362838 Mon Jan 22 19:54:52 -0800 2007 18 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 2215013 I've been taking precious real estate in my fridge for truffle-infused olive oil, and in the summer months I tend to store all my oils in the refridgerator. I'll be making sage oil soon, and that too is where I was going to keep it. HOWEVER I just read an interesting bit on McGee's blog http://curiouscook.blogspot.com/ extrapolating from Italian chemists that olive oil spoils at the same rate in or out of the fridge, and that a simple cool dark non-fridge place is the best place to store. Something about vulnerable unsaturated fats . . . Mon Jan 22 19:54:52 -0800 2007 11989 pitu 1 2215188 No. I am a HUGE fan and follower of Harold McGee ... but in this case ... no. I don't care what science says on this my own experience is different. I don't use olive oil that much and tend to use the same olive oil. If I store it in a cabinet it goes rancid in about 6 months. The bottle I just finished in my fridge was 2 years old and just fine. Same brand ... fresh from the farmers market ... no chemicals or preservatives ... it spoils sooner unrefrigerated. I agree about not storing unopened olive oil in the fridge though ... no exposure to air ... it lasts a lot longer. I wonder if the scientists did anything special to the olive oils. Maybe they didn't leave empty air in the bottle. I imagine if you had two full bottles of olive oil, opened them both, took a small sample and then let the bottles sit under the two conditions, then there wouldn't be alot of air in the bottles ... which might be like the deal with wine ... more air exposure ... quicker faster spoilage. Mon Jan 22 20:33:21 -0800 2007 2215013 10264 rworange 1 2215257 Somewhat curiously, neither he nor the Italian chemists say anything about flavor? As in experts tasted them and pronounced thereupon? Maybe that's the "extrapolation" part but I have to say, it seems to me too that it makes a difference over long periods of time, and especially over the Summer (I don't have a/c and my kitchen can get quite hot between its small size and heat from appliances.) Mon Jan 22 20:49:46 -0800 2007 2215013 11980 MikeG 2 2215352 Yeah, it makes me think that the lab was temperature-controlled. Even though it was room temperature, it was always the same room temperature. While the temperature in my fridge remains constant, even in a cupboard the temperature will vary, especially on the few hot summer days in the SF Bay Area. Mon Jan 22 21:14:56 -0800 2007 2215257 10264 rworange 1 2215414 I have two bottles of olive oil, a kind of flavorless Bertolli, and the De Ceccho, which is spicy and used mostly for salads. They both stay out on the counter, in fact about a 18" away from the cooktop. However, in warm weather I'll go through both bottles in a month, because of all the salads and grilling out, and this time of year when I'm not using it that quickly it's cool anyway. I've noticed no deterioration in taste under any circumstances. I do keep sesame oil and hot chili oil in the fridge, but that's because they have perishable ingredients. Mon Jan 22 21:28:41 -0800 2007 2215013 11478 Will Owen 2 2215647 What is perishable in sesame/chili oils? Other than the oil itself, which will go rancid like any oil will. I keep my olive oils and sesame oils out on the counter under a cabinet, so it's fairly dark. Canola and peanut in the cupboard. Mon Jan 22 22:24:11 -0800 2007 2215414 43893 C. Hamster 1 2215632 i keep my olive oil at room temp, but go through it at a pretty good clip. however, i just made a bit of my own balsamic vinaigrette and put in the fridge -- it got really thick and i was thinking i made a mistake -- then i remembered the store bought dressings probably add all kinds of skanky chemicals to keep the oil from solidifying. i gave it a good shake and it went quite nicely onto my baguette for my italian sub. Mon Jan 22 22:20:51 -0800 2007 2215013 51618 hitachino 1 2215699 Soybean and canola oil - the most common in bottled dressings even when olive oil is there toward the end of the list - don't solidy to the same degree in the fridge. Different oils react to low temps differently. Mon Jan 22 22:36:21 -0800 2007 2215013 11980 MikeG 1 2218607 I use olive oil very quickly too, so I don't bother storing it in the fridge. I do have a question about walnut oil though...I bought some quite a while ago, and haven't used it yet. I didn't refridgerate it. Does anyone know if it will keep unrefridgerated like olive