Heating Olive Oil

HEATING OLIVE OIL

Often, we get the question if you can use olive oil for baking? There is a misconception that many of us believe that this is not healthy but actually Olive oil is very suitable for baking, frying and grilling.

You must keep in mind the temperature of which you heat you EVOO. The temperature should not be too high, but all the way up to 180 degrees Celsius/356 Degrees Fahrenheit is good to go. This temperature is high enough to perform most cooking most applications of heating including frying. If you keep re-using your oil and heat it time after time it will be unhealthy.  

Healthier options of cooking oils such as Olive Oil have a lower heating point compared to other cooking oils, because they contain more unsaturated fats and less saturated fats. Saturated fats are unhealthy and contain less nutrition’s. The heating point of saturated fats is way higher compared to unsaturated fats. So we can conclude that the composition of the oil is another important factor why some oils have a higher cooking point compared to others. In my personal opinion, and I am not a doctor neither a Nutritionist, I am noticing a pattern between unhealthier oils with lots of saturated fats and healthier oils with lots of unsaturated fats and lower heating points. Olive oil differs from other types of oil in this, because it has the highest percentage of unsaturated fats.

A third important factor is the duration of heating. If you do not heat your oil for long periods of time you maintain more nutrition’s.

It is also important that you take a pan that is not too large. Your dish should just fit in. If your pan is too large, the unused space around it will become too hot and residue will form. You can recognize residue by its brown spots.

So, please feel confident to keep preparing and heating your meals in Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Once again, most heat applications that you use during cooking are below the 350 degrees Fahrenheit, so you are good to go. Just make sure you do not re-use your oil over and over again.

Well, enough information to grill a fresh fish in our delicious Olive Oil Cartel extra virgin olive oil. Enjoy!