Taking Issue with “Extra Virgin Everything”

There is a very interesting discussion (click here for thread) on our friend Jane’s blog, Let There Be Bite, about olive oils and what you should use for cooking. I would love to hear what you think. This is what I wrote:

Grazie, Ridge, but I still disagree strongly. I thank you for the opportunity to discuss this topic. Virgin oil is a bad oil, the acidity
is so high, it is almost a rancid oil. I don’t agree that you don’t taste the olive oil when you cook. I and all the people I have asked do taste it. in fact, to cook I would use a little older and less flavorful olive oil, but always an ev olive oil. why would you use an almost rancid olive oil? I’m a strong believer of garbage in garbage out. yes, possibly the health benefit of oil are lost after frying, but the lightness of the fried food is uncomparable (the ev olive oil’s smoke point is higher and the fried food absorbs less of it – not to talk about how your house does NOT smell, when you fry with ev olive oil). if it is an issue of cost, many merchants (including us, gustiamo) sell ev olive oil with passed “best before” at big discounts.

I strongly disagree with you when you say that there is nothing wrong with refined olive oils. EVERYTHING is wrong with refined (ie treated with chemicals) olive oils. it might not be dangerous to your health, i agree. it’s very dangerous for the environment. somebody needs to produce these chemicals. who wants them, other than the big industries who make huge profits from refined olive oils?