Olive Oil
Olive oil is sacred. It’s been a source of life, resilience, and prosperity since humans began living in one place long enough to leave evidence.
We use a lot of olive oil in our cooking.
Let’s get to it. How do we choose and use olive oil?
More flavor is more labor. And usually that costs more. Manual extraction takes incredible effort. Heat and chemical refinement have done wonders for increasing yield and extending shelf life, but they also degrade flavor. Traditional makers grind olives into a paste, spread it on mats, and manually press them. Though most operations use a centrifuge nowadays, it’s still a low temperature, manual process. The resulting oil is aromatic and vibrant. It also takes a helluva lot of olives to produce a tiny amount of oil with a short shelf life.
Good olive oil is seasonal. Check the harvest date. In the northern hemisphere, harvest is in the fall, so we probably don’t have any 2025s quite yet. For the best flavor, use olive oils within 12 months of pressing. Freshly pressed olive oil has an intoxicating grassy aroma and verdant green color. It’s our go-to for drizzling over salads, grilled veggies, raw fish, and even cake.
Say goodbye to one-size-fits-all. Just like sushi-grade tuna, if we’re eating it raw, we want the good stuff. But it’s not pragmatic to use that $50 bottle of Sicilian extra virgin for all your cooking needs. A mid-tier extra virgin olive oil will provide plenty of body and flavor in your tomato sauce (and make your dollar go a lot further in the kitchen).
For searing and high heat cooking, choose a fat with a higher smoke point. We use clarified butter and rice bran oil. Some folks swear you shouldn’t cook with olive oil at all (heat destroys some of the antioxidants), but it’s not that black and white. Sometimes we just want the flavor.
The bottom line: buy small quantities of the good stuff, and use it up. We finish nearly everything with olive oil. Store your oils in a cool place (about 60℉) away from sunlight. For this reason, choose oil in a dark glass bottle or metal tin. Stay away from clear bottles and plastic.
We’re glad you’re cooking with us.
Cheers,
Sten and Mac
Chef Snacks
Cooking Tip
Compost ground spices that are older than 12 months. Like olive oil, they dull and degrade drastically over time. Old spices won’t hurt you, but they lose so many of the aromatic compounds that make us love them in the first place. It’s best to buy spices whole, then toast and grind what you need a little at a time. If you don’t have time for that, find a place to buy your ground spices in smaller quantities.
Purveyor Spotlight
Chefshop.com. It’s a fantastic, Diagon-Alley-esque store for specialty foods, spices, and you guessed it, olive oil. Order on their website or stop by their brick and mortar in Interbay and check out these fancy and mid-tier oils, among others. Sometimes they have olive oil tastings. For those playing Aster Pantry bingo, you can spot our business cards by their register.
Olive Oil Cake Recipe
Our go-to summer dessert. Get the recipe here!
