Cost of olive oil

[Comedycook]

Wow!

Olive oil always used to be a staple for me but I switched a while back to veg/sunflower oil as much cheaper.

But today I wanted to buy some for a particular dish I'm making. I was blown away by the prices. Just a standard bottle of supermarket stuff...not extra virgin, was about £6/7. I found the tiniest bottle of supermarket own brand for £3.30...not ev or particularly special. The really decent stuff was closer to £10+.

So wondering...when you see TV chefs they start so many recipes with olive oil and I always used it too...but seems like it's going to be a luxury product now rather than a staple.

Do you use it for standard frying and cooking?

It’s interesting looking into why with those articles

It’s showing up here in the supermarket but will be a big deal for producers and shows how climate will impact

Recently needed to buy some in Spain and was quite surprised at the price but it makes more sense now. Also compounded with only really selling in 1l+ bottles which I definitely didn't need. Very good quality though.

I’ve read that in Spain olive oil is now more expensive per litre than diesel.

I think there are lots of environmental issues such as drought and disease in Olive growing regions of Europe sadly.

It deteriorates slowly over time but you'd need to be an expert to notice the difference. We're using the oil we harvested in 2021 and it's still delicious.

I was keeping in a bottle unopened and a bottle opened at a time, 750ml bottles. I've had to stop as I now have just under half a bottle and it expired in December. I will buy a smaller bottle next time as we just don't use it quickly enough.

I asked family for consumables only last Christmas and was gifted 2 large bottles of beautiful olive oil, they were among my favourite presents and will last me at least a year.

I only use olive oil when making pizza dough, so a bottle here would last months, or close to a year. I noticed the price rise when I bought it recently and just put it down to coat of living. Eye opening to see the reasons in these articles

It's something else that dehydrates the plants making it easier to harvest.

I love the Il Cassolare olive oil. It's pricey at around £13 for a litre but it's lasts for a few months in our house and is delicious. I tell myself it's an ingredient in its own right.

I buy plain sunflower oil for cooking things like curry, stir fry or anything with a lot of spices where the flavour of the oil is masked.

@TheRealHousewife i THINK it was this company https://www.oscc.it/en/

but there were quite a few from memory, I can’t remember if it was definitely this one, MIL and I used to go in halves and get 5 litres each, the oil was really good.

Love this....I don't drink alcohol so would much rather be gifted a bottle of olive oil than a bottle of wine.

I'm astonished at how much some people are using olive oil.

A small bottle easily lasts me 6 months, often up to a year. I only use it for Mediterranian-style food (and then a small amount is enough) with the very occasional hair mask or hand mask thrown in, where I'd use 1-2tbsps.

I mostly cook with butter or animal fat from roasts. Much better than any seed oils for your health.

I also prefer animal fats but I worry about it clogging up the drains

is there actually any evidence for that?

I'm a bit dubious about this. seems sponsored by big meat very faddish and cult like to me tbh

Do you mean discarding the fat?

We always put any in a jar not the sink

Although I’m not sure it’s healthier than olive oil as in pp

I let the fat solidify then scrape into the food waste caddy....but there's always residue on pans and I'm paranoid it will clog the drains...it's why I gave up putting coconut oil on my hair as I was worried it would solidify in the shower drain.

My first choice for cooking would be olive oil.

I mainly use vegetable oil but i don't particularly like it.

I reuse excess bacon fat for cooking, I just put it in the fridge. Goose fat ends up on the roast potatoes. Butter ends up on eggs and mushrooms.

If you knew the amount of work that goes into growing and harvesting olives, you'd be surprised at the low cost of some olive oil. £10 for a half decent EV oil isn't too bad. Seriously, it's hard work and there is a lot that goes into pressing olives.

It's not that it doesn't get hot enough, it's that the smoking point is lower, but refined olive oil is fine.

It’s pretty scary how extreme weather conditions in Mediterranean countries are causing serious food problems. We saw it with peppers and tomatoes last year (and year before?) I don’t think most people have really caught on to the real reasons food is soaring in cost across the world.
I’d worry more about that, in the medium and long term, than whether seed oils are bad for you.

@PontiacFirebird Yup. We were expecting a bumper olive harvest last year then, in the space of just five minutes, a massive hailstorm in September stripped half the budding fruit from every tree. We're luckily not dependent on the crop for our income but lots of people are.

If you’re in a big city, try to find a local North African souk/shop and get some Tunisian olive oil. I got a 2L bottle for £12 a few weeks ago, no label or pretty packaging just liquid gold in a plastic drinks bottle. It’s hands down the best olive oil and usually cheaper as people tend to want Italian or Greek (in fact a lot of olive oil is marketed as Italian but shipped over the med from Tunisia and bottled in Italy!)

'I'm a bit dubious about this. seems sponsored by big meat very faddish and cult like to me tbh'

Who is 'big meat' 😂 It's the big food companies (nestle et al) who produce highly processed foods (all stuffed with seed oils NOT animal fat) that cause problems. Humans have always thrived on meat.

Rapeseed oil here. Used it for probably 5+ years. Usually it’s British rape too which I like. Use olive oil for salads.

Not even for frying off the beginnings of any ragu or casserole?