About Olive Oil

Extra Virgin
Cooking with Olive Oil
Olive Oil and Your Health
Olive Oil and Your Skin
Olive Oil and Your Home

First, let’s set the record straight on the types of olive oil. It is Olive Oil if it is oil that has come only from the fruit of the olive tree; not mixed with any other oil.

Olive oil is divided into two classifications; Olive Oil and Virgin Olive Oil.

Virgin Olive Oil means that the oil has been extracted only by mechanical or phsyical means (not chemical) and under conditions that do not alter or deteriorate its characteristics.

Virgin Olive Oil is divided into grades. Most are familiar with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and the other grade is Virgin Olive Oil (yes, it is the name of the classification and the grade).

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil must have an acidity level of less than 0.8 percent with no defects. This is considered superior olive oil. Just like cooking with wine, you should use a good olive oil for cooking. Choose the best flavor; that is what you will flavor your food with. It also has the highest nutritional value.

First Cold Pressed is just that, the very first oil that is produced when the fruit is pressed. It is pressed using a hydraulic press at temperatures of less than 80 degrees F (27 degrees C). Nearly all mills cold press today.

Estate Grown, Blended, and Light Olive Oil are other designations sometimes seen in the stores. Estate Grown is a term used in California olive oil production, which is growing and winning awards! The terms indicates that 95 percent of the oil is from a particular estate. Blended means that olive oils from different regions or cultivars have been combined, a common practice in most olive oil producing countries.

The term Light or Extra Light on a label are used to make you think you’re getting olive oil with fewer calories. That’s not the case. It actually just means the oil is lighter in color and usually blended, sometimes with something other than olive oil. In other words, it's a marketing gimmick.

Cooking with Olive Oil
Drizzling olive oil on vegetables or using it in salad dressings has become commonplace in most kitchens, but that’s just the beginning. Mediterranean cuisine calls for drizzling fresh olive oil on almost everything; it is kept on the table as a condiment to drizzle on bread, soup, cooked fish and meat, vegetables. Keep an attractive Ah love bottle on your table alongside your salt and pepper. Using flavored olive oils adds the fruity quality of the oil with an extra boost of flavor from fresh fruit, herbs or savory fused tastes. Try drizzling bacon flavored olive oil on creamy tomato soup or Persian lime on fresh grilled tilapia.

Olive oil is an easy, nutritious, and delicious substitute for butter in baking. Try your favorite cake baked with olive oil instead of butter; you’ll get a moister cake with fewer calories and more good fat. If you just can’t leave the taste of butter behind, but want the nutritional value of olive oil, try our butter flavored olive oil - the best of both worlds!

Marinate
Use olive oil in marinades, especially fused and flavored olive oils. Olive oil penetrates the food adding extra flavor and tenderness. Try marinating chicken in Koroneiki Greek Olive Oil and Fig Balsamic or Lemon Olive Oil and Mango Balsamic.

Sauté & Fry
Olive oil is superior for sautéing and frying. It is more resistant to heat than seed and nut oils and can be heated to high temperatures without smoking. Olive oil actually increases in volume when heated, so you need less. And best of all, when frying, olive oil coats food rather than saturating, so you have a crisper, less greasy crust.

Grill
When grilling, coat your steaks, chops, fish or vegetables with a bit of olive oil to seal in juices and add a flavorful coating. Be sure to let meats sit for about 10 minutes before cutting to preserve the juices all the way. Try roasted garlic olive oil on steak or rosemary olive oil on pork chops. Veal is wonderful with porcini olive oil and fish is brightened with lemon olive oil. The basil olive oil is wonderful on grilled vegetables.

Olive Oil and Your Health
Finally, healthy fat is getting its due. Nutritionists know that good fat is imperative to good health. Many credit olive oil with being the perfect food actually lowering cholesterol - and it tastes better than fish oil! A healthy diet includes 15-20 percent of daily caloric intake in monounsaturated fatty acids - make yours olive oil.

Olive oil has been used for centuries in Mediterranean cultures
	•	To calm upset stomachs	•	Kill head lice
	•	As a natural laxative	•	To relieve muscle cramps
	•	To sooth earaches	•	Repel insects
	•	Ease the pain of arthritis	•	Suffocate ticks
	•	To prevent colon cancer	•	Relieve man-of-war and jellyfish stings.
	•	Even as a hangover relief!	•	...just to name a few!

Olive Oil and Your Skin
The beautiful Italian actress Sophia Loren has been touting the benefits of olive oil as a skin treatment for decades. We’re beginning to listen. Olive oil softens and smooths skin and has the ability to lock in moisture. It stimulates collagen and elastin. It is the perfect skin care for reducing wrinkles around eyes, or as a night-time moisture treatment. Use to keep cuticles moist or as a treatment to soften dry-chapped hands. It is also a wonderful lip softener. Try rubbing a little sea salt mixed with extra virgin olive oil to exfoliate and moisten dry lips. Ah love carries wonderful skin care products produced using high quantities of olive oil. You can also make your own moisturizers and skin treatments.

Olive Oil and Your Home Because of its natural properties, olive oil makes a perfect furniture polish. Mix with a little white vinegar to remove dust and grime and your wood furniture will gleam. You can also

	•		Polish diamonds
	•		Hydrate pearls
	•		Preserve baseball mitts, shoes, and other leather
	•		Lubricate squeaky hinges
	•		Rub on stuck zippers

Are you getting the picture? Store shelves are filled with expensive, chemical-laden, environment polluting products, many of which can be replaced with a bottle of olive oil and vinegar. So, stop buying bottled marinades, dressings and sauces; polishes and cleaning supplies; expensive skin care and come to Ah love for a few bottles of fresh olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Ah, goodness!