Learn
Olive oil, explained without the folklore
Plain answers to the questions people ask in the supermarket aisle and at the stove.
Featured · Cooking with Olive Oil
Can You Bake with Olive Oil Instead of Butter?
Butter helps shape a bake as well as flavor it. Find out when olive oil can take its place, with original recipes to try.
Read the guide · 4 minAll guides
Your Olive Oil Doesn’t Belong Next to the Stove
The bottle beside the stove is convenient. A cool cupboard, the right bottle size and a proper closure will do more to help it keep its flavor.
4 min read
How to Match Olive Oil to the Food You’re Making
Match delicate oils to gentle foods and robust Picual or Coratina to bitter greens and hearty stews. A practical guide to choosing and pouring olive oil at the table.
4 min read
Should You Buy Unfiltered Olive Oil?
What does “unfiltered” tell you about an olive oil? A practical guide to cloudiness, flavor and the questions to ask before buying a bottle.
4 min read
Stop choosing olive oil by colour
Green oil is not automatically better oil. Here is what colour does and does not tell you, and what to look at instead.
4 min read
The smoke point myth around olive oil
You can cook with extra virgin olive oil. Its smoke point matters, but it does not tell the whole story of what happens in a hot pan.
5 min read
Your olive oil probably doesn't need to be expensive
Price and quality are related, but not the way most shoppers assume. How to spend sensibly on the bottle you use every day.
4 min read
What 'extra virgin' actually means
Extra virgin is a defined grade, not a marketing adjective. A short, plain explanation of what has to be true for an oil to use it.
5 min read
How to read an olive oil label
The five things worth finding on a label, in the order they matter, and the phrases that carry no real information.
6 min read
How to store olive oil at home
Light, heat, air and time are the four things that spoil a good bottle. Simple habits that keep an oil tasting the way it should.
6 min read
How to taste olive oil properly
Bitterness and a peppery throat catch are features, not faults. A short guide to tasting an oil and describing what you find.
6 min read
Why one bottle costs €5 and another €30
Two bottles can carry the same extra virgin label and sit far apart on price. Here is where the money actually goes, and when paying more is worth it.
6 min read
Is my olive oil fake?
The fridge test, the bubble trick and the flame test all promise to catch fake olive oil. None of them does. Here is what is actually going on, and what works instead.
6 min read