oil if it isn't opened? It doesn't say anything on the can. Tue Jan 23 13:05:45 -0800 2007 2215013 64441 mepolo 1 2224086 Walnut oil is certainly much more perishable than olive oil - which is actually among the longer lasting. If you know what rancid oil smells like, sniff it; if it's been sitting around a warm kitchen, even unopened, for say a year, chances are pretty good it's well on it's way to being history if not there already.. If this is the stuff with the black label on a pint/500ml metal can, IMX, it's often iffy even brand new, so that's another factor. But in short, if it smells OK, it will for all intents and purposes be OK. Wed Jan 24 20:27:22 -0800 2007 2215013 11980 MikeG 2 2225299 and if you don't know what rancid oil smells like, find an ancient tube of lipstick it's.that.smell. Thu Jan 25 08:37:15 -0800 2007 2224086 11989 pitu 1 2230541 Thank you! I do know what rancid oil smells like, so I will finally open it this week-end, and check it out. I have had it for about a year, and never used it because I wasn't quite sure what to use it on/with...etc. I can't remember what brand it was, but it is in a round tin can. If it isn't rancid, are there any suggestions on what to use it on/with...besides vinegarette? Fri Jan 26 12:51:15 -0800 2007 2215013 64441 mepolo 2 2235016 I only use nut oils for salad dressing - green salad, or beet salad - but I wonder if some eastern european walnut cookie might be extra-walnuted with oil instead of other fats... precarious ground, messing with baking ; ) but you made me curious, so I googled...this looks interesting http://www.wellwood.com.au/recipe/recipelist.cfm Sun Jan 28 08:12:16 -0800 2007 2230541 11989 pitu 1 2231560 One of the neat things about advancing years is that your collection of used bottles can grow over time. I save the little 5 oz and 10 oz dark brown bottles that steak sauce (A-1, etc) is packaged in. When I bring home a new bottle of EVoo or peanut , I decant thru a funnel into the 10 oz jars. They go into a dated ziploc into the chest freezer, and get used one by one. Sesame and walnut go into a 5 oz. These dark single jars are not refridgerated, but stay close to the action area. Canola, used only for deep frying, and often on cheap sale, stays in the jug and gets frozen... if I'm going to deep fry then I plan ahead and thaw overnight. I wish that McGee's article had specified any differences between freezing as opposed to refrigeration. All I know is that things stay pretty fresh. Cleaning the bottles for rotation is easy: fill about 1/10 full of hot water, add a few drops of detergent, cap, and shake. Repeat and rinse. Store loosely capped to avoid "capped bottle" smell. Fri Jan 26 17:02:39 -0800 2007 2215013 17562 FoodFuser 2 4107595 Something to look forward to, along with having a good excuse for frequently forgetting things. I never have enough jars and bottles. Good tip, especially for the short lifespan nut oils, etc. Wed Oct 15 21:23:15 -0700 2008 2231560 106932 Agent Orange 1 4107414 Not sure I know what to believe at this point. I couldn't find the post on the Curious Cook blog; can someone post a direct link? If I really wanted to save some olive oil for the long term, however, I'd stick it in the freezer -- not the fridge. Italian scientists for a big oil company have a patent on a deep-freezing technique for olive oil that they claim absolutely preserves its freshness with minimal degradation. But that's deep-freezing; not refrigeration. I blogged about it here: http://www.iloveoliveoilblog.com/2007/09/deep-frozen-olive-oil-how-common-is-it.html Wed Oct 15 19:28:59 -0700 2008 2215013 232964 CostasTheGreek 1 4107433 I store olive oil on the counter, peanut oil in the cabinet, sesame oil in the fridge. Having said this I can go through a bottle of EVOO in four months quite easily whereas a bottle of sesame oil will hang around for at least a year, and the peanut oil...I only used it once and will probably end up tossing the rest. If I didn't use the EVOO so regularly I might store it differently. Arika http://rawforamonth.blogspot.com Wed Oct 15 19:39:48 -0700 2008 2215013 82243 ArikaDawn 1 4122361 Am I the only one who buys extra virgin olive oil in the 3L tins? We go through it fast in our house. It is best to store in tins versus glass. Wed Oct 22 16:52:41 -0700 2008 2215013 206532 chefathome 1 4122365 We keep ours on the counter year round and don't use it very quickly. Never had a problem with spoilage yet. Wed Oct 22 16:54:52 -0700 2008 2215013 169792 lgss