The more saturated the oil, the more it will tend to solidify in the refrigerator. Canola oil is polyunsaturated, while olive oil is largely monounsaturated. Your mixture of canola and olive oils was unsaturated enough that it didn’t solidify in the fridge. One hundred percent olive oil is more saturated than the mixture, so it did solidify.
As others have already pointed out, no harm was done when the oil congealed in the fridge, but it’s not necessary to refrigerate vinaigrette.
By the way, Aldi does some pretty good, very cheap extra-virgin. Think it’s Greek and let’s face it they need all the help they can get.
I’m lucky - my girlfriend’s family owns their own olive grove. I get mine in bulk containers straight from the press, and it’s the best I’ve ever tasted. :smug:
It is because of your phenomenal hot-sauce-proof fortitude! Forty-six studliness points for you!
Sorry to tweak. I will never forget my family’s first meal at a pho restaurant in Seattle the mid-80s… my dad, who really does like spicy foods, but not knowing how hot this particular stuff was, put a big ol’ scoop of the red sauce from the condiment dish on the table, probably half a cup, and proceeded to Not Show Fear while he ate it all, every drop. Partly because, you know, if you’re a kid and you do something to your restaurant order, you are required to eat it all and not waste food… He turned bright pink and sweated to soak his collar, but he only said things like “Very tasty,” as he visibly struggled not to gasp. Fifteen or so years later I watched my husband do pretty much the same thing at a nice Thai restaurant in Ithaca NY, but was (ahaha!) privy to the consequences in the next 24 hours. Husband promised that if he ever did that again, I was totally free to mock him as mercilessly as possible. And I have. And we subsequently lived in Austin, home of the annual Hot Sauce Festival – in August, of course – where this sort of thing is a spectator sport.
I have no idea how capsaicin tolerance came to be linked with testosterone, but boy howdy, it sure is.