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From: macrakis@harvard.ARPA (Stavros Macrakis)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: Oil info: olive oil
Message-ID: <429@harvard.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 6-Mar-85 12:48:12 EST
Article-I.D.: harvard.429
Posted: Wed Mar  6 12:48:12 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Mar-85 20:01:30 EST
References: <521@ahutb.UUCP>
Organization: Aiken Comp. Lab., Harvard
Lines: 30

> I'm looking for a good all-purpose healthy cooking oil, ...
> [usable]...during Passover... parve

I don't know about the Jewish requirements, but olive oil is the
universal fat around the Mediterranean.  These days in Boston, you can
get good olive oil at $10/gal (Berio at Martignetti's); more for special
ones; avoid the cheap ones.  You can use it to deep-fry (its smoking
point is high), saute, and stew; make sauces (mayonnaise etc.); and
dress salad, boiled greens, broiled fish.

There is no question, though, that it adds its own character to what you
use it on.  You imply that you are Jewish, but don't mention from where;
if you are Ashkenazi, presumably it is irrelevant to your cooking
tradition; if you are Sephardic or Arab (or Persian? do they also use
olive oil?) then presumably it is a natural.  You might want to talk a
look at Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern Cookery (Penguin)--she is an
Egyptian Jew who has collected a wide variety of recipes (not just
Jewish).

On the other hand, under Orthodox Christian rules (widely ignored...),
olive oil is prohibited during Lent, presumably because it is so good
and so rich that it might as well be meat fat.

As for health, it is monounsaturated, and various studies have claimed
it is very healthy.  However, many of these studies appear to have been
commissioned by the Agriculture Ministries of olive-oil-producing
countries....  But then, one of the lowest rates of heart disease in the
world is in Crete--real olive country.

	-s