Is olive oil hard to find in some states?

[even sven]

As I finished cooking dinner earlier, I asked my signifigant other why everyone doesn't cook with olive oil. It's somewhat healthy and it's very very good.

He claims that in some states, it's hard to find. Here olive oil is up on the supermarket shelf just like any other kind of oil and it isn't considered a specialty item or anything. Is it true that there are places in the civilized world where olive oil isn't found in supermarkets?

[BobT]

I can't find exact figures, but the U.S. consumes a LOT of olive oil, most of it imported from Italy or Spain.

I would think that off in some more rural areas of the U.S., it may be difficult to find olive oil. I doubt you will find it easily in small farm towns in South Dakota.

[Walloon]

No problem finding olive oil in small farm towns in South Dakota. The same distribution systems that bring any other cooking oil to small farm towns in South Dakota can bring olive oil there too. This is 2003, not 1953.

[kniz]

Olive oil is usually found in the "liquid state". Over a hot stove you may be able to find some in the "gaseous state", but rarely if ever will you find it in the "solid state".

:D But just in case you are seriously wondering, we have olive oil in Mississippi.

[BobT]

By South Dakota, I wasn't referring to distribution, but rather to its popularity.

But if you figure that you can buy a pizza pretty much everywhere, it's probably not that hard to find olive oil.

[Walloon]

Olive Oil is used to sauté buffalo steaks (http://www.ghphotography.org/South_Dakota_11_Fort_Pierre.html) in South Dakota.

[BobT]

I should have picked on North Dakota.

[Seven]

We are in the middle of the great olive oil shortage here in Oregon. The state rations it out and a large underground black market has developed.

Ok,. that's a lie.

I've found some people don't like the taste of olive oil and prefer to use a bland, no flavour veggie oil instead.

I think they're nuts. Olive oil is great. I use it often.

(psst. it's also good for those "adult" times when you break out the Twister game with the lady friend)

[Balthisar]

Olive oil is great, but doesn't work very well for popcorn. Go ahead; try it.

[Tristan]

Hehehehe..... www.spiritscorner.com has some of the really nice expensive olive oils that can be imported, if you're interested.

[Athena]

I don't think olive oil is particularly rare. Every grocery store up here in the middle of nowhere carries it, so either we got some really enlightened yoopers up here, or it's everywhere.

[dono]

Report from small-town Wyoming: Several brands of olive oil are readily available here, in a wide range of price/quality. The local supermarket chains even have their own cheapie house-brand ("Western Family") olive oil.

[Revtim]

As a child I've lived in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Virginia, and Florida, and my parents had no trouble finding it in any of those states. They probably would have moved immediately if they had.

Some don't like it because they find it "heavy".

[Una Persson]

I've searched, and can find no reference to olive oil being scarce, or especially hard to find anywhere in the US.

Many people simply never cook with it, because they don't care for the taste. My mother never really used it in more than 30+ years of cooking. I use it almost exclusively.

[Popup]

Originally posted by kniz
Olive oil is usually found in the "liquid state". Over a hot stove you may be able to find some in the "gaseous state", but rarely if ever will you find it in the "solid state".
Not true! If you store extra virgin olive oil in a fridge, you will have a cloudy precipitate, which is in fact solid olive oil!

Now, the real question is where to find plasma olive oil!

[Philster]

Olive oil is available throughout the USA, but is extra pure virgin olive oil easy to come by?

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

My mom never cooked with it. But then I grew up in a community where all sauces and casseroles had cream of mushroom soup as the main ingredient.

My palate has since expanded, but hot damn I still loves me some tater tot casserole.

[Philster]

Originally posted by Popup
Not true! If you store extra virgin olive oil in a fridge, you will have a cloudy precipitate, which is in fact solid olive oil!

Now, the real question is where to find plasma olive oil!


"Ozonated Olive Oil
If you slowly and continuously (24 hours a day) infuse ozone from our cold plasma generator into olive oil (organic preferred) over a period of several weeks, you will wind up with Ozonated olive oil. After 6 weeks of ozonation, it will obtain a very viscous, balm like consistency. After placing it in a small jar, you stick it into the freezer for storage (always put it back into the freezer after use in order to retain the maximum potency of ozone). "

http://educate-yourself.org/ozone/

[even sven]

Ha! I knew my boyfriend was full of lies!

[Popup]

Originally posted by Philster
"Ozonated Olive Oil
Quick! Get the tinfoil hats!

But seriously! Wouldn't the ozone just break up the double bindings? Or is that why it gets 'gooy', the oil no longer beingpolyunsaturated?

[Philster]

I don't know, I thought it would be fun to search on "plasma olive oil".

[Popup]

Originally posted by Philster
I don't know, I thought it would be fun to search on "plasma olive oil".
Have you seen the rest of that site! It's full of every kind of suspect ideas imaginable. Everything from mind control (http://educate-yourself.org/mc/) (Yes, the gubbermint is controling you!) to Free Energy (http://educate-yourself.org/fe/) and chemtrails (http://educate-yourself.org/ct/).

It's worth a visit, but do wear your tinfoil hat!

[The Mermaid]

There are many varieties of olive oil available at any grocery store here in Ohio and the really expensive stuff is offered at some delis and specialty stores as well.

But for me, nothing beats Bertolli's (http://www.bertolli.com/canadese-e/bertolli_cae.asp?country=CAE&lang=EN).

[Evil Captor]

Olive Oil is easy to find. Just head for the commotion caused by Popeye and Bluto fighting, and there she is...

[Nametag]

Originally posted by Philster
Olive oil is available throughout the USA, but is extra pure virgin olive oil easy to come by? AHA! An opportunity to clear up a misconception!

Extra virgin olive oil is not "pure"; it's the least refined, the first pressing, the one with all the olive stuff left in it. After additional refining, you get "light" olive oil, which is more suitable for everyday use, much lighter in flavor, and yet still has all the health benefits people seek from olive oil. You can find it in the supermarket, next to the green stuff.

Extra Virgin olive oil is probably easier to find, though, because it's more distinct from other vegetable oils than light olive oil, and is thus more popular.

[Philster]

From Olive Oil to Mind Control. Only in a SDMB thread.

Life's more fun with the foil hat off.

[Walloon]

Originally posted by Evil Captor
Olive Oil is easy to find. Just head for the commotion caused by Popeye and Bluto fighting, and there she is... That dame is Olive Oyl (http://www.mtcnet.net/~bierly/olivereg.htm).

[D_Odds]

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil is the nectar of the gods. I frequent a green grocer who has a very nice selection of olive oils. Of course, the Philistines in my household couldn't tell one from the other, but I enjoy the different nuances between the different growing areas. I'm rather fond of an organic Napa Valley variety, of all places.

[Nuke]

Olive oil is available here in the midwest, but it is significantly more expensive than on either coast by my experience. When I visit my parents in New Jersy, I always pick up a couple of cans of Bertolli's from their local Wegman's supermarket. $8.99 for 3 liters in New Jersey vs. $16.99 in Omaha.

[Fretful Porpentine]

I had a professor once who insisted that olive oil was hard to find when she moved to North Carolina in the mid-1980's, although it's certainly a common enough staple now. (It should be noted that the prof in question is a bit of a flake, so I'm leaving this for other longtime North Carolinians to corroborate or contradict.)

[sailor]

Originally posted by Nametag
Extra virgin olive oil is not "pure"; it's the least refined, the first pressing, the one with all the olive stuff left in it. After additional refining, you get "light" olive oil, which is more suitable for everyday use, much lighter in flavor, and yet still has all the health benefits people seek from olive oil. I am afraid not. http://www.cerespain.com/tiposdeaceite.html says virgin means no chemical process, only pressing, and "extra virgin" adds that acidity be below 1º whereas simply "virgin" can have acidity up to 2º. Both come from the pressing of olives. After the first pressing further oil can be extracted by solvents and this is "refined" olive oil.

[Philster]

I'm Italian. I want the first cut, first press....whatever!

[Nametag]

Sailor, are you under the misapprehension that you've contradicted me? There's nothing in what you said that isn't exactly what I said.

[Tuckerfan]

Wal-Mart even has it's own brand of olive oil, so its safe to say that it's everywhere!

[sailor]

Originally posted by Nametag
Sailor , are you under the misapprehension that you've contradicted me? There's nothing in what you said that isn't exactly what I said. I guess we interpret things differently then. You said Extra virgin olive oil is not "pure"; it's the least refined. I say that is wrong. All olive oil is "pure". And the word "refined" when referring to olive oil does not mean "more pure" or anything of the sort. "Refined" olive oil is not more "refined" according to the common meaning of the word. It is strictly a marketing term. It means "extracted by chemical means" as opposed to "virgin" which means "extracted by mechanical means". Virgin olive oil is always considered better than "refined" olive oil.

[lite]

Jesus h Chrst.

I can't comprehend an olive oil debate.

BobT, I live in North Dakota and can go to at least 5 grocery stores to get Italian olive oil, virgin and otherwise. Shut up and go away you just made my PAB list, get personal on me, I hope you can take it, when we're done go ahead and attack other Americans. You're WORTHLESS!!!

This is as bad as a debate over which French wine is the best(I just know there's going to be a debate over this).

If you can tell the ingredient of an oil based on taste alone, you have WAY too much time on your hands

[sailor]

Originally posted by lite
Shut up and go away you just made my PAB list, get personal on me, I hope you can take it, when we're done go ahead and attack other Americans. You're WORTHLESS!!! I guess this is related to this (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3019064#post3019064). With only five posts you're making quite a splash already.

[manhattan]

Originally posted by lite
You're WORTHLESS!!!
Who, precisely, the fuck are you and when did you get a moderator gig?

Kid, there's a "report this post to a moderator" button at the bottom of every single post on this message board. You got a problem, you press that button. You do not tell people how to act on this board and you do [/b]not[/b] refer to your fellow members as worthless in this forum.

[Evil Captor]

I wrote a bit for a television review explaining the nature of olive oil pressings, in the form of a translation of a damsel-in-distress scene from an Italian police melodrama:

The scene begins with a man and a woman strolling innocently in the park, discussing last night's dinner.

Man: You know, the dressing on my salad was not so fresh. I wonder if it was actually extra virgin olive oil in it.

Woman: It was not extra virgin.

Man: Ordinary virgin, then?

Woman: No, not really.

Man: Well, first pressing at the very least...

Woman: Nope, not first pressing.

Man: What do you mean, not first pressing?

Woman: Well, the price was great, but it WAS fourth pressing.

Man: (Berserk with rage) FOURTH PRESSING!!!

(MAN grabs WOMAN, puts knife to her throat.)

Man: I am so enraged by your slovenly olive oil that I don't know whether to cut your throat with this knife...

Man: ... or shoot you with this gun!

Woman: Oh, you make me so hot when you do stuff like this! Why don't you tie me to a bed or something and chew me out for my poor olive oil purchasing decisions?

Woman (gleefully): I am such a bad little olive oil buyer!

Man: Fourth pressing! That's so low, I don't even know what it is...

(Seizes woman's cheeks and presses them together.)

Man: You will tell me what the fourth pressing is!

Woman: Make me, you brute!

Man: Very well, you leave me no choice!

Man (leaning forward to place his mouth on Woman's stomach): If you do not tell me what the fourth pressing is, I will blow on your stomach and make disgusting noises thusly! (Man does so, causing woman to writhe furiously in her bonds.)

Woman : Stop! Stop! I will tell!

Man: All right then , I knew that would break you utterly. Now tell me all about this fourth pressing...

Woman: OK. You know the extra virgin olive oil is when nuns go out to the olives in the fields dressed in thongs and perform the lambada and the paso doble in the groves until the olives break out into a sweat, and they scrape that olive sweat from the olives.

Woman (continues): And the virgin olive oil is when the town's beautiful virgins come out to the fields and gently squeeze the olives with their soft, red lips, collecting what oozes from the bottom of the olive. Then there is the semi-virgin olive oil, collected when the semi-beautiful, almost virginal girls come to the fields and work the olives with their knowledgeable lips and tongues, collecting what spurts out of the olive.

