Olive oil

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I usually buy mine from Tesco. Not Tesco own brand but.....I'm wondering if I should try a really lovely olive oil for cooking etc

Any suggestions?

Is it worth splurging on olive oil for cooking or only for dressings?

I use to use the most expensive olive oil for my hair once a month.

As a vegan I cook only with olive oil or coconut oil and occasionally sesame or other nut oils. I buy my olive oil in bulk direct from the cooperatives harvesting the olives, which is usually ready towards the end of November. The two cooperatives I buy from are Honest Toil, which is in Greece, but has UK distributors. All their oil is cold-pressed unfiltered. The other is Spanish called DirectdelOlivar. They will send to the UK. Their olive oil is also cold extracted and you can get both filtered and unfiltered. The olive oil from both these suppliers is delicious. I buy 5 litre cans, which need to be stored in a cool dark place and decanted into dark green dispenser and spray bottle. I actually don't know if they are more expensive than or cheaper than store bought olive oil, but I've been to the olive grove in Jaen and know the history of how the village bought the grove and run the entire process, so am happy to support them. The same with the Greek producers of Honest Toil, although I've never visited their olive groves.

And tastes horrible.

I use light olive oil for cooking.

I get mine online from Carluccios.
The first time I bought it because of the container but once I discovered how good it was I kept on buying it .

I buy Tesco Finest Sicilian Extra Virgin Olive Oil for salads and drizzling. It was recommended by Which? when they tasted loads of supermarket EV olive oils. We love it.

I use this oil for everything....

Lidl Olive Oils - never been disappointed! Lots of choice available!

I think it’s now thought that the cooking temperature in domestic settings isn’t a problem. Obviously don’t use it in a chip pan, if you have one! I do use it to fry etc but it’s not so hot.

Can you use oil as a substitute in cakes, cookies etc?

I can't stand supermarket cake but hate the creaming process so anything that avoids that is a winner in my book.

I use EVOO (Lidl's everyday Greek) for most stove top cooking purposes, but be careful about using it to oven-fry. It is responsible for most of the oil build up in ovens according to my oven-cleaning genius as the relatively low smoke point means it laminates onto the interior. Animal fat burns off and is less of a problem.

Better EVOO from the Mediterranean deli is reserved for dressings and finishing touches, or dipping.

Aetos ithaki is the best EVOO.

https://www.aetosithaki.com/

Edit: too good to use for everyday cooking. Delicious for dipping!

Use groundnut or rapeseed cooking. Save the EVOO for drizzling.

Just make sponge cakes using the all in one method. I never make them any other way now, and I am known for my delicious cakes. Most Mary Berry sponge cake recipes are all in one.

Some cakes, yes. Mostly I comb the internet (via Google) for recipes that are intended to use oil, but I've also been reading up on how to substitute oil for butter in other recipes. Cakes using oil are generally a bit lighter and more moist, so they keep really well.

A Victoria sponge might not work well, but I haven't had a failure yet.

I'm mostly disappointed by the olive oil you get in the supermarkets (I bought Fillipo Berrio Organic Extra virgin once because I was hopefully given the higher price but it was rubbish). My favourite olive oil is Turkish but it's about 26 quid for half a litre so can't really afford that often. I haven't been excited by any of the greek ones I've tried. Belazu also not doing it for me. Maybe I'm just too fussy.

Exactly! I can’t stomach the taste of rapeseed it’s disgusting. Always cook in olive oil, butter or coconut oil - depending what I’m cooking.

Have you tried Tesco Finest Sicilian EVOO? It was recommended by Which? and is lush.

Olive oil is especially delicious with chocolate IMO.

I'm no baker but I do a 3 minute microwave mug cake with a few ingredients including oil and it's lovely.

When do you use each one? 🥰

I have heard of a subscription service called citizens of soil

I also use those three.

Coconut oil for curries
Light olive oil for general frying
Extra virgin olive oil for salads and drizzling
Butter for omelettes and risotto

I hope you didn't mind me jumping in here @YesssSpringHasSprung

Thanks! What do you use for roasting?

Light olive oil. DD is vegetarian so it is always oil.

Rapeseed oil is horrible. I know a lot of it is British and we should support British farmers and that, but its awful. We've spent god knows how much on aall the fancy cold pressed virgin ones and its still horrible.

I use coconut oil for roasting and deep frying; olive oil for everything else (occasionally sesame or other nut oils for dressings).