![]() ![]() He says it works just as well in a dressing as it does drizzled on top of a sizzling pie straight from the oven. ![]() That’s certainly true for Matt Hyland, co-founder of New York’s Pizza Loves Emily. Nick Coleman, olive oil expert, educator, and co-founder of the olive oil subscription service Grove and Vine, says, “it has a light to medium body, is a little buttery and viscous in the mouth, and isn’t too assertive.” Plus, “it’s at a price point you can really cook with,” he adds. ![]() ![]() Anna Hezel, senior editor at Epicurious and cookbook author, calls it a “mild olive oil that is still pleasant-tasting.” She uses it for frying, baking, and drizzling, noting that she’s “never had a bad bottle.” This is because California Olive Ranch is one of the few bigger producers that always notes that harvest date. But don’t just take it from me: Many of our experts told me it is their go-to as well (not to mention it’s a brand often used in professional test kitchens). It’s affordable enough that I don’t feel guilty using a decent amount for shallow-frying, and mellow enough that it can take the back seat in marinades (but still not so neutral that the taste totally disappears when I whisk it into a salad dressing). That said, our list is also a very good place to start, covering a “mellow and mild” everyday cooking oil that won’t break the bank, a “peppery” finishing oil that “grabs you,” and many more.Īs someone who goes through a lot of olive oil on a daily basis, the bottle you’re most likely to see on my counter at any given time is California Olive Ranch. This analogy gets thrown around a lot, but picking a “best” bottle of olive oil is a lot like picking a “best” bottle of wine (meaning, nearly impossible). The rest is pretty much up to how you’re going to use the olive oil and your own personal taste, which means there are a lot of stellar bottles we had to omit for fear of making this list more overwhelming than useful. While there are equally delicious olive oils being made everywhere from well-known countries like Italy, Greece, and Spain, to less-thought-of places like California, Chile, and Australia, bigger industrial producers tend to mix a bunch of different strains together (even if they’re all technically extra-virgin). (Neither Lycopolus nor Jenkins will buy bottles that have been stored on the top shelf of a grocery store.)įinally, Jenkins says, you can look for the olive varietal or the estate on which the olives were grown and pressed. Light, heat, and oxygen are all enemies of olive oil, meaning your best bet is that the liquid gold is contained in a dark glass or entirely opaque bottle, ideally not made from plastic or a non-stainless-steel type of metal, and stored away from windows or industrial lights. (Expiration dates can actually be misleading they’re measured from bottling, which means it’s possible the oil sat around for a long time before then.)Īnother key indicator of freshness is bottle color and material. Olive oil is a fruit juice, and, as such, it gets dull-tasting around 12 months and has certainly gone bad by 18 months. Within the extra-virgin category, there are a few ways to find the good stuff. But the bottom line is that extra-virgin contains “no defects” from picking, to processing, to bottling. The threshold for olive oil to be extra-virgin is intense (it involves laboratory tests, and is, in fact, the only edible commodity in the world to also involve human taste tests). If you see a bottle only marked “olive oil,” that means it’s been treated and refined, the subtleties of taste disappearing entirely. To start, you should only be buying extra-virgin olive oil, as both Emily Lycopolus, olive-oil sommelier and author of The Olive Oil and Vinegar Lover’s Cookbook, and Nancy Harmon Jenkins, cook and author of Virgin Territory: Exploring the World of Olive Oil, told me. You should know that if you follow several basic guidelines, you’re most of the way there. Some boast that they’re “extra-virgin,” and others say “pure” or “refined.” Even as an avid home cook who’s also spent years around professional cooks and in test kitchens, the sheer number of options can easily cause decision fatigue - which is why I consulted a group of experts to narrow it down to some of the tastiest, most reliable options on the market. Some are small with high price tags, others are bigger at a reasonable cost. Some hail from Greece, others from California, others still from Italy. The olive oil section at the grocery store is no joke. ![]()
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