Man: I have bought the videos on occasion ...

Woman: Then you know. The first pressing is when the olives are dumped in the vat and the beautiful girls come and crush them with their soft, delicate feet. The second pressing is when sweaty, burly guys with hammers bash the olives flat. For the third pressing, the olive mash is laid out on a tarp and oxen are led over it, trampling it further. And the fourth pressing is what comes out from between the pads when we squeeze the ox's hooves together periodically.

Man: AAAARGH! That is too disgusting for words!

[Nametag]

Originally posted by sailor
I guess we interpret things differently then.Yes. I interpret them correctly You said Extra virgin olive oil is not "pure"; it's the least refined. I say that is wrong. All olive oil is "pure". :wally I was responding to Philster's post -- which I quoted to make that fact more clear for the (ahem) less observant among us -- in which he used the expression "extra pure virgin olive oil." There is, of course, no such thing as "extra pure virgin olive oil"; it's "extra virgin olive oil." Which is, indeed, the least refined of olive oils, since it is only pressed once, and never chemically refined.And the word "refined" when referring to olive oil does not mean "more pure" or anything of the sort.I didn't say that it does; I was merely defining "extra virgin." "Refined" olive oil is not more "refined" according to the common meaning of the word. It is strictly a marketing term. Bullshit. It's a industry term, meaning, obviously, that it's been refined. Period. YOU are the only person in this thread who thinks "refined" means -- I don't know what the hell you're thinking, "dainty" or something.It means "extracted by chemical means" as opposed to "virgin" which means "extracted by mechanical means".ALL olive oil is extracted by mechanical means. "Virgin" means "not refined beyond pressing." Virgin olive oil is always considered better than "refined" olive oil.Again, bullshit. Virgin olive oil is more flavorful than refined olive oil, and if that's what you want, then it's better. Most people who buy olive oil for cooking do want the flavor, so they buy virgin or extra virgin. However, there are uses for which strongly flavored oil is inappropriate, and for such uses, light olive oil is BETTER. Light olive oil is refined from virgin oil that isn't suitable for sale, so in that sense it's inferior, but by the time it's been refined it's of satisfactory quality for its uses.

[ghostrider]

Yup. I tend to use lighter/cheaper olive oil for sauteeing, a heavier oil for sauces, EV for salads & such.

Sailor's original post & subsequent posts by others made me realize, tho, in all my persuals of olive oil shelves, I have never seen a bottle labeled "virgin olive oil." It's always either extra virgin or simply olive oil. Where does the virgin oil go? Has anyone ever seen it?

[even sven]

I've seen just plain virgin olive oil. Most of the major O.O. brands make it.

[sailor]

Originally posted by Nametag
Yes. I interpret them correctly Nope. You obviously have not read the page I linked to, have you? Bullshit. [refined is] a industry term, meaning, obviously, that it's been refined. Period. YOU are the only person in this thread who thinks "refined" means -- I don't know what the hell you're thinking, "dainty" or something.

ALL olive oil is extracted by mechanical means. "Virgin" means "not refined beyond pressing." You really need to do your homework. As the page I linked to clearly says, olive oild extracted by pressing is called "virgin". That is what virgin means. The crushed olives still contain oil which cannot be extracted by pressing but they are soaked in an organic solvent which disolves the oil. This solution is then "refined" to extract the oil from the solvent. That is what the term "refined" means. There is no such thing as "refined virgin" olive oil. It is either "virgin" (extracted by pressing) or "refined" (extracted by solvents). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Virgin olive oil is always considered better than "refined" olive oil.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Again, bullshit. Virgin olive oil is more expensive than refined olive oil by a wide margin. I would say that proves it is considered more desirable. But I guess you can make the argument that manure is better than olive oil because you can use manure better than olive oil to fertilize a field.

Anyway, I'm beginning to agree that this topic is not worth arguing.

[Mac Guffin]

Originally posted by lite
Jesus h Chrst.

