[QUOTE]RACALE, Italy — Across the stony heel of Italy, a peninsula ringed by the blue-green waters of the Mediterranean, olive trees have existed for centuries, shaping the landscape and producing some of the nation’s finest olive oils. Except now, many of the trees are dying. Sprinkled among the healthy trees are clusters of sick ones, denuded of leaves and standing like skeletons, their desiccated branches bereft of olives. The trees are succumbing to a bacterial outbreak that is sweeping across one of Italy’s most famous olive regions, as families who have manufactured olive oil for generations now fear ruin, even as officials in the rest of Europe fear a broader outbreak. Today, scientists estimate that one million olive trees in the peninsula, known as the Salento, are infected with the bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, a figure that could rise rapidly.
For Italy, which trails only Spain in annual olive oil production, the outbreak has forced a bitter bargain: To prevent the bacterium from spreading north, officials are trying to quarantine the outbreak in the lower half of the Salento, where most of the contaminated trees are, by carving a buffer zone that would serve as a sort of biological firebreak.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/world/europe/fear-of-ruin-as-disease-takes-hold-of-italys-olive-trees.html[/url]
Shiet I love extra virgin olive oil
I find olive oil gross (which is weird because I like whole olives on their own) but this is definitely not a good thing.
A result of monoculture?
Time to gather up the few remaining roots alive, and put them aside until this blows over. Important business for Italy.
[QUOTE=VikCreamCake;47710557]A result of monoculture?[/QUOTE]
[quote]The bacterial outbreak — which is believed to have arrived with plants imported from Costa Rica and has already destroyed citrus trees in Brazil and vineyards in California — poses a new danger for all of European agriculture.[/quote]
Apparently no, the bacterium just loves to fuck shit up.
[editline]12th May 2015[/editline]
[QUOTE=Amiga OS;47710598]Similar to the Irish Potato famine, next to no genetic diversity.[/QUOTE]
There's plenty of genetic diversity between a citrus and an olive tree but the bacterium doesn't seem to give a damn, it just really likes fruit trees.
[QUOTE=Gar92;47710580]Time to gather up the few remaining roots alive, and put them aside until this blows over. Important business for Italy.[/QUOTE]
olive trees take like 5-10 years to grow before the trees are ready to produce oil, saving roots will help but by then the whole industry will be destroyed
That shit also started to appear here at the south. We hope we can control their expansion before it is too late.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;47710520]I find olive oil gross (which is weird because I like whole olives on their own) but this is definitely not a good thing.[/QUOTE]
You're not supposed to drink it like juice.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;47710520]I find olive oil gross (which is weird because I like whole olives on their own) but this is definitely not a good thing.[/QUOTE]
You probably get it on alot more food than you realize.
[QUOTE=Sableye;47710668]olive trees take like 5-10 years to grow before the trees are ready to produce oil, saving roots will help but by then the whole industry will be destroyed[/QUOTE]
I bow to your olive tree knowledge sir...
This will no doubt shoot the price of olive oil up, even blending with other oils.
[QUOTE=!LORD M!;47711322]You're not supposed to drink it like juice.[/QUOTE]
Well duh, I still prefer sunflower oil over it.
[QUOTE=Vasili;47711575]This will no doubt shoot the price of olive oil up, even blending with other oils.[/QUOTE]
IIRC a while back a similar story started going round and inevitably olive oil prices shot up, but when asking the farmers, they were like "What outbreak?"
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;47711975]Well duh, I still prefer sunflower oil over it.[/QUOTE]
Personally I think every plant oil is great for different kinds of food.
[QUOTE=NeverGoWest;47712083]Personally I think every plant oil is great for different kinds of food.[/QUOTE]
Bit offtopic, but
Olive Oil = Tomato Sauces, Salads, Curry, Grilled Dark Greens
Corn Oil = Fries/Chips and Hash Browns, corn oil with anything involving fried potatoes = god tier
Peanut Oil = Most eastern asian cooking (excluding indian)
Canola & Grapeseed = Flavor-neutral choice
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;47710520]I find olive oil gross (which is weird because I like whole olives on their own) but this is definitely not a good thing.[/QUOTE]
Some types are gross, but there are really nice ones. Coconut oil is the best tasting imo(and healthiest) oil to cook with. Hopefully they can stop this outbreak.
[QUOTE=hypno-toad;47712152]Bit offtopic, but
Olive Oil = Tomato Sauces, Salads, Curry, Grilled Dark Greens
Corn Oil = Fries/Chips and Hash Browns, corn oil with anything involving fried potatoes = god tier
Peanut Oil = Most eastern asian cooking (excluding indian)
Canola & Grapeseed = Flavor-neutral choice[/QUOTE]
Why would you use olive oil for a curry? It has no place in Indian cuisine. They often use gee, mustard oil or sunflower.
[QUOTE=Vasili;47712680]Why would you use olive oil for a curry? It has no place in Indian cuisine. They often use gee, mustard oil or sunflower.[/QUOTE]
Ghee is harder to buy and keep in stock, olive oil is not.
After gee for cooking oil/fat, the next best alternative is olive oil
[QUOTE=hypno-toad;47712693]After gee for cooking oil/fat, the next best alternative is olive oil[/QUOTE]
Olive oil has a low smoking point, not something you want for a curry - it also has a flavour that doesn't really belong in Indian food. Gee and mustard oil is what really makes an authentic curry taste [I](and really where a lot of flavour comes from)[/I]; but they use other oils such as coconut, peanut, sesame and nowadays sunflower, rapeseed and soybean.
It really depends on the dish, but a different oil depending on the type of curry is usually the case.
You can make gee very easily, I recommend giving it ago.
Rick Stein did a nice documentary on Indian cooking, I also recommend checking it out if you already haven't.
This thread is making me hungry. And want to buy out the last remaining supply of olive oil. Damn it.
Olive tree bacterial infections, cacao plantation bacterial and fungal infections... all our nicest, rarest crops are dying, it's sad. At least with the cacao they're developing modified plants that are resistant to the diseases but staggeringly, produce even BETTER tasting beans than the best of the current breeds.
I'm sure there is hope for the olive trees, but if this thing can't be stopped now they'll probably get mostly wiped out before a new breed of trees is planted that is resistant. Sad, but inevitable I feel.
[QUOTE=hypno-toad;47712152]Bit offtopic, but
Olive Oil = Tomato Sauces, Salads, Curry, Grilled Dark Greens
Corn Oil = Fries/Chips and Hash Browns, corn oil with anything involving fried potatoes = god tier
Peanut Oil = Most eastern asian cooking (excluding indian)
Canola & Grapeseed = Flavor-neutral choice[/QUOTE]
don't forget sesame oil... ughgghghh that shit smells like heaven
Italy has been having some problems lately with bacteria and such ruining the plants here, i can confirm that my relatives had their olive plants ruined this year.
[editline]13th May 2015[/editline]
[QUOTE=hypno-toad;47712152]Bit offtopic, but
Olive Oil = Tomato Sauces, Salads, Curry, Grilled Dark Greens
Corn Oil = Fries/Chips and Hash Browns, corn oil with anything involving fried potatoes = god tier
Peanut Oil = Most eastern asian cooking (excluding indian)
Canola & Grapeseed = Flavor-neutral choice[/QUOTE]
Honestly you can use olive oil even for chips and fried stuff, you just know how to cook with it, and it gives it that particular flavour. Also extra virgin is the only way to have your oil.
[QUOTE=Joseph Smith;47713640]Honestly you can use olive oil even for chips and fried stuff, you just know how to cook with it, and it gives it that particular flavour. Also extra virgin is the only way to have your oil.[/QUOTE]
For frying? God no. You never should cook olive oil at high heats, a lot of people these days tell you that you shouldn't even be cooking with olive oil at all. Not only cooking with olive oil at a high heat will deteriorate the flavour but using extra virgin as a cooking oil? Waste of money.
If you want to stick to a natural oil for frying go rapeseed at least.
[QUOTE=Vasili;47713763]For frying? God no. You never should cook olive oil at high heats, a lot of people these days tell you that you shouldn't even be cooking with olive oil at all. Not only cooking with olive oil at a high heat will deteriorate the flavour but using extra virgin as a cooking oil? Waste of money.
If you want to stick to a natural oil for frying go rapeseed at least.[/QUOTE]
You have to learn to cook with it, it's a different kind of frying, lower heated. It gives off a nice taste, it's healthier and beside extra virgin is quite resistant to high heat, also extra virgin is not pricey at all here, like it's way cheap compared to other places.
[QUOTE=Joseph Smith;47713783]You have to learn to cook with it, it's a different kind of frying, lower heated. It gives off a nice taste, it's healthier and beside extra virgin is quite resistant to high heat, also extra virgin is not pricey at all here, like it's way cheap compared to other places.[/QUOTE]
Then again, you're in Italy, so no import tax.
But still, you only use olive oil for light frying. You don't freaking put it in the deep fryer, its gonna burn and smoke your whole kitchen.
[QUOTE=hypno-toad;47712152]Bit offtopic, but
Olive Oil = Tomato Sauces, Salads, Curry, Grilled Dark Greens
Corn Oil = Fries/Chips and Hash Browns, corn oil with anything involving fried potatoes = god tier
Peanut Oil = Most eastern asian cooking (excluding indian)
Canola & Grapeseed = Flavor-neutral choice[/QUOTE]
Aren't you missing sunflower oil? Which is incredibly ubiquitous in Europe.
[QUOTE=Joseph Smith;47713640]Italy has been having some problems lately with bacteria and such ruining the plants here, i can confirm that my relatives had their olive plants ruined this year.
[editline]13th May 2015[/editline]
Honestly you can use olive oil even for chips and fried stuff, you just know how to cook with it, and it gives it that particular flavour. Also extra virgin is the only way to have your oil.[/QUOTE]
If you want to fry with olive oil you should never ever use extra virging as the smoke point is just too low. Use refined ones.
[QUOTE=Joseph Smith;47713640]Italy has been having some problems lately with bacteria and such ruining the plants here, i can confirm that my relatives had their olive plants ruined this year.
[editline]13th May 2015[/editline]
Honestly you can use olive oil even for chips and fried stuff, you just know how to cook with it, and it gives it that particular flavour. Also extra virgin is the only way to have your oil.[/QUOTE]
Sliced mushrooms fried in olive oil in a pan.
Shits amazing
[QUOTE=hypno-toad;47712152]Bit offtopic, but
Olive Oil = Tomato Sauces, Salads, Curry, Grilled Dark Greens
Corn Oil = Fries/Chips and Hash Browns, corn oil with anything involving fried potatoes = god tier
Peanut Oil = Most eastern asian cooking (excluding indian)
Canola & Grapeseed = Flavor-neutral choice[/QUOTE]
Vegetable oil is also popular for indian dishes.
The problem with using olive oil in stir-fry is it doesn't withstand heat very well. Chinese stir-fry needs to be done with the oil smoking hot to get the distinctive "wok burn" smell and flavour you want. Olive oil's smoke point is quite low and doesn't smell or taste great when burned. Dead right on peanut oil, that stuff is great.
[editline]14th May 2015[/editline]
On the other hand, olive oil is great for saute'd potatos. Mmm....
[editline]14th May 2015[/editline]
Oh and finally, this does seem like it might be a shady effort to hike the prices up. Be interesting to hear what the farmers say.
doesn't bother me, I buy Greek
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