Olive Oil

[raamv]

I use Olive Oil frequently as it is the main ingredient of my food. I find it extremely expensive to buy it in Finland.
Can you suggest me some cheap deals on bottles of 500 ML, 1L, 2L, and 3L price-wise?

Any online/internet food stores in Finland like the Tesco's e-grocery services in the UK?

Kind Regards

Cheapest in LIDL here..
Online ...Hmm dont really know if you will get the right thing or not..

[umit]

I used to buy olive oil from an ethnic food market called Ararat at Sörnäinen. The price was around 3e/l and the taste was OK. But, since some time they don't import that specific brand (I don't remember it). A month ago I bought another brand of olive oil for 4e/l from the same market, but didn't like the taste. I also realized that Lidl have the cheapest olive oil, however haven't tasted it, yet.

As jmakinen says olive oil has an addictive taste. We have our own olive yard back home, which yields 4 tonnes of olive oil each year. We got used to consume olive oil in abundance, so you should understand my situation in Finland

Olive oil is actually not suitable for high heat cooking and frying. I avoid that, and eat it when I can eat it either unheated or only mildly heated.

And I would like to correct a misunderstanding here: Olive oil is perfectly suitable for high heat cooking and frying, but not the virgin or extra-virgin ones. Virgin and extra-virgin olive oils are good for salads and cold dishes. Refined olive oils have quite high smoke point. (one of the highest and even extra-virgin olive oil has 375°F/191°C smoke point)

[jmakinen]

And I would like to correct a misunderstanding here: Olive oil is perfectly suitable for high heat cooking and frying, but not the virgin or extra-virgin ones. Virgin and extra-virgin olive oils are good for salads and cold dishes. Refined olive oils have quite high smoke point. (one of the highest and even extra-virgin olive oil has 375°F/191°C smoke point)

Yeah - that's the "Pomace" I have mentioned - "you won't believe it's olive oil" (NO taste)

[sammy]

Virgin and extra-virgin olive oils are good for salads and cold dishes.

Quite so. I always thought the sensible thing was not to waste the "good" extra virgin oils into frying or cooking... unless indeed you live in a location where olive oil comes from your back garden! Since "cheapest" does not always mean "sensible", and there's more than one solution to almost any issue, this is what I do: I keep a few bottles/tins of olive oil in da house - one for cooking that involves heating, and some "better" quality for salads, etc.

It's interesting how different olive oils can be - you can "taste" them a bit like they were wines But IMO the differences in quality or taste are not that significant when we talk about cooking or frying... if you're preparing coq au vin you do not necessarily profit a lot taste-wise from pouring in that bottle of vintage Margaux; similarly, it makes little sense to use up that Ligurian extra vergine to appease the gods of Deep Frying.

[jmakinen]

Happy Vappu.

I was in charge of making huge batches of pyttipannu yesterday. Used butter and 'olive oil' that someone had brought - label 'X-tra' (pyytipannu turned out fine - helped by the sweet chili sauce and mustard added while frying to bit more than golden brown). Olive oil does a lot to prevent butter from burning.

But I noticed no trace of olive oil aroma or taste! - sure enough - the label just said 'Olive Oil' - nothing about Virgin.

So this was the 'Pomace' mentioned above

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Pomace_Oil

I've been noticing this stuff in different countries - occasionally someone is honest enough to put 'Pomace' on the label. But seldom - even the usually reputable Trader Joe (owned by Aldi/DE) in USA just calls it 'olive oil'

Someone above didn't always want the taste of 'real' olive oil - so this gives the health and technical benefits - with no olive taste.

But for those that really want that great taste - be warned - when you buy just 'olive oil,' know what you're getting.

[maxxfi]

And here is EU Commission Regulation (EC) No 1019/2002 that defines 'marketing standards for olive oil'
i.e. what should be written on the olive oil bottles (with english + finnish text side by side):
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Notice.do?mode ... words=null

[jmakinen]

First - the EU material seems contradictory - it says that consumer packaging should not exceed 5 liters - how is one going to get all that text onto anything less than a 15 liter container?



Seriously - I tried to go thru the bureaucraticese - but don't spot where a company might be obligated to note that the oil would NOT be Virgin Olive Oil. That would seem to be something a consumer should note on their own - further I doubt that 5% of people purchasing olive oil are aware that by not being Virgin - that there will be basically ZERO taste and aroma of what they might usually expect. (I even wonder how many will notice the difference - NOT that there isn't a huge one )