Enough to keep canola on hand for when I dont want oo flavor.
I use EVOO for cooking all the time. It’s perfectly fine to use for sautéing and gives you good flavor. I don’t think I’ve ever bought any of the so-called “light” or other, lesser oils.
Of course, I don’t pay insane amounts of money for it - I am quite fond of TJ’s Greek kalamata oil. Great for salads, too.
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I do the same. I only buy olive oils I love, and I always have several. Some are very pricey and I use them only to dress stuff, others I get on sale or at Costco and I use them for cooking.
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Hey Jammie!
I actually started this thread because I don’t know a ton about cooking with olive oil. For each article I find on the benefits of cooking with EVOO (more stable! better fats!) there is another suggesting a lower grade for cooking (use refined oil olive oil! less expensive! higher smoke point!) . Even then, for refined olive oils you fall in a salad of words that makes little sense for me (pure! classic! light! extra-light!) For my part I just defaulted to seed oil because I just became frustrated by the lack of clear answers and I thought the whole “EVOO” fashion trend muddied the water more than it helped… I also prefer the nutty aromas of a seed oil to the floral and vegetal aromas of olive oil. I do, however, enjoy the fruitiness some olive oil can have.
The oil I use in my cooking impart some flavours but is not dominant. To be honest, I usually use it in combination with butter as a textural element (crisping, frying) or as a vehicle for flavour (browning, cooking, ect). Its rarely used as a core element so my reluctance to the aroma takes a back seat.
I’m revisiting my stance on olive oil because I see a lot of chefs using it when I look at youtube recipe (jamie oliver and gordon ramsay to name a few… what do they see that I don’t?) but, most importantly, I’m in the middle of an italian cooking binge and I want to use the right oil that comes with the ingredients for my initial tests (after I’ll just switch the oils if I think the impact is minimal but I feel that I at least need to make an initial effort).
Since reading articles about it typically introduce more confusion than it helped and I never got clear answers in shops I thought asking for empirical data from people who actually use this stuff might be a better way of going at it!
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Thanks for the feedback!
You know? That might be the single best answer to my worry about smoke point. I never thought of looking at it like that.
To be honest, if it were up to me, I’d leave all the standard stuff to the germans. If they grade olive oil like they do with their rieslings we’d never have any confusions.
Trust me, I do read. Its just that everybody and his mother has a different opinions and experts tend to sound like leaders of a sect when they argue for it (for example: http://www.truthinoliveoil.com/2013/10/science-cooking-olive-oil)
You know what? That is does not surprise me. At all. I always thought there was a lot of “circlejerking” in olive oil enthusiasm and learning that people might prefer the fake stuff just confirms my opinion on the subject. I still want to use “authentic” olive oil since the driver of my question is using it in “authentic” italian recipes. 
I’ve moved away from a lot of canola use. Mostly due the fishy smell I get when heating. The Costco grape seed oil is what I’m using for clean flavors and higher heat searing
They also sell avocado oil, which is good for high heat cooking, too.
Yeah both over kill cost wise for a high heat flavorless oil
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EVOO is no go-to for most non-butter cooking. I’ve never considered anything else. Generally it’s Costco’s.
So! Just a small update for friends living in Montreal.
I went for a walk and looked around. When I say “looked around”, I mean I went to:
- IGA on the corner of Charlesvoix and Mullins in PSC
- Maxi on Wellington in Verdun
- Metro on De l’église in Verdun
- Fruiterie Vert Pomme in Verdun
- Branche d’Olivier in Verdun
- IGA Atwater in Place Alexis-Nihon
- Marché Adonis downtown
- Supermarché PA on Fort
I still have a few places to go, namely spots downtown, on the plateau and in little italy.
Some places had a lot of choice but didn’t have any that were in my list so I didn’t take note. The IGA Atwater/Adonis/Supermarché PA bermuda triangle was especially replete with choices but few of them were in my list.
I’ll start with Costco’s canadian online portal since it can be a good baseline. The only one in my list they have (surprisingly I don’t see any kirkland brand!) is Terra Delissa. Terra delissa’s price scale on volume. I’m looking to buy around 750ml since I know I’ve historically haven’t bought a ton and I’m still not set on a brand. The lower volume they sell is 3 bottles of 500ml (so 1.5l). The price is 30$, so 2$/100ml. If I were to buy the 6 litre format, my cost per 100ml would go down to 0.67$/100ml but then I’d have to use a metric ton.
Maxi on wellington in Verdun has a small cache of O-live at 10.29$ for a 750ml bottle. That’s 1.37$/100ml
La Branche d’olivier has various sizes of Lefas. They sell it at 7.95$/750ml so that would be 1.06$/100ml. The problem for me its that the Lefas brand is made with kalamata olive oil and I’m not sure if the resulting oil will be spicier and has a flavor profile that’s proper for italian cooking (Marcella Hazan looks down on Kalamata olives for italian cooking… does that translate to oils too? Hmmm).
Adonis do not carry proper Cobram estate oil but they do carry their infused oils (Lemon/Chili/Basil/Garlic) at 10.49$/250ml (4.20/100ml). That’s too expensive for me and I’m unsure I want to start with flavored oils.
