the staff of ONAOO in Imperia.
Thanks to Marco Mugelli and Lamberto Baccioni, two independent oil-making consultants (Mugelli also makes superb oil), for insights on cutting-edge oil processing technology; Andrea Giomo for a range of erudition about olive oil processing, tasting, sex, statistics, and marketing; and Roberto D’Auria at the Istituto di Servizi per il Mercato Agricolo Alimentare (ISTAT) for a valuable overview of olive oil economics. Freelance olive oil consultant and educator Alexandra Kicenik Devarenne has instructed me in oil-making in California and beyond, and assisted me in countless other ways. Journalists and writers who furthered my work include Bernardo Iovene at RAI 3, Toni Mira of Avvenire, Roberto De Petro of TeleNorba, Giuseppe De Tomaso of La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, wine and culinary critic Isao Miyajima, and Luigi Caricato at Teatro Naturale, who shared acute observations and valuable contacts drawn from a lifetime of thinking about olive oil, both good and bad. Claudio Peri, founder and president of Association 3E, challenged me to think more clearly about the technology of food quality, and the philosophy of excellence in olive oil. Don Celso Bidin, monk and olive-miller at the Monte Oliveto Maggiore abbey in Tuscany, and Don Luigi Ciotti, founder and president of Libera, Associazioni, Nomi e Numeri Contro le Mafie (“Associations, Names and Numbers Against the Mafias”), taught me about the spiritual and liturgical roles of olive oil, past and present, while Alessandro Leo, head of the Terre di Puglia agricultural cooperative, demonstrated for me the courage needed to make oil on lands formerly owned by, and still under the shadow of, organized crime. While on the subject of bravery, I salute Antonio Barile, president in Puglia of the Italian farm union CIA, an expert, ingenious, and tireless force in defense of farmers and consumers alike.
A number
of lipid chemists and food quality specialists patiently taught me olive oil from the inside out and the molecules up. Most notable among these are Lanfranco Conte at the University of Udine and Alissa Mattei, formerly of Carapelli and now of Casa Montecucco, two people whose hospitality and wit are as finely tuned as their science. Thanks also to Giovanni Lercker at the University of Bologna; Ed Frankel at the University of California, Davis; Gary Beauchamp at Monell Chemical Senses Center; and Giorgio Cardone at Chemiservice. Agronomists Paul Vossen at the University of California Cooperative Extension, Zeev Wiesman at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Gianluigi Cesari at the Istituto Agronomico Mediterraneo di Bari, and David Lee at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in the UK helped firm up my grasp of the botanical and genetic enigmas of the olive tree itself, just as sensory scientist Erminio Monteleone of the University of Florence inducted me into the arcana of astringency, umami, and mouthfeel. For recent research into the nutritional and health properties of olive oil, I’ve consulted Francesco Visioli at the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies, Antonino De Lorenzo at the Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata,” and Atul Gawande of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and The New Yorker. Greg Drescher and Bill Briwa at the Culinary Institute of America helped me think more clearly about olive oil’s role in cooking and eating, and together with the charismatic chef/restaurateur Paul Bartolotta, showed me how great chefs can be opinion leaders (and cheerleaders) for fine oil. Members of Slow Food provided valuable information and contacts throughout Italy—thanks especially to Diego Soracco, Pasquale Porcelli, Elisa Virgillito, and Paola Nano. Mark Wickens kindly gave me access to his magnificent private collection of historic olive oil labels, and spent many thankless hours at the scanner on my behalf ([email protected], http://pages.infinit.net/wickens/).
