The Flavors of Olive Oil: A Tasting Guide and Cookbook [Hardcover]

Deborah Krasner (Author), Elizabeth Krasner (Illustrator), Ann Stratton (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2002

Walk along the aisles of almost any grocery store in America and you'll be overwhelmed by the shelves of olive oil: bottles from France, Greece, Italy, and Spain; cold-pressed oil; hand-pressed oil. How do you know which oil is best? Which one should you choose for salads? For sautéing? For dipping?

In The Flavors of Olive Oil, Deborah Krasner demystifies the world of olive oil. Olives-just like wine grapes-respond directly to variations in climate, soil, cultivation, and harvest, so each oil is unique. By classifying olive oil in four distinct groups (delicate and mild, fruity and fragrant, olivey and peppery, and leafy-green and grassy), Krasner guides readers through the different characteristics of more than 150 different olive oils, providing a step-by-step tasting guide to the flavors and aromas of each one. With notes on oils from Italy to Morocco to California, Krasner transports the reader to olive-oil-producing regions around the world.

As all good cooks know, olive oil is an essential ingredient in preparing great food. In this comprehensive volume, Krasner incorporates olive oil into more than 100 delicious, mouthwatering recipes. With everything from appetizers and small dishes to breads and desserts, Krasner showcases each type of oil and combines complementary flavors. Leafy-green and grassy oils stand out when combined with shellfish in Seared Scallops on Chickpea Crêpes. The fruity oils sing when combined with pasta in Penne with Pesto from Naples. The peppery oils retain their boldness in the recipe for Seared Sirloin Steak on a Bed of Watercress, and they add complexity to mashed potatoes in Olive Oil and Rosemary Mashed Potatoes.

Demonstrating that olive oil isn't just for use in savory dishes, Krasner offers recipes like Gingered Carrot Cake with Figs, "Hot" Chocolate Cake, Orange Chocolate Chip Biscotti, and Apple-Cherry Cardamom Strudel. These recipes, and many more, will showcase the delicate olive oils in your pantry and leave your guests clamoring for the recipes.

Hints on technique, pantry basics, and equipment are also included. No book on olive oil would be complete without noting the important health benefits offered by olive oil, and Krasner points to significant evidence that using olive oil is essential to a healthful diet.

The Flavors of Olive Oil is an indispensable guide to the joys of olive oil and a font of information you'll turn to again and again.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Acknowledging the increasing popularity of olive oil, Deborah Krasner's The Flavors of Olive Oil offers a comprehensive guide to tasting, understanding, and cooking with superior extra-virgin olive oil, the cold first pressing of the olive crop's best. Most valuably, the book offers profiles of the best oils from countries including Italy, France, Spain, and the U.S. (as well as international blends). Useful, too, are sections on olive oil grades; label reading (you can tell olive oil from its package); and usage and storage pointers. Though it's hard to derive a unique recipe selection from as basic an ingredient as olive oil, the book also offers over 90 easy, attractive recipes for dishes that include it--from appetizers, sandwiches, and small dishes to salads, pizzas, entrées, and even desserts. Among these, readers will discover delicious versions of familiar friends like tapenade and focaccia with caramelized onions as well as "finds" including White Peach, Corn, and Toasted Almond Salad; Turbot with Fennel, Potatoes, Olives, and Lemon; and Slow-Cooked Boneless Pork Spareribs in Tomato, Rosemary, and Juniper Sauce. As a Jewish cook, Krasner also supplies formulas for enticing Eastern European Jewish classics such as challah and noodle kugel. Also useful is a section that explores the oils through detailed analysis of flavor characteristics--delicate and mild through leafy green and grassy. It's hard to imagine a better introduction to olive oil and its enjoyment. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly

This thorough investigation and appreciation of olive oil from food writer Krasner (Kitchens for Cooks), encourages cooks to delve deeper into the pleasures of this versatile staple. The author first gives an in-depth summary of olive oil: like wine, olive oil can be classified by type and grade-and, like grapes, the flavor of olives is affected by soil and climate as well as methods of production. Krasner then discusses kitchen basics, equipment and ingredients and tips for variations, substitutions and labor-saving measures, as well as a section of alphabetically arranged resources, mostly Web sites, some with phone or address. While an entire cookbook on recipes for olive oil may seem excessive, Krasner does offer such dishes as Tapenade, and Chickpea, Tuna, Olive, and Goat Cheese Salad. For main courses, she includes recipes for Charcoal Grilled Butterflied Leg of Lamb, Turkish Style, and Seared Scallops on Chickpea Crepes. Illustrations by Krasner and photographs by Ann Stratton enhance this presentation.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition. edition (September 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074321403X
• ISBN-13: 978-0743214032
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #332,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #83 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > Mediterranean
  • #96 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking by Ingredient > Fruits

More About the Author

My newest book GOOD MEAT comes directly out of the life I lead in rural Vermont. I live in a converted barn on a dirt road with my husband, two cats and a dog. Until very recently we also cared for a dozen laying hens, a couple of Icelandic sheep, and a mixed flock of meat birds including ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl and chickens. All of them are pictured in the book, which was photographed in and around my home.

GOOD MEAT is about finding and cooking grass-fed and pastured meat. Such meat is the opposite of industrial meat -- it is sustainable because it nourishes the earth, is in balance with the land's ability to absorb nutrients and support grazing animals, and supports diverse ecosystems. Grass-fed and pastured meat is increasingly shown to be better for human health, both in terms of nutrients and in terms of fat content. While it's lower in fat than industrial meat, what fat there is turns out to be "good" fat. However, leaner meat can be tricky to cook well, so GOOD MEAT is devoted to showing cooks how to cook it to advantage, using every part of the animal from nose to tail.

