Does Expensive Olive Oil actually taste better?

📚 Videos & Sources mentioned:

USEFUL KITCHEN GEAR

⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
3:41 Why do we add fats and oil to food?
5:22 What affects the flavor of olive oil?
8:02 Experiment #1: Leafy Greens Test
11:51 Experiment #2: Pasta Salad
16:50 Experiment #3: Roasted Vegetables
21:47 Experiment #4: Fried Chicken Cutlet
27:48 Conclusion & Takeaways

MISC. DETAILS
Music: Provided by Epidemic Sound
Filmed on: Sony a6600 & Sony A7C
Voice recorded on Shure MV7
Edited in: Premiere Pro

Affiliate Disclosure:

[BigBenC]

I think aglio e olio would have been a good dish to make to compare the oils since the olive oil is one of the main flavor contributors to the dish

[denniswastaken]

An Italian friend of mine had his parents visiting us once and they brought olive oil from their farm. It was a bright green color and it was so fragrant and flavorful that I could just have it as a normal drink. Nothing in the supermarket compares to that, not even close. I wish I never tasted it because I can't be happy with the regular stuff anymore.

[JChang]

You should consider a butter episode.
> Regular American Butter
> European Butter 82% Butterfat
> European Butter 84%+ Butterfat

[giuseppedelcuratolo]

Italian here: first of all your channel is amazing and your test aren't silly neither offensive, much love. Second, my grandpa used to own a portion od land where he cultivated olive trees, in puglia in the Barletta countryside. He's always claimed that the more the oil would "scratch" the throat, the more good it was. Also another factor that could highlight the quality to a simple and not so scientific extent is the smell it has at first approach. I remember the smell of the barrel of oil he used to keep in the garage, the "younger" oil could be smelled from the entrance door, with the lids closed.

[ojasupadhye]

A comparison between cheap and expensive balsamic vinegar would be really cool too.

[Paul_Ironwolf]

Personally my take is this: You need 4 oils, 1 high grade olive oil as finishing oil (i never heat this one). 1 regular all purpose olive oil preferably still extra virgin or at least virgin (my most used oil). 1 high temp cooking/frying oil (i prefer sunflower or grape seed personalty, but its your choice). 1 good grade sesame oil as finishing oil or sauce mixer oil for aisan type food.

[MrNerdyDan]

Hi Ethan, can you make these ingredient comparisons into a playlist? Really useful

[IEdjumacate]

Great video as usual. I’m surprised you didn’t do any base tests just by dipping bread into each. I feel like that would’ve given you a better idea of which one was the cooking EVOO & which one was the finishing EVOO.

[QuakerPiper]

Today, I wanna answer something because I'm Spanish and I use olive oil on a daily basis. The short answer to the question is: yes. The long answer is:

[Orphioux]

I made your pasta salad for my family for dinner tonight, it was a hit, tasted awesome. The biggest surprise for me was how much our 15 month old liked it, she ate until she couldn't possibly fit any more haha.
Thanks Ethan.

[poika]

I've noticed there are huge differences in olive oils, but it's rarely tied to the price as long as you're not buying the absolute cheapest stuff.

[damiancordes]

I love this series. Not only do you ask interesting questions that aren't easily googled, you also add so much other information that really elevates my knowledge of cooking.

[alienkinkvr]

I actually used the Graza cooking olive oil and finishing oils side by side in identical focaccia recipes. The finishing oil that says "Dont cook with" does two things: Causes a ton of smoke in the oven (oh god) and tastes SO MUCH RICHER in the finished product.

[claudiotagini]

I produce olive oil. Small quantity, but I do personally care for the trees (from pruning, to harvest...) with some help, of course. This premise to explain that I know something about olive oil, and quality. Harvesting olives when they are "ripe" (which means "overripe" as far as I'm concern 😏) means not only extracting more volume, but also allowing the olives themselves being easily nicked during the harvest, even if the harvest is done manually (as we do here), Can't even imagine the olives conditions if not hand picked when ripe. The best time to harvest, in order to extract top quality, is when the olives start turning color, from bright green to purple. Overripe olives, already completely black (worse if they turn brown!) do not have polyphenols (or very little). Olive oil of high quality is always the youngest one (providing it has been stored properly), so, judging an olive oil from 2021 in 2023 (unless this video was from 2021) doesn't make much sense. Was the cheap olive oil from overripe olives younger? Anyway, it is also important how short of time it takes from the harvest to the actual pressing (milling) of the olives: the shortest the better: ideally, only a few hours, would be ideal (I was once lucky to have olives milled at the "frantoio" only 3.5 hours after their harvest!). 12 hours is very good, 24 hours is acceptable. I have a hard time to believe (but I do) that you couldn't tell the difference between the two olive oils... and even preferring the less tasty on the pasta salads! Perhaps this comes from having built a palate with mediocre olive oils, creating that expectation, just like several kids prefer frozen fried fish over fresh fish because they built that taste at home. Try just to smell, blindly, a fresh good olive oil (a Raggiola variety from my area would help) against ANY cheap oil from overripe olives... you can't possibly not be able to distinguish. Don't mess up things masking with vinegars or spices, just olive oil... Oh, boy, what a tirade I wrote!

