The secrets of Oil

Oil is a unique food for its flavor, beneficial properties, and use in the kitchen. In addition to being the condiment par excellence of the Mediterranean diet, it is now widely used in the pastry shop, offering the possibility of combining taste and health. As proven by many traditional Italian recipes, it can be used as a substitute for butter.
Throughout the world, Italian olive oil is considered a product of excellent quality, so much so that it is one of the most coun terfeited foods in foreign markets.
To avoid scams and to get the best results in the kitchen and in the production area, it is necessary to know more about quality oil.

Extra virgin oil in the pastry shop

Not all extra virgin olive oils have the same qualities. Here’s which ones are best for the pastry shop.
• extra virgin olive oils with a light fruity flavor and an almond aftertaste, not very aggressive, are suitable for delicate desserts like ciambella, rice cake, pound cake, apple fritters or spreadable creams.
• extra virgin olive oils with a medium fruity flavor and velvety taste balanced by bitter and spicy notes are suitable for nut cakes, apple strudel, Sicilian cassata, jam tart, and chestnut cake.
• extra virgin olive oils with an intense fruity flavor with accentuated notes of black pepper, cinnamon and almond are ideal fordry pastries and pralines.
If you use it as a substitute for butter, keep in mind that oil is 100% fat while butter has 15% of water, so 100 g of butter is equal to 85 g of oil and 15 g of water.
If you make an oil panettone, you cannot completely eliminate the butter, but you can lighten it with olive oil.
When making desserts you can also use seed oil, preferably sunflower oil.

 Getting to know oils

A first consideration is fundamental. Not all oils have the same characteristics.
The differences are due to the different varieties of olive used (the cultivar), the soil in which the trees are grown, the climate, and the production method used.

The olive tree

The olive tree is an evergreen plant that needs a warm climate. It alternates years of abundant production with scarce ones.
Olives can be grouped into three categories: for eating,for oil, mixed.
The most common varieties are: Carboncella, Casaliva del Garda, Frantoio, Ogliarola from Bari, Ogliarola from Messina, Taggiasca.

Harvesting, not only manually

Harvesting can be done manually or mechanically. The best manual method is called brucatura (grazing). The olives are picked individually and placed in a basket, often tied to the belt of the person picking them. Brucatura with a canvas is faster and cheaper: the olives detached or shaken from the tree are dropped on a canvas lying on the ground.
Those who use the bacchiatura method shake the branches with poles.
The worst method is raccattatura, picking up olives that have fallen to the ground. Mechanical harvesting can be done in two ways: with a brushing machine that separates the leaves from the olives, or with a machine with an arm that vibrates the branch so that the olives fall to the ground.

Pressing and extraction

The olives are separated from the leaves and cleaned, then they are crushed. Traditionally this is done with two large wheels of granite called molazze (mills) that rotate on a large granite surface.
After crushing, the pulp and pits are stirred to reduce their volume and to separate the water from the oil. The oil is separated from the vegetation water and from the solid part called pomace.
The traditional method consists in pressing the mass to obtain the liquid part. A faster method, but not recommended, is continuous centrifugation.