Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site harvard.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!macrakis 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