Olive Tree to Olive Oil
Italy is the second largest producer of olive oil, led by Spain. In terms of consumption though, Italy consumes the most, followed by Spain, then the United States. During the Roman time, they used a lot of olive oil in Italy. Then when the barbaric population came, they brought with them the use of more meat, pork, and a large use of pork fat in cooking and frying. Not only did they fry and cook with it, they also used it to preserved food in it as well. Butter is a later invention because it was very difficult to maintain, going rancid very quickly. Around the late 1200 and 1300, butter was mainly used by farmers because they were the ones making it. The people in cities had a difficult time obtaining it because by the time the butter got from the farm to the cities, it was often rancid. This made butter very expensive, therefore no one really used it.
I decided to do some further research into butter on my own to see what else I could find! The first reference to butter was found on a piece of limestone that illustrated how butter was made, dating back 4,500 years. A lot of people believe that the word butter originates from a Greek word bou-tyron , or "cow cheese," but others think it came from a cattle-herding Scythians language. Not only was butter eaten by the Asiatic Indian tribes, it was also sued for burning in lamps and as a skin product to protect you from the cold. Last semester I took history & Cultures of Asia and we learned that during the Tanf Dynasty in China, clarified butter was highly regarded. In society, it represented the ultimate development of the Buddha spirit.
When grinding olives into a paste, there are two main types of crushers: either stone mills or hammer mills. Stone mills use stone rollers or wheels that go in circles on a slab of granite. An advantage to this process is that the stones do not cut the skins of the olives, therefore there is less chlorophyll released. With less chlorophyll, the olive oil is less bitter. The disadvantage to this mill is that they are very difficult to clean. This means that cleaning all of the oil out of the machine before grinding another can be difficult, but if it is not cleaned properly, rancid olive oil can mix with the new olive oil. Hammer mills have swinging arms that push the olives into the sides of a rotating chamber. This process can be continuous, it is easy to clean, and is a well-known technology, therefore this is a more common method.
Okay, so a commonly asked question is "what is the difference between Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Virgin Olive Oil?" I am here to clarify! EVOO in the states must have an acidity of less than 0.8 grams per 100 grams of olive oil. The extra part is due to the taste, where virgin is the way that it is made. In Italy, EVOO must have an acidity less than 0.6 grams per 100 grams of olive oil.
When you go to the store and buy olive oil, it is important to really read the bottle. There is a lot of olive oil fraud out there. Sometimes the bottle may say "Product of Italy", but it was really just packaged in Italy and the olives come from other countries.
Here are 5 tips to avoid olive oil fraud:
1. Look for the 3 U's: unfiltered, unpressed, unheated
2. Must be certified organic
3. Should be in a dark glass bottle
4. Should have a "best by" date
5. Check for a harvest or milling date
Now we move on to the tasting of olive oil! You should never taste olive oil on a metal spoon because it will alter the taste due to the chemicals in the metal. When tasting, you should really use glass, but if not use plastic. We had a guest come and do an olive oil tasting with us and he taught us the correct way to do it. When evaluating olive oils, the three main categories to look at are the fruitiness, bitterness, and spiciness of the olive oil. These 3 categories are what good oils have, but bad oils will have aromas that are more dirty, spoiled, etc.
We took a trip to a local olive oil plant and got to see first hand the process of making olive oil. Here are some pictures I would like to share!
Apulian Cuisine - Apulia (Puglia) has plains and little hills which provide farmland for grains, wine grapes, and olives for olive oil. There is seafood from the Adriatic and Ionian Seas that surrounds Puglia because it is "caught between 2 seas." The seafood often found here often consists of mussels, oysters, octopus, squid, sea urchins, and others. A lot of the recipes from this region are soups, stews, salads, and some pasta. The most important part of their cuisine is the locality of their vegetables.
With love,
Baylee
I decided to do some further research into butter on my own to see what else I could find! The first reference to butter was found on a piece of limestone that illustrated how butter was made, dating back 4,500 years. A lot of people believe that the word butter originates from a Greek word bou-tyron , or "cow cheese," but others think it came from a cattle-herding Scythians language. Not only was butter eaten by the Asiatic Indian tribes, it was also sued for burning in lamps and as a skin product to protect you from the cold. Last semester I took history & Cultures of Asia and we learned that during the Tanf Dynasty in China, clarified butter was highly regarded. In society, it represented the ultimate development of the Buddha spirit.
When grinding olives into a paste, there are two main types of crushers: either stone mills or hammer mills. Stone mills use stone rollers or wheels that go in circles on a slab of granite. An advantage to this process is that the stones do not cut the skins of the olives, therefore there is less chlorophyll released. With less chlorophyll, the olive oil is less bitter. The disadvantage to this mill is that they are very difficult to clean. This means that cleaning all of the oil out of the machine before grinding another can be difficult, but if it is not cleaned properly, rancid olive oil can mix with the new olive oil. Hammer mills have swinging arms that push the olives into the sides of a rotating chamber. This process can be continuous, it is easy to clean, and is a well-known technology, therefore this is a more common method.
Italian lesson! The word frantoio in Italian means olive mill.
Okay, so a commonly asked question is "what is the difference between Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Virgin Olive Oil?" I am here to clarify! EVOO in the states must have an acidity of less than 0.8 grams per 100 grams of olive oil. The extra part is due to the taste, where virgin is the way that it is made. In Italy, EVOO must have an acidity less than 0.6 grams per 100 grams of olive oil.
When you go to the store and buy olive oil, it is important to really read the bottle. There is a lot of olive oil fraud out there. Sometimes the bottle may say "Product of Italy", but it was really just packaged in Italy and the olives come from other countries.
Here are 5 tips to avoid olive oil fraud:
1. Look for the 3 U's: unfiltered, unpressed, unheated
2. Must be certified organic
3. Should be in a dark glass bottle
4. Should have a "best by" date
5. Check for a harvest or milling date
Now we move on to the tasting of olive oil! You should never taste olive oil on a metal spoon because it will alter the taste due to the chemicals in the metal. When tasting, you should really use glass, but if not use plastic. We had a guest come and do an olive oil tasting with us and he taught us the correct way to do it. When evaluating olive oils, the three main categories to look at are the fruitiness, bitterness, and spiciness of the olive oil. These 3 categories are what good oils have, but bad oils will have aromas that are more dirty, spoiled, etc.
We took a trip to a local olive oil plant and got to see first hand the process of making olive oil. Here are some pictures I would like to share!
This is an old centrifuge that was used to remove the oil from the water in the olives.
This is sensa, what is left over after the grapes are pressed. This is often in a lot of olive oils but is not good. They take this and make more olive oil out of it, but a good plant will not sell it for food. In the states especially, if you see olio di sensa, do not buy it!
This machine is used to shake the olive trees and catch all of the grapes in the "umbrella" like looking tarp.
This is the machine that crushes the olives for the oil. The olives go in it and are crushed by rollers.
These olives are ready to be made into olive oil!
Fun Fact of the Day: Apulian Cuisine - Apulia (Puglia) has plains and little hills which provide farmland for grains, wine grapes, and olives for olive oil. There is seafood from the Adriatic and Ionian Seas that surrounds Puglia because it is "caught between 2 seas." The seafood often found here often consists of mussels, oysters, octopus, squid, sea urchins, and others. A lot of the recipes from this region are soups, stews, salads, and some pasta. The most important part of their cuisine is the locality of their vegetables.
With love,
Baylee
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