What is EVOO? Short for Extra Virgin Olive Oil, EVOO is a popular ingredient in modern cuisine and tasty addition to any food. You can use it as an alternative to butter or vinegar. It is high in monounsaturated fatty acids, which may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.
You probably know regular olive oil as the purest oil form, usually green in color and made from olives. But did you know that there are other olive oils used in cooking?
There is a form of vegetable oils that you cannot find on supermarket shelves. Still, it is a staple in many kitchens worldwide. That oil is called EVOO or extra virgin olive oil.
Why Is Olive Oil Called Evoo?
We call it Extra Virgin Olive Oil for a reason.
It’s one of the healthiest rich fats out there, hands down. It’s good for your heart, skin, and even your brain. It’s versatile—you can use it in everything – from a salad dressing to a cake frosting! And it’s relatively inexpensive.
Olive oil is made by pressing whole olives and extracting the juice. It’s been used for thousands of years as an ingredient in food, medicine, and soap—not to mention it burned in lamps, greased chariot wheels, and served as anointing oil for religious ceremonies.
Extra-virgin olive oil is considered the highest quality. It is processed using only mechanical means. In other words, they don’t use heat or chemicals to extract the oil from the olives.
(It’s a little like when you make juice with a juicer instead of blending fruit up in a blender.) This helps preserve its distinct flavor and nutritional value, so it costs more than some other types of olive oil.
But What Exactly is It? What Makes It so “Extra Virgin”? And Why Do We Call it EVOO?
Essentially, olive oil comes from pressed olives and is harvested at different phases of ripeness. The less-ripe olives produce oil with more flavor and a lighter color; the riper ones give an oil that is smoother in taste and a darker yellow or green.
Olive oil is considered extra virgin when properly harvested and cold-pressed (also known as cold-pressed oil) within 24 hours of picking. This helps retain its nutritional quality and prevents oxidation (the process by which air turns food rancid).
If done correctly, this also gives the oil a lower acidity level (less than 1%).
Because of its high antioxidant content and fatty acids, extra virgin olive oil is one of the healthiest oils to cook with or use in recipes.
This type of olive oil has a more robust flavor than regular olive oils, and you can use it in many different recipes. It also has higher levels of antioxidants than other kinds of cooking fat.
What Is Evoo Ingredient?
EVOO, or extra virgin olive oil, is an oil made by pressing olives and collecting the juice. People often use it as a cooking or baking ingredient in Mediterranean recipes.
EVOO is just one of many oils; it’s made from olives, which are tree fruits with a pit at the center. The olive is crushed and pressed to extract the oil; then, the oil is filtered and bottled.
You can repeat the process several times to increase the amount of oil produced by each olive. Because EVOO uses no chemical processes or additives, it retains a more natural flavor than other types of olive oil.
It has a lower smoke point than some other oils, so it’s best for cold dishes like salad dressing or sauteing at low temperatures.
You might not know it by name, but the EVOO ingredient is quite popular in the beauty industry, and for a good reason! EVOO stands for extra virgin olive oil, which is full of natural fatty acids that help lock in moisture, promote elasticity, and keep your skin looking supple and smooth.
It’s also packed with antioxidants like vitamin A and E and polyphenols that fight free radicals.
If you have dry or damaged hair, an EVOO conditioner can help restore its natural shine. If your scalp tends to get dry or flaky, an EVOO shampoo might be just what you need to soothe those symptoms away.
If you’re looking for a way to moisturize your skin without clogging pores, try applying pure EVOO directly onto damp skin after washing it off with soap and water (don’t use too much).
This makeup remover wipes away dirt and grime from your face like a charm, but it’s also great for removing eye makeup.
Suppose you’re someone who suffers from puffy eyes in the morning due to lack of sleep or allergies. In that case, these wipes will do wonders at helping reduce swelling around those delicate areas around your lids.’
How Is EVOO Made?
Olive oil is a delicious, quality, and versatile addition to any diet. But where does olive oil come from? And how is it made?
Fresh Olive oil comes from olives, which are fruits that grow on olive trees. Olives are harvested when green or black. Green olives have more of a bitter taste, and black olives have a sweeter flavor.
The kind of oil you get depends on the type of olives used and how ripe they are when you pick them.
First, olives are crushed into a paste using large granite stones or steel blades. This turns the fruit into a thick mush. Then this mush is spread out on fiber disks inside an olive press.
When the disks are stacked up, pressure is applied to squeeze the mush into juice. When this juice sits for about half an hour, oil starts to separate from the water in the juice and floats to the top of the container. The water sinks below, and you can pour it off.
The separating process repeats two more times to remove as much water as possible from the container, leaving only pure olive oil at the top of the container. Then we get EVOO as the final product.
What Is Evoo Sauce?
We get EVOO sauce from olive oil that has been pressed from olives.
Once you extract the oil, it is mixed with other ingredients to create the various flavors of EVOO sauce.
EVOO sauce is a great way to shake up your diet and add some serious flavor. Use it on salads, pasta dishes, sandwiches, pizzas, etc.
What Is EVOO Seasoning?
It’s a new type of seasoning that combines freshly-ground black pepper and fresh oregano with EVOO (extra virgin olive oil).
This combination of flavors gives the seasoning a deep, earthy taste to your food.
We don’t know if you’ve used olive oil as a seasoning before, but it’s the way to go. When you use olive oil as a seasoning instead of cooking oil, you’re getting all the flavor of the olive without having to heat it and cook away those flavors.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) flavor is hard to describe. It’s earthy yet bright, and it has a richness that’s lacking in most other oils.
It has a silky-smooth texture that makes it perfect for dressing salads. Still, it’s also great for cooking meat dishes, sautéing vegetables, or drizzling over a slice of crusty bread.
Final words – What Is EVOO
EVOO, or just plain olive oil? Whatever you prefer to call it, olive oil is the most commonly used edible oil today. It can be used in cooking and as an ingredient to add flavor to various foods and dishes.
Peanut oil, corn oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, and flax seeds are other common cooking oils ( processed oils) we often come across in recipes.
Though all these oils have their benefits, only extra virgin olive oils have the highest grade. It can boast of being natural heart-healthy when consumed directly from your olive garden if it is organic.
We hope we have been able to help you understand the many different uses of olive oil. Use it as a small amount in your cooking, on bread, over salads, or enjoy a good glass of olive oil on its own or in as many dishes you want.
You know now that extra virgin olive oil is not one flavor but many, and you can use it for so many things. Since our article is about extra virgin olive oil and not cuisine, we didn’t delve that much into recipes. You can go to the international olive council website for more details about olive oils.