by Jared Garrett

Created on: April 05, 2007   Last Updated: May 15, 2007

Olive oil, olive oil. It is on your shopping list but you can't find- there! Suddenly you are faced with three shelves of differing brands and types of olive oil. You have virgin, extra virgin, regular, and others if you are in a good store. So what is the difference anyway? Can all olive oils be used the same way?

THE DIFFERENCE
Virgin and extra virgin olive oils are actually processed much differently from regular olive oils. This is what causes the difference. For a virgin olive oil to be able to have that label, the olives have to go through what is called a mechanical cold-processing. This means that the olives cannot be touched by any chemicals or similar. The process must be mechanical. This includes olives processed by hand. By using this cold process, the olive oil will keep its natural, fruity flavor better than regular oils.

Another nice tidbit about virgin olive oils is that they can be called extra virgin olive oil only if they have less than 4% of something called oleic acid. This is a fatty acid, a mono-unsaturated one, that can found in vegetables and animals. This fatty acid is actually not terrible for you, but it is the lack of this acid that matters in the labelling of extra-virgin olive oil.

Finally, regular olive oils do not have the restriction on how they can be processed, which makes them somewhat lower in quality. Their taste is more flat and standard across the board. However, these lower grades still have their place in the cooking world.

USES
Extra-virgin and virgin olive oil can have so many subtle flavor differences that their use depends on the individual. The most important thing to note is that they are not to be used for frying. They smoke fast and really don't work. So stick with adding them to already cooking food and dressings. If you can find a really tasty virgin olive oil, sometimes that is all you need on a plate of pasta. Well, that and perhaps some freshly grated parmesan.

Regular olive oil can be used for frying, but you need to watch the heat. If the heat gets out of control, the olive oil will smoke away like nobody's business. Regular olive oil is not as good in dressings, but also works just fine in cooked sauces.

So in the end, there is a significant difference between virgin and regular olive oils. But this difference actually serves a nice purpose, making your olive oil quite versatile. So get a pot of pasta going and break out the extra-virgin, because all this talk of food is making me hungry!

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