I can't comprehend an olive oil debate.

BobT, I live in North Dakota and can go to at least 5 grocery stores to get Italian olive oil, virgin and otherwise. Shut up and go away you just made my PAB list, get personal on me, I hope you can take it, when we're done go ahead and attack other Americans. You're WORTHLESS!!!

This is as bad as a debate over which French wine is the best(I just know there's going to be a debate over this).

If you can tell the ingredient of an oil based on taste alone, you have WAY too much time on your hands

On behalf of the rest of North Dakota, I appologise for this.

Also, Olive oil is plentiful here. I buy it by the gallon.

[Philster]

Extra virgin olive oil, the cold-pressed result of the first pressing of the olives, is only 1 percent acid. It's considered the finest and fruitiest of the olive oils and is therefore also the most expensive. Extra virgin olive oil can range from a crystalline champagne color to greenish-golden to bright green. In general, the deeper the color, the more intense the olive flavor. After extra virgin, olive oils are classified in order of ascending acidity. Virgin olive oil is also a first-press oil, with a slightly higher level of acidity of between 1 and 3 percent. Fino olive oil is a blend of extra virgin and virgin oils (fino is Italian for "fine"). Products labeled simply olive oil (once called pure olive oil) contain a combination of refined olive oil and virgin or extra virgin oil. The new light olive oil contains the same amount of beneficial monounsaturated fat as regular olive oil.

[Philster]

The Pure Extra Virgin olive oil is obtained through a simple process of pressing chilled olives that are found in the foot hills of Umbria (Italy). The picking of these olives is undertaken entirely by hand. This Oil has an intense green color, a soft olive fragrance and a full rich flavors.

http://www.poggiolivo.com/

[Philster]

Originally posted by Philster
Olive oil is available throughout the USA, but is extra pure virgin olive oil easy to come by?

This Italian reaffirms his position.

Pure Extra Virgin Olive Oil for me, please. See ya on the foothills of Italy. :cool:

[Nametag]

You really need to do your homework. As the page I linked to clearly says, olive oild extracted by pressing is called "virgin". That is what virgin means. The crushed olives still contain oil which cannot be extracted by pressing but they are soaked in an organic solvent which disolves the oil. This solution is then "refined" to extract the oil from the solvent. That is what the term "refined" means. There is no such thing as "refined virgin" olive oil. It is either "virgin" (extracted by pressing) or "refined" (extracted by solvents).Sailor, the cause of your confusion is clear. Chemically extracted olive oil is called "pomace oil," and is not suitable for food use (though some fry in it - yuck). Refined olive oil, as I said, is pressed olive oil that has been refined to eliminate acidity or other unpleasant flavors or odors. This is normally done with charcoal. From this site (http://www.oliveoilsource.com/definitions.htm): Refined Olive oil or Pure olive oil

This is obtained by refining virgin olive oils which have a high acidity level and/or organoleptic defects which are eliminated after refining. An oil with maximum acidity of .5g/100g - .5% with maximum peroxide value mequiv 02/kg of 10. Over 50% of the oil produced in the Mediterranean area is of such poor quality that it must be refined to produce an edible product. Note that no solvents have been used to extract the oil but it has been refined with the use of charcoal and other chemical and physical filters. An obsolete equivalent is "pure olive oil."And Philster, your inept use of adverbs started this whole mess. Extra Pure Virgin Olive Oil doesn't exist; Pure Extra Virgin Olive Oil, on the other hand, does exist, although the deisgnation of "pure" for something that's unadulterated by definition is clearly marketing schmooze and nothing more.

[Philster]

Let me hang my head in shame!

My use of adverbs is -choke- inept!

I'm in way too good a mood to give a hoot! Can't wait to stop into my favorite 9th street deli tonght, pick up my buddy Dave for a trip to the Flyers game, and make sure he loads me up with the darkest, richest extra virgin olive oil he can get. The very same stuff he gives to Emeril when he's in town. Some Cacia's rolls, sopressata, roasted peppers and fresh extra sharp provolone, baby!

Have some good olive oil and lighten up!

F'Naples! :cool: