#extra virginity

[copperbadge]

Book Review: Extra Virginity by Tom Mueller

FINALLY I REVIEW IT! This was recommended to me by @kittywings01 who has been very patient in waiting for me to finish and review it. :) 

So, Extra Virginity is a GREAT book and if you’re a fan of microhistory or nonfiction in general or weird true crime, you should pick it up. The history of olive oil, particularly with regards to oil fraud, is a long and complicated one, and Mueller does a really good job of untangling the various threads while still keeping it really interesting. 

Also, having read up on olive oil and having bought one of his recommended brands, I discovered I have literally never eaten good olive oil before. 

I thought I didn’t really like the taste -- I’d do okay with it as a dipping sauce if garlic or salt was added, but the flavor on its own always tasted kind of rank to me. Even baking with it, the flavor overwhelmed and wasn’t pleasant to cook with. But since trying several higher end oils, I very quickly worked out that the reason I didn’t like olive oil was that I was buying shitty olive oil. Nowhere did this become more obvious than when I was doing olive oil tasting in Texas and the woman was like “That’s...that’s our really strong one” and instead of cringing I took a shot of it and then bought a bottle, some of which I just used to make brownies with. IT WAS GREAT. 

Two thumbs up for this book and for well-made olive oil. For the record, the oils I’ve now tried and liked are California Olive Ranch, California Estate Olive Oil, and Texas Hill Country Olive Company, whose Terra Verde has a great rosemary flavor. California Estate Olive Oil is still pretty reasonable at $7 a bottle at Trader Joe’s. I’ve been using it instead of butter on toast. 

Behind the cut I’ve got mostly images and explanations of why I took photos of the book’s text!

One of the things I liked best about the book was the incorporation of the mythology of oil, even really weird quirky stuff. There were examples of worship, both ancient: 

and Christian:

And modern -- I love modern, deliberately crafted ritual spaces: 

It often pops up in recent accounts of organized crime: 

There are divergences for politics: 

And can you imagine olive oil so good you’d take it as a bribe?

The perfume products sound amazing:

And finally, I just really like the phrase “Cookbooks are written by the victors.”

These passages are very representative of the subject matter and the writing, I think, so if you like them you’ll like the book -- and if they don’t grab you, don’t feel you need to read the book, you might not enjoy it much. But I do think it’s a great history of olive oil and a really good perspective on how it might fit into the diet of someone who hadn’t previously considered it. 

[keto-everything]

Your Favorite Extra Virgin Olive Oil is probably Fake

Tom Mueller, the author of Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, explains why Olive Oil fraud is so prevalent, the different forms that it takes, and how you can avoid inferior extra virgin olive oil. For more information, go to http://extravirginity.com.

University Davis California Lab Analysis of Brands sold in California - Only Two were the real deal - the rest were cut with crap.

report here http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/research/files/report041211finalreduced.pdf

[keto-everything]

Extra Virgin Olive Oil or E.V.O.O. just got a whole lot more complicated. Tom Mueller's book "Extra Virginity" is about as explosive as an expose can get, at least if your subject is liquid fat. The road from tree to table, it turns out, is fraught with corruption, fraud, and laboratory interventions. Mueller shows how and why the trade in adulterated olive oil is about as profitable as the trade in some hard drugs, and with a lot less risk, too. There are equally entertaining detours into olive oil's long history, the politics of regulation and enforcement, and even debates over the best way to taste it (swirl, aerate, spit, or just swig?). All in all, it's a great read not just for foodies, but also for anyone interested in the complexities of global trade and organized crime.

[ruelsrunning]

Ru El's Running 019 : Fat Fuel | Sardines | Oils | Lemon Water | Healthy Living

Ru El’s Running 019 : Fat Fuel | Sardines | Oils | Lemon Water | Healthy Living

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A run update and bunch of stuff:

Run update:

Fuel

Sleep

Recovery when sick

Quote: “Here are some who like to run. They run for fun in the hot, hot sun.” Dr. Seuss, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

Quote: “

Sardines for health.

Can…

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[extraverginita-blog]

Perché sono felice che Extraverginità parli italiano

È il gran giorno: arriva finalmente in libreria Extraverginità. La felicità di Tom Mueller per la sua pubblicazione in italiano è incontenibile: lo si capisce leggendo questa sue emozionatissime righe.

  Questo libro è cresciuto piano, durante anni di conversazioni con la gente dell’olio, molti dei quali in Italia. Ho cominciato a conoscere l'olio camminando negli uliveti della Puglia, dell'Umbria e in quelli vicino al Lago di Garda, visitando frantoi fra le cui mura echeggiava il rombo delle centrifughe, e gustando lunghi pasti innaffiati di olio con quelli che poi sono diventati i protagonisti. Conversazione dopo conversazione, mi hanno raccontato la storia dell'olio di oliva, particolare come quella di una fiaba: quella di uno degli alimenti più gratificanti e luminosi, eppure invischiato in torbidi affari dove nulla è come sembra, e dove la verità è troppo spesso offuscata dalla finzione – o dalla menzogna. Nel tempo, l'olio buono e l’olio cattivo hanno cominciato a sembrarmi quasi una metafora dell'umanità.

È stato difficile raccontare alle persone che mi hanno iniziato alla molteplice storia dell’olio quello che ho scritto sull’argomento, sopratutto nel mio libro, Extra Virginity – uscito in inglese e tradotto in tedesco, portoghese, giapponese e altre lingue, ma mai in italiano. Ed ecco che finalmente Extraverginità, con una traduzione in italiano aggiornata e rivista, viene pubblicato dalla EDT in Italia, la terra d'origine di questo libro.

Ora i miei molti amici e referenti italiani potranno leggere le storie che ho sentito e i fatti che ho scoperto, le sensazioni che provo per questa misteriosa sostanza che, anche dopo anni di attento studio, continuo a scoprire e riscoprire. Spero che Extraverginità possa riflettere la chiara luce dell'olio d'oliva italiano di qualità, incoraggiando gli italiani a difendere una delle loro ricchezze nazionali e a celebrare tutti i produttori che ancora, nonostante mille difficoltà, hanno il coraggio e la capacità di fare ottimi oli. In un senso sottile ma significativo, quello che fa bene all’olio italiano di qualità fa bene anche al Paese che lo crea.

[elirisgreece]

Great news. Tom Mueller (author of 'Extra Virginity..') has included Eliris in his ‘Great Olive Oils of the World’ Guide on his website “Truth in Olive Oil”

[lot18]

The Black Market for (Extra-Virgin) Oil

Katy Andersen, Gourmet Curator, Lot18

Swirl, smell, slurp, swallow. Ever been to an olive oil tasting? It’s like wine tasting – except you don’t spit. And qualities like a grassy nose or a peppery finish aren’t inferior – they’re enviable.

If drinking the spicy oil isn’t enough of a sensorial experience, try starting at 8am. It’s not everyone’s proverbial cup of tea, and hardly the choice replacement for a morning espresso. 

But there I was, seated in front of six pale emerald 1-ounce shots. Surrounded by at least 100 other olive oil enthusiasts at the early morning tasting in San Francisco, I silently thought, “Cheers: To a liquid breakfast!” 

I had forgone both sleep and coffee that morning for two very important reasons. The tasting was a chance to hear top olive growers in the US, Italy, Argentina and Australia present their prize extra-virgin olive oils and taste alongside these experts. And moderating this impressive panel was none other than author and New Yorker contributor Tom Mueller.

Mueller has become something of a spokesperson in the world of extra-virgin olive oil after publishing a fascinating expose of fraud in the global market in the New Yorker in 2007. He recently released a longer form as “Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil,” a book that inspired me to take olive oil a lot more seriously.

So what’s the big deal? Here’s a good example: In his book, Mueller cites that four out of 10 bottles labeled Italian olive oil aren’t. Aren’t what? Aren’t Italian, and aren’t necessarily olive oil. 

This fraud is driven by several factors, aside from greed. True extra-virgin olive oil is expensive and hard to make. And as seasons become drier and hotter, olive yields increase. As oil becomes more commoditized, downward price pressure increases. Cost-cutting measures and economies of scale only go so far, and eventually something has to give: in this case, the product itself. 

What are these Italian olive oils, if not what their labels say? The olives may have been grown in Spain, Turkey or North Africa, and pressed there before transported by tanker to Italy. And in a higher level of fraud, producers may mix olive with hazelnut oil or sunflower-seed oil, further degrading the substance in ways that would send Roman ancestors rolling in their graves.

As Mueller notably quotes in the New Yorker, the profits of adulterators, as told to him by one E.U. anti-fraud investigator, have at times been “comparable to cocaine trafficking, with none of the risks.”

Tasting with Mueller and the olive farmers on that early morning, I wasn’t worried about fraud – I was excited. There are still farmers whose oils are pure, and truly top quality extra-virgin. By buying oils bottled directly on the farm or tasted for annual certification by an independent organization such as the COOC, you can be sure the oils you get are pure, from their stated origin, and have those enticing spicy or fruity qualities that an extra-virgin oil should.

Follow my epicurean adventures on Twitter @KathrynAndersen

[johnnycookbooks]

Wine is how we would like life to be, but [olive] oil is how life is: fruity, pungent, with a hint of complex bitterness - extra virginity's elusive triad.

Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller.