The Science of Olive Oil: The Best Shopping Tips and How to Use it in Sweets | What's Eating Dan?

[Music] I distinctly remember the first time I went to a restaurant as a kid and instead of those softened pads of butter they poured olive oil onto a plate and served it with a bread I remember tasting it and I did not get it like at all it wasn't salty like butter it was a creamy like butter it was a green oil that was kind of bitter that night I've vowed to myself to remain on Team butter for the rest of my days well today I'm here to disappoint little kid Dan I still love butter but if I'm honest with myself I want team extra-virgin olive oil although I learned to enjoy extra-virgin olive oil in pasta sauces and on salads pretty early on I didn't really understand it until I tasted it and that might sound kind of silly but what I mean is taste it the way of olive oil sensory experts taste it it goes something like this pour a tablespoon or two into a small glass now the pros use blue tinted glasses so they're not influenced by the color of the oil but I'm using a clear one and it's my wine glass will totally work here cup the glass like this with both hands in order to gently warm the oil and trap the aroma now hold and swirl for about a minute it's not really peaceful now we stick our nose in and take a good whiff whoa this one's actually really interesting I get a little bit of grass some artichoke maybe something a little cinnamon this kind of smelling is called or therm as olfaction it's coming from outside into my nose now for the taste if you do this part correctly you should look pretty silly I'm gonna take a decent swig of this oil suck air through it to aerate and then close my mouth and breathe out through my nose this gives me retro nasal olfaction where aroma compounds travel through a back channel and the back of my throat through my nose and out that step will give us tons of flavor then we finally swallow and pay attention to the spicy burn of any bitterness that spicy burn is a form of chemisty cyst where a chemical compound causes a physical sensation we talked about Kenneth Cesis with ginger bubbly beverages and chili peppers and olive oil yep it's got it too interestingly that burn is localized entirely in the back of the throat because that's where the olio Kanthal receptors are located and it turns out and the olive oil biz folks talk about a1 cough - cough or even a - reek hop olive oil one of the big factors that determines the character of an extra virgin olive oil is how right the olives were at time of harvest generally speaking less ripe olives produce more green flavors like artichokes and grass more burned and more bitterness riper olives will produce oils that are more mild and buttery I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that enjoying olive oil even if you're not tasting it the way that I just did is pretty easy but buying the stuff that can be daunting store shelves are lined with so many different brands and different bottle shapes and sizes they all come from different countries the only thing they seem to have in common is they aren't expensive well there's two good bits of news the first is that Cook's Illustrated olive oil expert Lisa McManus has done extensive testing of a supermarket and special order olive oils her work has included independent lab testing and expert tasting panels you can find links to her full reviews and recommendations right below this video the other good bit of news you have more power than you when it comes to shopping let's head to the kitchen I have a bunch of extra virgin olive oils here in front of me and they all have one common enemy actually four and those enemies go by the acronym halt halt stands for heat air light and time as a cook you have a lot of control over a few of these factors first let's look at heat one of the reasons that extra-virgin olive oil is so flavorful is that its exposure to heat is controlled carefully during the production process among other things he drives flavorful aromatic compounds out of the oil and into the air to keep flavor in your oil store it in a cool place that means not too close to the stovetop and definitely not right above it next up is light ultraviolet light is high in energies when it hits delicate oil it can break chemical bonds and cause oxidation the easiest way to avoid light is to choose an olive oil in a dark or a better yet opaque bottle and then store it in a dark place finally you can control time in a couple of ways and the first is at the store pick up the bottle find the best by date and then completely ignoring we found those dates to be ridiculously optimistic often listed as many years out but the label does have a number that is really really valuable and that's the harvest date you want that date to be as close as possible to the date that you are buying it most northern hemisphere oils are harvested between November and January and then they're released in May so you're gonna be looking for a date that's likely the year before that means in the second quarter of 2019 you're gonna see it 2018 date got it okay good and the other element of time is entirely in your hands buy small bottles that you can use quickly and then you use it I probably don't need to tell you how to drizzle fruity grassy peppery a little bit better extra virgin olive oil on top of pasta pizza eggs steaks grilled vegetables but one place where it's often overlooked isn't sweet applications such as ice cream we can replace the cream with a combination of extra-virgin olive oil and water and revel in how that peppery burn is balanced by refreshing cold if you're feeling indulgent you can also dress a little extra right on top or in cake olive oil which is liquid at room temperature will make a cake that is moister than one made with butter I a virgin olive oil add subtle grassiness to this cake while keeping it super moist for days or match it with lemon in this lemon olive oil tart again olive oil Trump's butter whose dairy proteins bind to the flavor compounds in lemon and mute them olive oil will let all of that bright lemon flavor shine you know what I've got the perfect combo slice of olive oil cake scoop of olive oil ice cream yeah this is definitely how to eat olive oil thanks for watching are you a 1 2 or 3 cop olive oil kind of person let me know in the comments and hit that subscribe button we'll see you next time

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 237,874

Keywords: olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, extra-virgin olive oil, best olive oil, best extra virgin olive oil, olive oil uses, olive oil taste test, olive oil recipes, olive oil recipe, best olive oil for cooking, finishing olive oil, finishing oils, cook's illustrated, america's test kitchen, dan souza, what's eating dan

Id: 6EtUDPHSeoc

Length: 6min 8sec (368 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2019