[HFC]

Please do this with truffle oil and synthetic truffle oil

[soulGrafitti]

I've noticed something in your taste tests I also noticed during my career in restaurants. For example, when we were evaluating a new wine to be offered by the glass I'd get a sample bottle from each of my vendors vying for the placement, perhaps 5 or 6, announce an afternoon tasting to the staff (who rarely skipped an free glass of wine or two), wrapped the bottles in foil and set them on the bar. I'd pour everyone a measured taste, we'd talk about the flavor and characteristics and such (we were known for our wine list and they were a sharp group) and I'd ask for an opinion from the group about which was best. And then left the bottles for anyone who wanted an extra taste. I'd usually make my decision after everyone was done choosing either the first bottle emptied or the the one that was most empty. We were all great at talking about what made wine good but the tell was what they actually drank.

I notice here you ate all of the chicken fried in the expensive EVOO - which in this case was consistent with your discussion. I'm not sure it tracked that closely in others. Now, my goals were different from yours. I wanted to know what people were going to drink the most of - not which was technically best. The two are not the same as you often comment. Indeed I can talk a lot about the characteristics of some wines I never buy and don't particularly like and even acknowledge one of them as being 'better' than a wine I enjoy completely. I think you said something similar in your episode on Parmigiano.

Having brought this to your attention you may now be more scrupulous in the amounts you taste. That would be fair. I would rather the occasional comment looking at the remains of the test and pointing out when the coefficient of leftovers to rating deviate. You have an excellent palette and that's insight into the real world.

[ropro]

Ethan: Your tests _never_ seem silly. I love how you 'break it down' and use evidence rather than just blindly follow cooking myths that have been passed down for generations.

[NeonKue]

In my experiments of EVOO buying every popular store brand and comparing to small batch online companies, the difference in price is based not only on flavor but also polyphenol content and yield. Younger early harvested olives will have that signature bitter/peppery flavor which translates to higher polyphenol content but lower oil yield where as the matured ripe olives are more buttery and mellow with higher oil yield for a better tolerated flavor price point. This is similar to every other kind of fruiting plant like chili peppers (green is more bitter while red is more fruity). I've even had oils that were a mix of young and matured olives which gave mild fruity notes. These 3 are really the main flavor profiles to distinguish an oil's quality and polyphenol content. I personally use a pricey high polyphenol content EVOO (1000+mg Olea True) as a morning supplement which is extremely bitter while also drizzling a cheaper EVOO in my daily meals for a mild fruity kick.

Cooking is the Equalizer in EVOO as with any food that removes/changes most of the raw flavors/antioxidants which is why they say to not heat it up and lose those compounds. This makes a lot of sense, especially if it's an expensive oil but that doesn't mean it's not possible to cook with it. Based on the price alone, it would be logical to use cheaper neutral oils for cooking and leave the EVOO for finishing flavor. Then there's the whole topic of trendy health oils against gmo seed oils talk but that's a different argument in itself.

Overall in my opinion, expensive olive oil isn't worth it unless you're chasing that high polyphenol content for health reasons which is again, very bitter tasting. There's plenty of affordable EVOO that use young olives and give that balanced peppery kick like California Olive Ranch or Amazon's Italian. Kirkland's is more of that middle ground buttery fruit flavor which is good too. Those Ferrari and luxury EVOO are really just brand exclusivity with marketing and not worth the subtle difference in flavor.

[gustavob]

Although i don’t know if it is also used in other parts of the world, here in Spain we use mostly extra virgin and virgin olive oil and sunflower oil, and since extra virgin is too expensive to deep fry, what we generally do is, at least in my household, a mixture of oils, specially about 2/3 sunflower, 1/3 olive, and it does make a big difference in flavor, specially in French fries. Personally I reacently tried mixing olive and pepper oil for rice and it also made a big difference. Maybe a future video idea could be how different mixtures of oils affect cooking. As always Ethan great vid, looking forward for the next.

[SoniaBonia]

I've been using Laudemio for years since visiting their production facility in Tuscany. I didn't even know that it was so highly regarded when I went but I fell in love with the taste and have been using it ever since. Its SO worth it!