Physiology and molecular biology of taste and smell

I am now seriously gathering information for my intended new focus on every (EVERY) aspect of olive oil from dirt to mouth to brain. Do I want it to culminate in a book? Sure. Will there be many rewards among the way in the form of tastings, classes, articles, etc. Absolutely.

Three more pieces I need to explore:

The physiology of taste
The physiology of smell
Current theories of taste perception, from physiology into molecular biology

And if I really want to explore something I find I can search through this abstract summary database.

Almost all major taste theories that seem to exist have been laid forth after I graduated from college (1991). If one doesn't keep keeping up with science after leaving school, it's so easy to be left with antiquated beliefs.

Alphabetical list of 100s of people in the California Olive Oil Industry

I don't quite know what I'm going to do with this resource yet, but I have to remember it.

Alphabetical list of 100s of people in the California Olive Oil Industry

Best chemical explanation of olive oil I've seen

Chemical and Nutritional Properties of Olive Oil

The following is merely a soupçon of what exists on that page:

A Great discussion of olive oil chemistry by Guido Costa in simple terms

Herewith my contribution on FATTY ACIDS AND ACIDITY: Olive oil is composed mainly of triacylglycerols (triglycerides). Chemically speaking, these are molecules derived from the natural esterification of three fatty acid molecules with a glycerol molecule. The glycerol molecule can simplistically be seen as an "E-shaped" molecule, with the fatty acids in turn resembling longish hydrocarbon chains, varying (in the case of olive oil) from about 14 to 24 carbons atoms in length. Thus the triacylglycerols can, for our purpose, be visualized as elongated E-shaped molecules, each with three long extensions, being the three fatty acid chains "attached to each horizontal bar of the E".

Please note that we are dealing here with fatty acids forming part of the triacylglycerols molecule. They are distinct from FREE FATTY ACIDS, which we'll talk about later!

Various fatty acids are found in nature. They differ in length (number of carbon atoms in the chain) as well as in the type of chemical bonds found within the chain. Mostly these carbon-carbon bonds in the chain are "single" bonds, comprising 2 electrons shared between adjacent carbon atoms. However, in certain of the fatty acids, some of the bonds are "double bonds", where 4 electrons are shared between adjacent carbon atoms. The fatty acids that have no double bonds in their chains are called "saturated" fatty acids (all the carbons in their carbon chain are "saturated" by hydrogen atoms). Examples of saturated fatty acids are Palmitic Acid (16 carbons long), Stearic Acid (18 carbons long) and Arachidic Acid (20 carbons long). The fatty acids that have one carbon-carbon double bond somewhere along their length are called monounsaturated fatty acids (one carbon-carbon bond which is not fully saturated with hydrogens), i.e. one of the bonds available at each of 2 adjacent carbons is now used to form a double bond between themselves instead of being used to bond externally to hydrogen atoms. Examples of monounsaturated fatty acids are Palmitoleic Acid (16 carbons long) and our famous Oleic Acid (18 carbons long). Oleic acid is the most abundant fatty acid found in nature. The double bond in Oleic acid occurs in the mid position of the molecule, between carbon 9 and carbon 10.

I don't want to make this sound too complicated, but as soon as one brings a double bond into the picture, one must bear in mind that...

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey vs. Michael Pollan

The debate I was anxiously waiting for occurred, and this is from the post on The Ethicurean:

"After much angsting, my epic recap of the event just went up on the UC Berkeley NewsCenter, the highlights of which are after the jump. (The webcast just went up, too.) Sadly, across campus, even UC Berkeley journalism student Carmel Wroth long ago beat me to the punch with a funny-yet-still-informative account of last night, damn him. You can find it over at Sam Fromartz’s blog, Chews Wise.

...

Elsewhere in the blogosphere: John Birdsall from the East Bay Express posted the most scathing take yet many hours ago, and I just know he’s going to say I drank the Kool-Aid and begged for more. Becks & Posh has a factual bone to pick. Cookiecrumb for once isn’t mad, and offers some succinct takeaway. (Or should it be takeout?) Jen has a very even-handed, fair & balanced report — and links to a lot more accounts. "

Olive Oil Factory

What I find interesting about this, obviously much larger, olive oil production than Pasolivo's is how much faster the circular blades run through the mash--that's got to have an effect on how hot the mash is turning and how much flavor is being expelled from the oil before it even gets to the storage tanks.

It's one of those profit decisions versus taste decisions, I guess. One produces more oil if the machine is run faster.

I'm also fascinated by the burlap bags full of olives--I think if done properly, that could provide a gentler environment from tree to press than the large storage bins Pasolivo uses, especially if they were driven to the press on a shelving unit such that many bags weren't weighing down on each other.... hmmm... random thoughts.

New level of readership

I seem to have stumbled onto a new level of recognition on this food blog. I've been part of the Wikipedia entry on olive oil for a while now, which did give me quite a boost in readership. Recently (like yesterday, I guess) a site called Buzz Feed had an entry on Unfiltered Olive Oil on its front page and listed me as one of the 10 best links about olive oil. Woo hoo! Gave me an exponential leap in readership, I must say.

I'm flattered to say that the description of the link to me was "Everything you could possibly want to know about olive oil."

Over time, hopefully a few more categories of "Everything you could possibly want to know about [BLANK]" will be added, I just need time to research and write (and host tastings)

Thank you BuzzFeed.

Eat Fearlessly,
Solomon

Olive Oil 101 coursebook w/o addendums w/o specific examples

Click here to see all posts on this blog about olive oil

I look at the history of olive oil unromantically. So, don’t expect stories of Greek gods and goddesses and contests between Apollo and Athena. I honestly don’t care about that very much and I certainly don’t believe that many people think about that when they eat or use olive oil. I care about the history of olive oil as a way to better use and appreciate it and to add to your experience.

Understanding the path the olive tree has taken from country to country in its history has some relevance to enjoying olive oil. In seeing its path, one can see the type of environment the olive tree and its products flourish in and thus guess what countries might know a thing or two about high quality olive oil and what other countries might be able to produce olive oil. Evidence found by archaeologists and paleobotanists of the olive tree itself appears earliest in Asia Minor; pinpointing exactly where is more an invitation for argument than a rational discussion because this evidence is coming from 6000 B.C.E.

What is easier to track is how the olive tree moved and when it was cultivated on purpose—when we domesticated it and turned it from a wild tree giving fruits into a member of our garden of edible plants. 3^rd millennium B.C.E. in Crete shows the first evidence of cultivation of Olea Europea. At first, the olive tree moved as foreign occupation of other peoples and lands occurred around the Mediterranean. For example, the Venetians and the Turks invading Crete took the olive tree with them as did the Romans when they occupied Spain. The Phoenicians, who occupied colonies in present-day Lebanon and Palestine cultivated it throughout the southern Mediterranean, from Tunisia and Libya up through Morocco and Algeria. The Greeks, and eventually the Romans, cultivated it throughout the northern Mediterranean. Greece brought the first olive trees to France as a token of peace to Gaul. Modern day (i.e. last few hundred years) propagation of the tree has coincided with travel by the rich and intellectual, by university students, politicians, writers, missionaries, and business people who had money and reason to travel abroad and began to live in new places for extended periods of their lives, bringing the olive tree and its oil into butter consuming cultures.

We know much of the early history because the importance of olive oil was so great that trees and oil pots needed to be counted, thus they were part of the bureaucratic writings discovered in the Mycenaean Linear B tablets. Aristotle brought cultivation of the olive tree to a science, while Sonon (639-559 B.C.E.) put into place the first laws in regard to olive trees, stating that no more than two olive trees could be felled per year in one’s olive grove and sentencing to death anyone who purposely felled a cultivated olive tree. Olive oil was used for consumption, for trade, for cleanliness, for sports, for perfumes, and for beauty. The importance of it by religions, both pagan and Christian, can not be minimalized, with its use to anoint for many rituals, including burials. Medicinally, sixty uses of it are mentioned in the Hippokratic code, including contraception, gynecology, and dermatology. “many people outside of olive oil growing regions never saw olive oil unless it was bought from the druggist for softening earwax and other medical uses.” (California Olive Oil News)

“The facts about the nutritional properties of olive oil remain undisputed. It has been

scientifically proven that extensive consumption of olive oil reduces incidences of coronary and cardiovascular disease. It is also widely believed that the antioxidant substances such as vitamins E and K and polyphenols found in olive oil provide a defence mechanism that delays ageing and prevents carcinogenesis, atherosclerosis, liver disorders and inflammations and is well tolerated by the stomach, has a beneficial effect on gastritis and ulcers. Used as a te a, the olive leaves have a relaxing effect. As a cholagogue, it activates the secretion of pancreatic hormones and bile much more naturally than prescribed drugs, which lowers the incidence of cholelithiasis. It has a positive effect on constipation, beneficial effect on the brain and nervous system and its easy digestion promotes the overall absorption of nutrients and mineral salts.” (ELEA: Producing and Consuming Olive Oil, UN conference report, 1999)

But the history of the tree itself is perhaps less important to us culinarily then the history of agriculture and irrigation and proper methods of storage. As we began to take control of more of the 16 factors that determine the taste of an oil, we started to produce better olive oil.

Gross Simplification (though true) of How Olive Oil is Made

1. Plant or find a tree

2. Let an olive grow

3. Pick the olive

4. Remove the oil from the olive

5. Tweak the oil (blend, filter, decant, flavor, etc.)

6. Store the oil

If we take a look at how olive oil is made, we can see that as soon as the first olive tree was found, olive oil could be produced. Pluck enough olives, crush them together into a pulp with some rocks, put the pulp in a bowl and wait long enough and voila, oil, water, and solids will separate to a point that the oil can be used. If we wanted to drift to the most traditional olive oil that existed, we probably wouldn’t enjoy it very much with our modern palates. Culinarily, tradition gives way to industrial improvements when those improvements boost flavor.

“The fruit is technically a drupe with three parts; the epidermis (epicarp) which remains green throughout the growth phase then turns purple and brown when ripe, the fleshy part (mesocarp) which contains the oil and the stone or pit (endocarp) which holds the seed.” (COOC)

16 Factors that play a part in the taste of olive oil.

What the land brings to the picture

1. The Altitude

2. The Soil

   1. “The amount of water required by a tree is dependent on climate, that is, how hot and dry and windy the growing season days are to cause the plants to transpire and keep themselves from burning up with drought stress. Olives are trees that are quite drought tolerant, in that they will not die if given little water, however if given insufficient water the trees will grow very slowly (taking 30+ years to reach full size instead of 10) and the fruit will be small (only a problem for table fruit). The rooting depth of your soil is the key factor for dry farmed fruit trees. Just because someplace can be dry farmed does not mean that other sites will also work. Success (growth and production of trees) is highly dependent on how much water is stored in the soil. A good rule of thumb is that most loam soils will hold about 2 inches of water per foot of rooting depth. So if you have a hillside location with 2 feet of rooting depth you will have 4 inches of water available for those trees for the whole season. If you have a deep valley soil with 5 + feet of rooting depth you will have 10 + inches of water for the season. If we get 40 inches of rain that means that all the rest ran off. An olive tree in the coastal climate of NE Santa Rosa, will require about 12 to 18 inches of water per season to be as productive as possible, that is growing well and producing large sized table fruit. For oil the trees might get by with only 10 to 16 inches. Little or no supplemental irrigation would be required to get adequate, but not maximum growth and production, if you have a deep soil. In a shallow soil, the trees would just grow very slowly, have severe alternate bearing, the fruit would be small, there might be fruit shrivel, and the fruit if used for oil, could be quite bitter.
      
      By the way, the amount of water available for the trees is ONLY if you allow no cover crop or weeds to steal the water first. Excellent weed control is extremely important for dry farming any crop. For 4-5 trees put 6 inches wood chips under the trees out to the drip line (or at least a 6 ft. diameter circle) to smother all the weeds and hold as much moisture in as possible”

3. The Pests

   1. “If you are in an area where there is olive fly, you should pick the olives and destroy them to prevent over-wintering of the fly.”

   2. See note on grubby taste in olives

What the tree brings to the picture

4. The shape and size of the tree and the amount of trees per acre

   1. “Olive trees are propagated in California several different ways, including budding or grafting onto seedling rootstocks, leafy semi-hardwood stem cuttings, and hardwood cuttings. Less commonly used techniques locally, but somewhat more common world wide include truncheons, removing rooted suckers from the crown of the tree, and ovuli. (much content courtesy Glenn T. McGourty Plant Science Advisor and County Director UCCE Mendocino County)”

   2. “Typically you get more olives as the tree gets older, not bigger olives. Olive size has more to do with crop size, watering, etc. Thinning will get you bigger olives.”

   3. “Growers were also pruning too soon in the life of the tree. Vegetative growth is important early in the life of a tree to give it a good start. Newer recommendations are for no pruning in the first 4 years of the tree's life. Pruning is one of the most costly parts of any fruit tree operation.”

5. The variety of olive

   1. “Specific types of olives, such as the Tuscan varieties, will have higher polyphenol values. These oils are valuable in that when blended with a low polyphenol oil they will extend the shelf life by preventing rancidity.” (California Olive Oil Council)

   2. “The type of olives used for oil production may contain as much as 20% of their weight in oil. The larger varieties grown for pickling and brining often have as little as 5% oil”

   3. Specifics of this will be discussed when ads and labels are examined

6. The age of the tree

“Here is a story of reproduction without the birds and the bees. Technically, olive trees are hermaphrodites and bear both perfect flowers (containing both male and female parts) and imperfect flowers ( with only male parts).

“Some olive varieties are capable of self-pollination while others must depend on cross-pollination with different varieties. Farmers will place "pollinator" trees in an orchard to ensure successful pollination and a good crop when the main variety is self-incompatible. Even self-compatible cultivars fruit better with a "foreign" pollinator.

“Like other life which is propagated sexually, an olive tree will have traits common to both the male and female tress which were its progenitors. If it self-pollinates, then the olive seed produced will be similar to the tree it fell off of. Olive pollen can drift in the wind for miles, so if the olive is the result of cross-pollination from a different varietal, the seed will produce a tree with mixed traits. Simply put, the fruit from your seedlings which sprout all over may be different from each other even though they came off the same tree. They should all bear fruit.

“Because of this uncertainty with seedlings, olives are propagated by cloning cuttings from the same tree.”

What the specific year brings

7. The amount of rainfall

8. The amount of sunshine

9. The temperature of the season

10. The humidity of the season

What the harvester brings

11. The method of picking

    1. “Olives are picked by hand by rapidly drawing the fingers or a rake along the branches, quickly stripping the fruit off into nets or a bucket or with pneumatic rakes onto nets. The fruit separates where it will. You cannot possibly expect to pick each olive individually to determine where it might separate from the tree.” (COOC)

12. The time spent off the tree before pressing

13. The ripeness of the olives

    1. “Most olives picked earlier in the year will have more polyphenols. Olives picked later in the winter have fewer polyphenols and a more mellow taste. Polyphenol concentrations increase with fruit growth until the olives begin to turn purple then begins to decrease. Years ago farmers valued the more mellow taste and tried to wait to pick their olives but risked freezing or loss to the elements. Now the strong earlier harvest taste has become popular.” (COOC)

What the presser brings

14. The method of removing the oil

    1. “Much is made of how the type of olive oil machinery will affect the flavor of extra virgin oil but in reality if used properly it has only a small influence. Extra virgin olive oil is made the same way with the same machinery in the US as in Italy. Only a tiny percent of the oil sold in the US is made in the US and is mostly artisanal extra virgin oil which is high in phenols.” (COOC)

    2. “Most of the olive oil consumed in the US comes from Spain and Italy, and is usually refined. These mass market oils are generally refined and low in phenols.” (COOC)

    3. “Refining takes olive oil which has already been made but which is old, rancid, was made from diseased olives or has some other sort of defect and makes it palatable. This is done by filtering, charcoal treatment, heating, and chemical treatment to adjust acidity. Refined oils are lower in tyrosol and other phenols. According to Wayne Emmons at Intertech, Extra Virgin Olive oil typically has 50-80 ppm polyphenols while refined oil has only 5 ppm.”

    4. “Polyphenols and other primarily water soluble components make the olive [fruit] bitter. When the oil is separated from the paste, the bitter substances are left behind in the fruit water and pulp.”

    5. There is about 1 tablespoon of olive oil (and about 120 calories) in: 40 small ripe black olives, 20 jumbo ripe black olives, 7 super colossal ripe black olives. 1 liter = 67 tablespoons so 1 liter of olive oil: 2680 small, 1340 jumbo, 469 super colossal. The average tree produces 33 to 44 pounds of olives per year. Olives weigh an average of 3.51 ± 0.49 grams, so an average tree has about 23,880 olives or 8.91 liters for a small bearing tree, 17.82 liters for a jumbo bearing tree, and 50.92 liters for a super colossal bearing tree, with a lot of leeway from tree to tree.

    6. “When oil was primarily produced with hydraulic presses, the pit fragments were important in keeping the olive paste on the mats. Today most large oil producers use centrifugal machinery and the pit provides no particular advantage or disadvantage to the processing.
       
       There are olive oil companies which pit the olives before extracting the oil. They claim a better tasting oil but in California these oils have not distinguished themselves in blind competitions such as the L.A. county fair.” (COOC)

What the aftermarket brings

15. The method of storage (before and after bottling)

    1. “As oil sits in storage tanks or the bottle, the polyphenols will slowly be oxidized and used up. If you want an oil with more polyphenols, buy one that displays a date guaranteeing that it is fresh and that has been stored properly.”

    2. “Like most fruit, olives have waxes on their epidermis (epicarp) to protect them from insects, desiccation and the elements. These natural waxes are what allow an apple to be shined. If an oil is sent to a cold climate or will be used in a product like salad dressing where it will be stored in the refrigerator, it is often "winterized". The oil is chilled and filtered to remove the waxes and stearates. A standard test to determine if olive oil has been sufficiently winterized is to put it in an ice water bath (32 degree F) for 5 hours. No clouding or crystals should occur. Oil which has not been winterized will clump and form needle-like crystals at refrigerator temperatures as the longer chain fats and waxes in the oil congeal, but the oil will not usually harden completely unless chilled further. Some olive varieties form waxes which produce long thin crystals, others form waxes which congeal into rosettes, slimy clumps, clouds, a swirl of egg white like material, or white sediment which the consumer may fear represents spoilage. These visual imperfections may form outside the refrigerator during the winter when oil is exposed to cold temperatures during transport. Chilling or freezing olive oil does no harm and the oil will return to its normal consistency when warmed. The ideal temperature to store olive oil to reduce oxidation but to avoid clouding is around 50 degrees F.”

    3. “It is a source of great irritation to the U.S. olive oil industry that our government does not have much at all in the way of labeling laws concerning olive oil. U.S. producers have come up with our own label - The COOC seal; which follows international olive oil council grading guidelines. Producers are encouraged to also date their oil, although few do and there is no standard dating code. Look on the label for a date. Remember that most olives are picked in the late fall or winter and are sold the next year, so 2002 oil will be the freshest available until early 2004 when 2003 oil will come on the market.
       
       Shelf life is very variable, depending on the olive variety, ripeness when pressed, care in processing, filtering, etc. It also depends on storage after it has left the producer, something they have no control of, so it is hard to "guarantee" a certain lifespan.
       
       Lifespan can be as little as 3 months for an unfiltered late harvest olive bottled in clear glass and sold off a supermarket shelf above hot deli foods which is then stored by the consumer in bright light on a hot stovetop with the cap unscrewed. It can be as much as 3-4 years for an early harvest, high polyphenol containing olive variety which has been filtered then packaged in a well sealed tin or dark bottle then stored in a cool dark place by the grocer and consumer.” (COOC)

16. The age of the oil

    1. “A two year old olive oil may taste rancid to some while others don't mind it. Most people would be put off by the taste of any vegetable oil more than 4-5 years old. Rancid oil has fewer antioxidants but is not poisonous. A good percentage of the world's population routinely eat rancid oil because of lack of proper storage conditions and some actually prefer the taste. In historical times olives which had dropped to the ground or which may have spoiled were made into olive oil which was stored in open-mouthed earthenware vats. Practices like these encouraged rancidity. People have come to expect non-rancid oil in the past 50 years because of chemical refining and better production and storage methods.” (COOC)

Let’s talk labels. We’re going to examine 2 ads and 2 labels, identifying the key points and how they relate to the 16 factors. This is where discussion of a few examples of specific varieties will occur, as well as introduction of PDO and PGI designations.

Light

“Oils labeled as "lite" or "light" refer to flavor, not caloric content, as all vegetable oils have the same amount of calories. Theoretically "light" could refer to an excellent extra virgin oil made from olives picked late in the year but usually it signifies a flavorless low quality (refined) oil from Italy or Spain.” (COOC)

Polyphenols

If you want an oil high in polyphenols, pick one that is guaranteed to be extra virgin (has the COOC seal if produced in the US), is from the current harvest season and that has been properly stored. Some varieties have high polyphenols; Frantoio, Lucca, etc.

Cooking and Uses

Baking

“You could bake with just about any olive oil. Use a mellow oil for a sweeter taste or try a pungent Tuscan style oil for a bread with more of an Italian character.” (COOC)

Cooking

“Olive oil is a great oil for cooking. Strong flavored olive oils can be used for frying fish or other strong flavored ingredients. A mellow late harvest Mission variety oil could be used in baking a cake. Olive oil has a high smoke point, 410 degrees F, and doesn't degrade as quickly as many other oils do with repeated high heating. Use a variety of healthy vegetable oils when preparing food and incorporate a good extra virgin olive oil when you want its health benefits and wonderful Mediterranean flavor…. Polyphenols are stubborn substances which do not degrade easily with heat. You cannot refine oil by heating on the stove. ” (Charles Quest-Ritson)

“The conventional wisdom is that soft, gentle oils are best light-flavored foods because stronger flavors can overwhelm the taste of the oil so that only its texture remains perceptible.” “ (Charles Quest-Ritson)

DESCRIBING OLIVE OIL

The major tastes of olive oil

“The delicate flavor of quality extra virgin olive oil is related to the presence of a large number of chemical compounds. These flavor compounds comprise aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, aliphatic and triterpenic alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, furan and thiophene derivatives. Over 100 such compounds have been identified which, as a whole, contribute to the distinctive organoleptic characteristics which make extra virgin olive oil so select. These aroma compounds form part of the unsaponifiable fraction, which makes up about 1% of the oil. These tastes and fragrances derive from compounds like hexanal (green, grassy), trans-2-hexenal (green, bitter), 1-hexanol and 3-methylbutan-1-ol, which are the major volatile compounds of olive oil. Many of these flavor compounds decompose if temperatures during milling exceed 30°C. Thus the importance of “cold pressing”. “ (COOC)

“Many studies have been done to try to predict a flavor profile based on an oil's chemistry. In "The Handbook of Olive Oil" by Harwood and Arapicio they cite studies done by the authors which show that aglycons are responsible for the bitter and pungent sensory attribute, as well as tyrosol and possibly alpha-tocopherol. The phenols are related to astringent attributes. It is probably the combination of bitterness and astringency that causes the cough.” (COOC)

The largest determinants of olive oil flavor are variety of olive and time of harvest.

Positive aspects

Fruity

1. fresh tasting, like fruits or vegetables. Lively & attractive

Bitter

1. Usually felt on the back of the tongue and the throat.

2. “hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol are some of the many phenol compounds in olive oil that contribute to bitter taste, astringency, and resistance to oxidation.” (COOC)

Pepperiness

1. Hot sensation associated with modern oils pressed from immature olives (may even induce one to cough). Often not sensed immediately, but in the aftertaste of the oil. – “Gary Beauchamp and other chemists published a September 1, 2005 article in Nature which shows that Oleocanthol, the pungent compound in some oils which creates a stinging sensation in the throat, has similar properties to anti-inflammatory compounds such as ibuprofen.” (COOC)

Tactile sensations (e.g. throat-catching, astringent, metallic, peppery)

Simple taste sensations (sweet or bitter (don’t really have salty or sour))

More complex positive tastes (grassy [characteristic of young oils made from semimature olives], artichoke, green apple, green banana, tomato, green tea, beans, avocado, guava, cinnamon, pepper, almond [associated with oils made from fully ripe olives], toasted almond, pine nut [most oils acquire a nutty taste as they age], catty, malt, butter

Direct aroma (floral, perfumed, confectionery)

Negative sensations (rancid [result of oxidation. Put some oil in a glass for a week on a sunny windowsill to recognize this], winey/vinegary [caused by anaerobic fermentation of the olives], musty [caused by bacteria and fungi infecting badly stored olives], muddy [oil will turn putrid when the sediment left in it begins to decay], flat [caused by heating the paste during processing], dirty [oil taken from olives that have fallen to the ground], metallic [from contact with metals], grubby [a dirtiness associated with olives infested with olive-fly larvae, a common failing in badly managed groves]) (from Charles Quest-Ritson)

Exercise for the class: Associate defects in the olive oil to the factors among the 16 that causes them.

Comprehensive information on high-end, luxury tuna

Tuna Species Datasheet

Quick Splendid Table article - Audio for Realplayer

Blog posting on Beyond Salmon which led me to these

Cameras on the food world

The proliferation of webcams has invaded not just bedrooms and living rooms of private individuals, but now is popping up all over the food world. I had posted earlier about a camera trained on a wheel of cheese as it ages. Here's one 24 hour camera trained on a coffee roaster. Why? Who knows. I'm going to try to collect more food webcams.

Olive Oil 101.05 - History of the Olive

A page on the history of the olive. More should follow.

Olive Oil 101.04 - How to taste

When a customer comes into the store and tries to taste olive oil, it is not my job to tell them how they should eat their food. If they want to gulp down a bite of each oil in rapid succession, soaking just a corner of a larger piece of bread, that is perfectly fine. Zingerman's is there to give them whatever experience they most want--we're the Disneyland of artisanal flavors.

However, if a customer comes to a tasting, they want that experience; they want to learn how to most optimally taste or most optimally use a particular food. So, here's how you most optimally taste olive oil:

1. Pour a little olive oil in a brandy snifter or a really thin shotglass.
2. Hold the glass in your hand so that you can heat the oil with one hand.
3. Cover the mouth of the glass with your other hand (this is to capture all the aromas you can)
4. Start swirling the oil (this helps both to speed up the warming process and to release more aroma)
5. Just enjoy the moment and the anticipation as you take about a minute to warm the oil to the temperature of your body.
6. Bring the glass to your nose and inhale, smelling and noting the smells. Associate them to other foods and smells in your life. Enjoy the smells separately and together.
7. Drink the oil, keeping it in your mouth. Hold the oil in your mouth and experience it. Feel it. Note its mouthfeel, its texture, its tastes.
8. Most of taste is paired with your olfactory nerves, so smile widely; touch the tip of your tongue to the hard palate of your mouth so as to cause the oil to pool on both sides of your tongue; inhale sharply so as to bubble air through the oil pools; and swallow (spit first if you prefer)
9. Exhale through your nose after you swallow, so more olfactory nerves are stimulated.

Note all of the aromas and flavors. Use your own words or try to identify the flavors using a tasting wheel. The one I've linked to was developed by Richard Gawel and is called a Recognoze wheel:

Gawel explains his motivation behind undertaking the project. "Finding the right terms to describe complex foods such as olive oil is a difficult task. Known as the 'tip of the nose' phenomenon, it is very common for someone to recognize an aroma or flavor, although they are unable to find the correct term to describe it. Having access to a structured and comprehensive list of descriptors can greatly assist them in finding the right terms to accurately describe the olive oil" explains Gawel.

The use of the 'wheel' format whereby descriptive terms are listed around its perimeter, with similar aromas and tastes being adjacent to each other, was inspired by the success of the now famous Wine Aroma Wheel developed at the University of California, Davis.

The 72 terms fall into the main olive oil sensory classes of herbaceous, fruity, fragrant, spicy, nutty, dried, defects, tactile and taste. Their selection was based on how frequently experienced olive oil tasters are perceived to use them, as well as their occurrence in the olive oil tasting literature. Gawel explains that "some descriptors such as 'buttery', 'nutty' and 'grassy' are commonly used in that they define specific oil styles. Others are varietal. Examples include the 'perfumed' character of the Tuscan variety Frantoio, and the 'tomato leaf' character found in the Spanish varieties Picual and Nevadillo Blanco. Others would seem rather unusual with the 'malt' like character found in some oils made from the Italian variety, Leccino, and the 'cat wee' and 'crushed ant or formic' character found in some very ripe oils."

Olive Oil 101 page of ads to discuss

Clear, intensely green, this filtered Tuscan has a fruity, well-rounded and spicy taste, reminiscent of fresh olives; aroma has hints of artichoke and pepper. Using Frantoio, Moraiolo, and Leccino olive varieties, the Frescobaldi family has produced olive oils and wines since the Middle Ages, and this oil was awarded Outstanding Olive Oil at the 2001 New York Fancy Food Show, and rated #1 Tuscan oil in 1997 by Wine Spectator.. Estate produced from the hills of Chianti Ruffina

Olive Oil 101.03

It is very simple to think about olive oil. The text of a good course in olive oil could be reduced to a single page, two if you want to provide the historical perspective on olive oil. The bulk that would make up the text of a good Olive Oil 101 book would be the supplying of definitions to many of the terms used within the text. In addition, the supplying of examples would make up a good bulk as well. The basic text, though, would read as follows this paragraph. This website shall be the course syllabus. The class would include interaction with an instructor. The fee will be decided later, but I see this as a viable way to provide a service to people that is worth paying for. The class would be made even more amazing because while you were taking it, you would be eating the foods being talked about as examples. Taste would be a major component of the class.

The simplest way of understanding olive oil is to think of it as grape juice. Really. Olive oil is as close to grape juice as, say cherry juice is to grape juice. A cherry and an olive are the same type of fruit, it's called a drupe.

Wine, as obscure as it actually may be to the general population, is still something that is widely appreciated. The variations that come from different varieties of grape, lend the same characteristic differences to olive oils (whether monocultivar or blended) Blended olive oils are often blended in order to avoid the varied yearly outputs of an olive tree. But because sugar is not present in the juice of an olive, olive juice is not sweet, but savory like a vegetable juice. Thinking of it as a vegetable will help reshape your attitude toward it such that it is much easier to work with in the kitchen. on a culinary level, it should be treated like a food or like a spice or like a little bit of both; rather than a medium in which to cook other food.

All of the fourteen following factors can play a part in the taste of an olive oil:

• Variety of olive (this varies from one geographic region to another. Some varieties are known as super-cultivars and are widely used worldwide.)
• The date of the olive harvest; early when the olive isn't technically ripe or later in the season when it has reached the heights of maturity.
• the soil
• the amount of rain and sunshine the crop received, and when
• the temperature of the season
• the altitude
• the humidity of the season
• the care taken in cultivation (this is vital)
• the use of pesticide and the amount of pests that season
• the density of the trees
• the age of the trees
• the method of storage
• the age of the oil

The main components which differentiate one olive oil from another olive oil are best seen in this ad,

Gourmet Extra Virgin Olive Oil Half Liter Bottle (about 17 oz). Grown, pressed and bottled 100% in Sicily. Hand picked, cold pressed, non-genetically modified. Made from a single olive variety of "Biancolilla" from a single estate.

USE: A milder fruitness makes "Biancolilla" evoo the ideal companion for the most delicate dishes, salads and fish.

Let's separate each separate component out into a table:

Extra Virgin (note that Extra Virgin is one of a slew of other things that determine the flavor characteristics of olive juice, but it is important enough that if an oil isn't extre virgin you just shouldn't buy it. Pure olive oil can be cooked with if you want the same results as canola oil or soybean oil. But it is a cooking oil and that is where it must always be relegated if you are to preserve the vibrant taste of a dish. A heated, highly refined oil with little hint of aroma, color, or solids does not belong among the palette of taste experiences you have available to you in life.

Gourmet (as pompous as that sounds, it serves to separate this extra virgin olive oil from an olive oil that is extra virgin by greater than mechanical means)

Half Liter Bottle (this would be a good time to talk about storage)

Grown, pressed and bottled 100% in Sicily (this is where one geographic region has developed its own tradition and style behind the making of olive oil, it could be said that this is where the style of the artisan shows through)

Hand picked (this is to ensure that bruises and wounds aren't inflicted on the olives, because a damaged olive will rapidly oxidize)

cold pressed (the warmer the olive when pressed, the more oil which can be extracted from it. Yet when the olive is too hot, the cooked oil will lose much of its flavor, thus this is also a minimum requirement of good olive oil)

non-genetically modified (all of the world's oldest crops have fallen prey to our scientific instincts. Whether wheat, soybean, corn, or olive, industry has solved many problems, yet stripped away many tastes and experiences.)

single olive variety (this becomes another art of the presser, akin to the skill of the distiller of a single-malt scotch or the blender of Canadian whiskies._

"Biancolilla" (this would be a good time to taste two monocultivar olive oils from Sicily, one from Nocellara (actually Nocellara des Belize) olives and the other from Biancolilla olives.

from a single estate (which can be even more tightly restricted, specifying a region of an estate)

milder fruitness (this is when tasting the olive oil would really be vital to the experience)

companion for the most delicate dishes, salads and fish (remember olive oil is a savory vegetable, use it that way. In the same way one wouldn't slice up ginger and toss it on top of some delicate cheese that would be lost in ginger's wake, one wouldn't drizzle a robust and peppery oil onto a delicate fish. But as one might grate a bit of ginger onto a spicy, grilled Thai dish, one would drizzle that same oil onto a spicy tomato soup.)

Olive oil 101 postulate

Necessary subsets of any class deemed "Olive Oil 101" must be "Oil 101" and "Olive 101"

Olive oil 101 questions

Because of my four years living in a very talkative commune, I tend to overinvolve people when I seek input. This isn't a negative tendency from my perspective, but may get on other's nerves. I also have a lot of direct contact with union organizers, and really appreciate how involved they try to make everyone in order to generate a sense of ownership in a project to ensure its success. Given that, I asked for questions that my colleagues might want answered in an Olive Oil 101 class. These were their responses:

I would love to know a bit about the history.

What oils (either specific brands or specific taste profiles) work with what dishes?

I'm looking for the practical applications of different flavors.

What are the foodie terms used to describe different oils?

Are some oils better for cooking, and others for dipping or tossing pasta?

What is extra virgin oil?

How should you store olive oil?

Seriously-----is oil healthful?

What accounts for the large variation in price of oil?

Those seasoned dipping oils---what's that about?

Can we grow olives in Michigan?

Which olive oils are the best to use for every day cooking?

What is the difference between filtered and unfiltered olive oil?

Is it best to have the most recent year, for an example 2006 as to 2005? If you do have a 2005 harvest does that mean that the oilive oil is in bad condition?

Why shouldn't you store it in the refrigerator?

Does it go bad if it becomes frozen?

What makes a good olive oil?

What is the difference between the olive oils that Zingerman's carry and the ones that are found in Wholefoods?

How should you pair the best bread to the best oil?

More questions may follow as they leak in.

Olive Oil 101 class in 3 weeks

The first of my teaching goals at my work is about to happen: I will be teaching an olive oil 101 class to my coworkers in three weeks. Now I have to sift through my knowledge about olive oil and make it coherent and focused toward my foodie colleagues. Because I'm basically a lazy person who would like to pour in the energy for one project and have three or four projects be produced, I'm also going to use this as the foundation for an Olive Oil 101 tasting and use this blog as the sketchboard for my thoughts. In this way I can teach three groups of people about olive oil, my coworkers, the Ann Arbor community, and anyone in the future who stumbles on this in their web surfing.

Three entries have come before this in my fledgling series of Olive Oil 101 posts: a too-wordy introduction, a note about the expansion of the olive tree, and a paragraph about drupes (olives, cherries, plums). But the next two weeks should be much more prolific.

People's Food Coop Board - throwing my hat into the race

I'm trying to be careful about not biting off more than I can chew when my new baby gets here, but I've wanted to be a board member at the People's Food Coop since I left work there two years ago. This would have been impossible during the last two years because I had so much to learn at Zingerman's (I go overboard in the amount of research I do sometimes). But when Chris, the current President of the board came to me and told me I should run, I figured now was the time.

One of the submissions required for the election was a statement of candidacy limited to 350 words, here's mine:

I believe that members of the coop: want to shop at the coop and be involved with the coop more than they are; are active members because they want their money to have a positive impact on their community and on their world but realize that most of the food one buys has a dark side to it economically, ethically, and environmentally; would like employees working for them at the coop to feel PFC is a socially, progressive employer recognizing every employee's value to the coop, trying to evolve into the most democratic, consensus-oriented workplace that can exist. Our members should be proud of our coop, acknowledging that while we're not perfect, we are continually striving to be an example of what can exist when people give thought and moral pause to their economic choices beyond merely the maximum financial return on their investment.

For four years in New York City, I was an active member of Ganas, a 100+ member intentional community, that ran three recycling businesses on Staten Island. Our group spent three hours every day deciding business issues among 20 of us, building consensus on all decisions. While that depth of exploration isn't necessary here, that experience taught me how to organize people, generate consensus, respect diverse opinions, and run a business communally, all while keeping a constant eye on higher priorities. The last 15 years of my life have been devoted to my scholarly and passionate obsession with food. I worked at the coop for a year and am now the olive oil and vinegar expert and frequent tasting host at Zingerman's Deli.

I recognize the next three years, with planned expansion and choosing a new general manager, as a period of vital growth and change during which the Board must be vocal and active in creating inspiring visions of the direction the coop sails and organizing members in support. I will be tenacious, passionate, and dedicated to setting a course that we can all be proud of taking.

What would you like to taste?

Perhaps I need to set up a wiki. I'd like to turn a few standards on their heads and let the audience create what it would like to taste. Since this is a food group, you might be interested if I describe my job a little bit; in itself, my job is food related.

I'm a tasting host at Zingerman's Deli. My normal role is to pick some subject, say chili peppers, put together a broad spectrum of products to taste, do a scouring of knowledge pulling together all the food resources I can muster (and I've got access to a lot, some of them being producers and growers and artisans), and then create a tasting around those products in which I talk for 90-120 minutes about that subject. I have to guess what a foodie audience would want to taste and then try to communicate the existence of the tasting to those who would be interested. Each of the tasting hosts here has his or her own style, but I can describe mine pretty succinctly: I focus on culinary knowledge about a specific ingredient, I relate that ingredient to its geographic culinary surroundings, pulling in information about the biological, mycological, culinary, chemical, and cultural elements of the ingredient, and I try to build the tasting through a series of steps that will maximize the tasting experience of the audience. I run a very active tasting, asking for opinions and ideas, I want you to create the experience as much as possible.

What I want to turn on its head is the decision making portion of coming up with the idea for a tasting. Why should I be making the decision about what you want to taste? I would enjoy poring my research into any area about food, so why not try to get the audience to voice itself.

I have access to probably the best foods that the world has to offer when it comes to cheese, olive oil, vinegar, tuna, anchovies, olives, smoked fish, salamis, salts, honeys, jams, pastries, bread, chocolate, coffee, spices, pastas, teas, cakes, pies, and sweet cookies. It's a unique access that makes the tasting experience more exciting than one might think.

So I'm asking you, and perhaps I should make this into a wiki format. I'm wondering what you would pay for. You set the price, knowing that I intend to make a profit as a business, but I'm also appreciative of your patronage so I'm certainly not going to cheat you out of what you're due. So what would you pay $20 to come taste? $10? $39

Here's a list of tastings that I'm thinking about doing, perhaps you could tell me what would interest you and how much you think it would be worth.

Would you come for a bagel and cream cheese with various jams tasting? How much would you pay for that? $5? $10? Knowing that a $10 bagel and shmear tasting is going to provide more food or more variety than a $5 bagel and schmear tasting. But for $10, I could see getting at least 2 bagels, cream cheese, butters, and 30 jams. Is it worth it?

How about a bread, butter, and honey tasting? Maybe only an hour long, but including two dozen different honeys and 12 different breads. If 30 people came to that for $20 each, I could provide quite a spread.

I could have cheese tray tasting that you vote on. You create what's on the cheese tray, based on what you would want to eat on your dream cheese tray of the world's greatest cheeses and salamis. Wouldn't it be great to go to a wedding and see that the cheese tray had everything you liked the best? I can make that happen. But what would someone pay for that? The more you were willing to pay, the more amazing I can make it, including gourmet tunas, smoked salmon, pates, etc.

How much would people pay for a foie gras tasting? How many times does one get a chance to eat foie gras? Especially while it's still legal to eat foie gras. "Poach the foie gras according to the recipe given above in Basic Information. Cool it immediately by shocking in ice water, pat dry, and marinate the liver in good Sauternes wine with a tablespoon of Cognac or brandy at least 24 hours in the refrigerator. Cut the foie gras into thick rounds, and place between sheets of freshly baked puff pastry with generous slices of brandy-sprinkled Comice or D'Anjou pears, cracked black pepper and crumbled Roquefort cheese."

Scones and jam?

Cookies, grilled brownies, and gelato?

Pies & cheese? (Tastes good together, I'll tell you that)

Coffee and chocolate?

Macaroni and cheeses, in which 20 grated cheeses are available to put on small cups of orecchiete pasta and sauce? Oooooh, or even more exciting have 8 small cups of different pastas with 20 different grated cheeses and 8 different sauces.

Let me know. s o l o m o n j @ g m a i l . c o m

how to make couscous

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-couscous

The United Nations as a food resource (manual on cheese making)

I need to investigate this United Nations Agricultural Division site much more. I think I've found one of the best manuals on cheese making I've seen. Also, this.