Supermarché PA has cheaper Lefas than La Branche d’olivier at 6.49/750ml. That takes the price down to 0.87$/100ml.
Right now I am partial to O-Live at 1.37/100ml. I still have a lot of places to go though. On my list:
- Atwater market
- Super C near Atwater market
- Brick and mortar Costco store near wellington in PSC
- IGA louise ménard at Le complexe desjardins
- IGA louise ménard at Place Dupuis
- La Vieille Europe on Saint-Laurent
- Librairie Espagnole on Saint-Laurent
- Marché Sakaris on Saint-Laurent
- Provigo on Mont-Royal
- Marché Jean-Talon
- Little italy (I don’t know the neighbourhood very well so I’ll roam around.
I find that for properly hot searing of meat etc. oo does smoke too easily and therefore use grape seed or ground nut. For almost everything else (e.g. sauteeing the veggies and meat for a bolognese sauce or coq au vin) oo is exactly what is called for and is just fine.
Eggs fried in oo taste too much of the oil for me. Not so good at breakfast!
I think I remember eating eggs fried in olive oil that had a slight tinge of green. Maybe it was a nightmare?
Updated my list following recommendations and put it in alphabetical order (easier when you are in the oil alley of the supermarket).
Potentially good
• Acropolis certified organic
• Acropolis organics, biodynamics series
• Betis
• Bodegas roda SA « Dauro »
• California Olive Ranch
• Campo di Torri certified organic
• Casa caponetti certified organic
• Cobram estate
• Corto Olive
• Costco kirkland toscano
• Lefas
• Louianna estates certified organic
• Lucero (ascolano)
• Lucini
• McEvoy ranch organic
• Old village certified organic
• Oleoestepa
• O-Live
• Omagio
• Ottavio
• Planeta
• Rincon de la subbetica certified organic
• Spartan rolling hills biodynamic series
• Spartan rolling hills certified organic
• Terra Delissa
Stay away from
• Bertolli
• Carapelli
• Colavita
• Star
• Pompeian
• Filippo Berio
• Mazzola
• Mezzatta
• Newman’s own
Milano, an Italian supermarket in Little Italy near Jean Talon Market, has a vast selection of olive oils (among many, many, other Italian treats).
Yep! Its on my list! I live pretty far from little italy but the core of my “little italy” section is indeed milano!
“I live pretty far from Little Italy” - but not as far as I do - I live in Toronto! And I shop at Milano when I visit Montreal. Even though Toronto has one of the largest Italian populations outside of Italy, Milano is as good as (or even better) than the Italian supermarkets here.
Il faut bien prendre le Metro la Capitain Haddock!
Good to know!
I don’t get to little italy nearly often enough. I always take the metro but if the south west is “my neighborhood” and downtown/plateau is “lets go outside my neighborhood” then the “marché jean-talon/little italy” area is “lets go on an expedition” territory. I must admit I’m a bit afraid of liking Milano and having no other choice but trek to little italy every other week to get that special something I can’t find anywhere else!
I have to go back to Toronto! I have a friend who studied in UofT and left his heart there I fear. Learned that smokeless joe closed some time ago to my great dismay! Hope Bar Volo is still open?
Smokeless Joe’s moved, but left it’s heart behind. Much has changed in Toronto, but there are always new discoveries around the corner…
In Montreal I love the Plateau, Atwater Market, and especially the Jean Talon Market. Every time I visit the Atwater Market area (your hood?), I stop at the little house at 3021 Rue Delisle attached to the Union United Church. There is no plaque there, but the late great Oscar Peterson was born in that house, and grew up there and then down the street. The birthplace of the ‘Maharajah of the Keyboard’ should be a National Historic Site - after all he was one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, and one of Montreal’s greatest contributions to humanity. What does that have to do with cooking you may ask? I cook better, and enjoy eating even more so when listening to Oscar Peterson play!
Yep, Atwater market is my hood!
I fear I don’t know the Montreal Oscar Peterson knew. Oscar Peterson was born and raised in a Montreal dominated by the first transformation of raw products. Ships could not get further than Montreal so they would just dump all their stuff there and would tranform it onsite. The train economy was huge with most people coming in by windsor and bonaventure stations, where clubs and bars would be close. Montreal seemed to have a similar status as new york then.
In 1959 the federal government created the saint-lawrence seaway system and the raw products could bypass Montreal and go directly in the great lakes. It wasn’t the 1960’s independance movement that changed montreal forever. It wasn’t expo 68 either. It was a combination of the Drapeau/Pax Plante municipal government and the saint-lawrence seaway project.
If you want to read a tourist account of Montreal in the twilight of that era you must acquire “Montreal Confidential” written in 1950 by a columnist for the Montreal Herald and Montreal Gazette named Al Palmer. It is a fascinating account from a local on that era. Unfortunately, even for a resident Montrealer like me, nothing remains of it.
Fascinating! My father came to Montreal as a European immigrant in 1953 at age 28. This was the Montreal he discovered. I just ordered a copy of Montreal Confidential - Merci bien Capitain Haddock!
