There are many oils available to us in the market, but none comes close to the benefits olive oil has for our health. One can easily use it to season salads and make dips. This is all apart from being able to cook with it as well. However, to ensure that you are able to make the best of the oil itself, it is important to follow a few rules and tips!
Listed below are some of the tips and tricks and do’s and dont’s that will help you cook better with this amazing oil!
Storage:
Just brought your first bottle of olive oil home? Once done with cooking we are sure you are thinking of putting it in the back of your pantry, aren’t you? This just is one of the most common mistakes that olive oil users make; to store it in the wrong way! Storing olive oil in the right manner is crucial to help it maintain its nutrient content and lend it to the consumer. Seeing as olive oil is one of the best oil for cooking, you need to remember one simple thing; when any kind of olive oil is exposed to heat, no matter how little, can actually end up affecting the nutrient composition of the oil itself.
Finding a cool dark place to store the oil can be difficult in warmer countries, but in such cases buying a can of oil or buying a dark coloured bottle will be helpful.
When exposed to sunlight the ultraviolet rays from the sun can essentially break down the nutrient composition in the oil over time. But the issue does not stop there. Sunlight, apart from making the olive oil go rancid, thanks to the heat exposure, the light too ends up deteriorating the quality as well as the amount of antioxidants present in the olive oil. You need to remember to store olive oil in a temperature of 15 degree celsius to 30 degree celsius at most to ensure that the quality of the olive oil is maintained.
Usage Quantity:
We know that most good quality of the best cooking oils turn out to be more expensive, but rightly so. We also know that you probably would be thinking that you will not use the oil more than a few drops or a splash here or there at a time. This, in the long run, could very well end up causing problems. How you ask? Well, if you end up taking out only a little amount at a time, the chances of the oil getting spoilt and going rancid are high since every bottle has a particular shelf life that you need to keep in mind.
We obviously are not telling you to end up using a whole bottle or half of it in one go, but it is important that you use olive oil generously in order to make sure that simply by lying in the pantry too, the bottle does not end up getting spoilt. Think about this the next time you decide to just use a dash of the olive oil in your cooking.
No Bulk Buying
If you have ever talked or interacted with an olive oil producer, you will agree that most of them will always advise that you consume an opened bottle of olive oil in 6 weeks or at the most 8 weeks time. Essentially what happens when you keep an opened bottle of olive oil as is, you end up exposing it to more and more oxygen. During this course of time, when it gets exposed to oxygen frequently, the oil gets oxidized. This in turn ends up making it lose close to all of its flavours. Hence say no to hoarding large bottles or tins of olive oil in order to save a few bucks. Instead opt for buying and using smaller bottles.
