Mock Olive Oil?

[icecone]

I'm allergic to several brands of olive oils (there's something in the processing of those oils), but I'm not allergic to olives.

Can I make a mock olive oil by mixing a vegetable oil with olive puree?

[icecone]

Oh wow!!! There actually is a product called "Olive Infused Oil". It's exactly as I described:

"A synthetic olive oil made by infusing corn oil with a paste of finely ground, partly dehydrated ripe olives; contains carotene."

From The McGrawHill Dictionary Of Scientific Terms.
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionar...

Which is better for the paste though: Kalamata olives or green salad olives?

[hotoynoodle]

i wouldn't eat 1 tsp of corn oil even for a million bucks.

i don't know what you mean by green salad olives, so just pick olives you prefer.

[pikawicca]

That sounds disgusting.

[bushwickgirl]

I go with kalamatas.

[hotoynoodle]

perhaps an easier task might be to get tested and discover what you're actually allergic to, instead of guessing.

infused oil will not taste like olive oil and will have a very limited safe shelf life as pointed out.

[Jennalynn]

Is there a reason you must have olive oil?

For most recipes you can substitute many other oils. It would be a lot easier than trying to make a faux olive oil.

[Fuller]

My thought exactly. Mixing up cured, salty, flavored olives in with other oil will not a good olive oil make. Use some grapeseed when cooking... try nut oils... anything.

[pikawicca]

If you are not allergic to olives, then first cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil will not bother you. Crap supermarket oil probably will.

[Chemicalkinetics]

Second Bryn and pikawicca. Icecone, you should try cold-pressed oil first.

[dmd_kc]

First of all, I feel sorry for you! But I don't think your method is going to work for a very basic reason: The olives you buy at the store have been cured and have a completely different flavor from the raw olives that oils are pressed from. Raw olives are inedible, and their flesh doesn't taste anything at all like their oil.

[icecone]

Yes, I did some research. There are refined olive oils and maybe an olive infusion oil would be like one of these refined oils or even an olive oil blend?

Of course, if I like the result, I could just continue to use this mock oil instead of the real ev olive oil.

[Jen76]

Refined olive oil will have little flavor. It's refined - usually by chemical methods - to remove the color, odor and flavor to leave a "pure" oil/fat behind. It doesn't mean it's made with cured olives.

I agree with pikawicca. First cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil is what you need to find and try. Where are you located?

[icecone]

I'm in the San Francisco area, and the local Safeway market has several brands of evoo, but I'm allergic to them. The allergen could be as simple as some pollen that got mixed in with the oil. Could be the time of year they are processed. Maybe the oil in summer or fall is better.

[pikawicca]

Olives are thoroughly washed before pressing, so doubt there's any pollen on them. Do NOT buy olive oil in a supermarket. Go to www.sciabica.com. You can buy their California olive oil with the varietal, year, and season of pressing info right on the bottle. They've just released their Mission 2010 oil, and I would certainly start there.

[morwen]

Thanks for the link pikawicca. We're trying to keep our ingredients as close to home as possible so we sent off for a couple of oils from Sciabica to try out.

[nofunlatte]

Looks great--any particular recommendations wrt their products?

[pikawicca]

I like the mild Mission Spring Harvest, as well as the bold Seviilano, which is pressed in the fall. They're very different from each other. I've never tried any of their flavored oils.

[bushwickgirl]

But the OP will get an olive flavored oil, with the flavor based on what type of olive he/she chooses. Won't be the real thing, but a reasonable substitute.
I don 't think an olive-infused oil will work for baking, though.

[icecone]

Why not for baking?

If I made pizza and sprinkled a flavored vegetable oil on top before baking, would that be a substitute for sprinkling olive oil on top? Different flavor, but it would moisturize the same.

Or would the pizza taste greasier than with oo?

Could I dip bread into a flavored veg oil like dipping bread into oo?

[bushwickgirl]

"Light" olive oil is used for baking (I'm thinking desserts here, not bread) which is a refined oil with little olive flavor, as Jen76 described upthread. I was referring to you using a oil made from infusing cured olives for baking, which would have a pretty strong flavor, not at all like a refined oil.

When you say baking, do you mean desserts or bread products? I have a recipe for olive oil pound cake that is so good, every time someone discusses baking with olive oil, it's all I can think of. But yes, olive oil for bread baking...

Try making some infused oil first and see what the flavor prolife is like. Then you can decide further if it's usable for baking bread or dressings.

I think if you're allergic to whatever pollen or allergen that is present in the oll, it's a possibility that the allergen will be present in any olive oil, first pressed, organic, pomace or whatever, as they are agricultural products and subject to the vagaries and contaminants of nature.

Perhaps you could talk to an olive grower/oil producer in your area of CA to see if your idea is viable.

[ChristinaMason]

bushwickgirl, have you posted that olive oil cake recipe anywhere? Sounds great.

[KosherHound]

Question: Is it possible that perhaps you're allergic to other types of oils that the olive oil brands you're reacting to may have been adulterated with? Adulterated olive oil isn't uncommon, and that might explain why you are reacting to some brands and not others.

[icecone]

I don't know. I do know that I am allergic to forms of pollen, for example, and if there's pollen in the processing plant and it gets into the oil, then I'm allergic to the oil.

I might be able to clean the oil to remove the allergen or neutralize it, but if I'm paying $10-$20 a bottle, I don't feel I should have to do this. And if I did process it at home, I might change the taste anyway.

[Bryn]

Have you tried:
a) organic olive oil
or
B) Cold pressed olive oil?

[icecone]

Bryn, I haven't tried them all. I'm not allergic to olives, but I didn't realize that eating olives are cured and maybe the curing process alters the allergen. I've eaten pizzas that are drizzled with oo and no reaction.

Olive oil is VERY expensive. In my local markets, 10 oz. goes for almost $10 and they don't sell in 1oz. bottles that I can sample.

[cocktailhour]

are you trying to replicate the flavor of olive oil so that the olive oil flavor is in your dish? If so, and your puree method doesn't work, I would be very tempted just to substitute another flavorful oil that you can tolerate (nut oils, grapeseed (rather neutral)). I think in many dishes the flavor of the oil is a nice component but is quite successful to substitute for.

[icecone]

Thanks for the suggestions.

[nofunlatte]

You might want to look into the safety of this. If you're just mixing them, it should pose no problems, but if you plan to infuse for a while and keep the oil around, you could potentially risk botulism poisoning (I know that homemade flavored oils are potentially dangerous).

Do you have issues with other oils (e.g. walnut)?

[bushwickgirl]

I was under the impression that oils flavored with non-acidfied garlic or fresh herbs were the culprit. I don't know, or haven't read anything, about that warning pertaining to cured olives.
To err on the safe, the oil should be used within a short (two week or so) period.

[nofunlatte]

I don't know--food science is not my area of science. But I think it does warrant further investigation to make sure that all is safe.

[jvanderh]

As with garlic oil, so long as you pop it in the fridge, you're at little or no risk of botulism. It's warm + anaerobic + food particles that's dangerous.

[pikawicca]

You're going to kill someone with misinformation like this. The bacteria are killed by heat, but the toxins they produce are not. Refrigeration slows their reproduction, but does not halt it. After a week in the fridge, homemade oils infused with garlic, herbs, or any other organic matter should be discarded.

[jvanderh]

Yes, the botulinum is still present in spore form, but if you put the oil in the fridge as soon as you make it, you are at little or no risk of botulism because the botulinum can't reproduce under those conditions. Obviously, if you left infused oil out at room temperature, allowing the botulism to grow, and then put it in the fridge, you'd be at risk of getting sick. If the bacteria grew and reproduced in cold food packed in oil, half the condiments in your fridge would be a botulism risk. And you'd also be sick in less than a week. Botulism caused by flavored oils is virtually always caused by unrefrigerated ones.

I am so tired of the uninformed panic surrounding this issue. All you need to protect yourself are a few basic facts.

[icecone]

nofunlatte, I'm not necessarily allergic to the oil itself, but some allergen introduced in the pressing and bottling process. Thanks for the warning. When I do this, I will use it quickly, within a day or so.

[nofunlatte]

Good--we'd like to keep you alive here on Chowhound :)

I did understand that the processing was the issue--I just wondered whether processing of other oils were different enough to stop you from having the symptoms. Do let us know how this turns out for you!

[Chemicalkinetics]

Wow, I didn't know that. Good thing I never tried to make my own oil.

[icecone]

Well thanks, but treating the allergy is not what I'm asking. I'm not allergic to olive oil, just to the oil processing methods.

For now, I need a quick solution.

I figure that mixing a puree of olives in vegetable oil and letting that seep for a few days should transfer enough of the olive taste to be a plausible olive oil substitute. I'm not saying it would be the best olive oil ever, but would it be usable in dressings and baking?

[bushwickgirl]

Ttry it. By steeping the olives, you will get olive flavor in the oil, and you're have a usable olive-flavored oil. I would use a good cured olive with a hearty flavor, or a brined green olive or maybe even a mix. Warming the oil gently first will hasten the steeping process.
The lighter the olive flavor, the better it is for baking.

[icecone]

Thanks. I will try it.

I just saw a video where someone made his own extra virgin olive oil by dunking cut olives in a glass of water and letting the oil rise to the top. That's not going to give me a lot though.

The trick though is infusing so that it actually matches a real olive oil in flavor or it will be hard to reproduce the result when I use a real olive oil (assuming I find one).

[bushwickgirl]

I saw that video also and wasn't quite sure whether it was a joke or what, although in theory, it works.
I was going to post the link, but it just seemed like, as you said, it wouldn't give you much oil.
Hope it works out for you. I can't imagine a life without olive oil, must be tough.

[morwen]

Putting flower petals in water and then collecting the oil that rises to the top is an ancient method of making attars, as in "attar of roses". It is tricky, time consuming, labor intensive, and if you can actually find any real attar now days to buy, prohibitively expensive. It can probably be done with olives, but I would think they'd have to be fresh unprocessed olives to get anything worthwhile out of them and you'd get so little that it would totally not be worth the effort. I think you're better off trying to infuse them in oil. The upside, if infusing works, is you could still use the olives in a spread or tapenade-type thing.