In addition, GOOD MEAT is designed to support those who may want to buy their meat directly from farmers in whole, half or quarter animal quantities. Such frozen meat is substantially less expensive than buying grass-fed and pastured meat by the piece fresh at retail, but requires that a consumer fill out a cut sheet detailing how they want their meat cut and packaged. With the help of butcher Adam Tiberio, GOOD MEAT offers a "decision tree" for each animal, showing how to choose the best cuts for you and your cooking style. The book is organized by animal, by primal and sub-primal, and by retail cuts, so that anyone can find a recipe for any part, including offal, fat and odd bits.

Each of my books have been an investigation, detailing the process of my own understanding. From a feminist re-vision of kitchen design to olive oil, I love figuring out what about accepted wisdom makes sense, and what can be replaced with a more logical or sensible perspective. While GOOD MEAT is the most personal book I've written, it is also very much in line with my six previous books on design and food. I loved every minute I worked on it!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Writing which glistens, irresistible recipes: a must-have, September 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Flavors of Olive Oil: A Tasting Guide and Cookbook (Hardcover)

As a cookbook author myself, I see lots of culinary offerings, and I can guarantee Deborah Krasner's is one you will both learn from and cook with. It's seductive, reassuring, and authoritative all at once, and the recipes, clearly thoroughly tested, work. Yes, it's about olive oil. But it's like having a confident, knowledgeable, generous friend in the kitchen with you. The writing pulses with vitality and enthusiasm; the recipes sound irresistible (and those I have tried have been).
Who could resist a Grilled Portobello, White Bean, and Arugula Sandwich, an Iced Celery Soup with Feta, Toasted Walnuts, and Apple, and twenty-one pages of pastas, each more invitingly full-flavored than the last? It's hard to decide which to fix first: but I got to tell you, the improbable sounding 4-ingredient cookies on page 195 (Sweet Taralle) are as easy to make as they are impossible to stop eating, and the Cellentani Pasta with Oven-Dried Tomatoes and Gorgonzola (which also features capers, olives, and garlic) is extraordinarily flavorful. You will also learn how to do a superb fake aged balsamic vinegar (in case you don't feel like dropping $90 a bottle for the real thing). And though the book is not vegetarian, it is very vegetarian-friendly.
There's also loads of helpful cooking arcana. Krasner takes you through things like "Respecting a Recipe" (ie, how to make it work for you each and every time, even if you have to make changes), "Boning a Whole Fish" and why heating the pan before you add the oil is "a significant step forward." Next to a recipe extolling the virtues of cast-iron skillets, adjacent text explains why cast iron works, and how to season and care for it.
If you've been boggled by the numerous selections every grocery store now seems to offer, you will never again be intimidated, for The Flavors of Olive Oil is also, as its subtitle says, a tasting guide. There are ratings of more than 140 individual artisanal oils plus "A Short Course on Olive Oil" (which will tell you everything you need to know about choosing, buying, storing, cooking, and , yes, tasting olive oils), But its delicious writing is lubricated with far more than the flavor of this particular oil; the book glistens with the flavor of life and celebration, in and out of the kitchen.

--- Crescent Dragonwagon

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Practical Advice on Making the Best of Olive Oil, July 14, 2004

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Flavors of Olive Oil: A Tasting Guide and Cookbook (Hardcover)

This book, `The Flavors of Olive Oil' by professional writer Deborah Krasner may be the answer to your prayers as you browse the fifty or more different labels of olive oil on the shelves of even a modest local market, let alone the bounty available at a megamart or a super gourmet store such as Zabar's or Balducci's in New York City. These riches cannot begin to be approached by a three-page article in `Cooks Illustrated' or `Consumer Reports'. And, even this book doesn't tell the whole story, as most of the economic, historical, and geopolitics of olive oil are left to other writers. This book truly concentrates only on Flavor, nutrition, and cooking with olive oil. A perfect companion to this book is Mort Rosenbloom's book `Olives' which has not a single recipe, but lots of poop on the ways of the European Union, politics, olive growing locations and people, history, and economics. You simply cannot get the full picture without reading both.

But getting back to Ms. Krasner's `A Tasting Guide and Cookbook', the very, very best chapter is the second on techniques for tasting olive oil. This falls under the category of teaching you how to fish rather than giving you a fish. As preparing for a group tasting can be a bit pricy, it is one of the very best excuses I have ever found for gathering together a group of like-minded people to a common cause. (You find ways of socializing in some of the strangest places). In the absence of a handy group to help share opinions and defray the costs of buying ten or twelve bottles of olive oil, the author offers an 18 page guide to commercially available olive oils and her own olive oil karass' opinions on them (for the explanation of the obscure term karass, see Kurt Vonnegut's novel, `Cat's Cradle').

The depressing thing about this long list of olive oil tastings is that it doesn't even cover some of the brands on my megamart's shelves. But, it covers the most important ones, for sure. I was especially pleased to find the author and her tasters giving a very good opinion of at least one nationally available brand, Colavita, which is a doubly good value as it is available in metal cans in fairly small quantities. Other big Italian supermarket brands such as Berio (also very good) and Bertolli (not quite as distinctive a taste as the other two) come in cans of only a gallon or more. And, as the book so carefully states, protecting extra virgin olive oil from heat and light will prolong it's shelf life.

As I was already quite familiar with the differences between `extra virgin olive oil', `virgin olive oil', `olive oil', and `light olive oil' before reading this book, this was no great illumination. What was illuminating was the great variety of tastes in olive oil from region to region, and how delicate those tastes are. For those of you who always skip to the back of the book, Tuscan extra virgin olive oil has the most distinctive taste, followed by oils from Apulia (Italy), Greece, and Provence (France). It was also illuminating to read how ephemeral the sharp tastes were. A year old oil, kept under the very best conditions, will simply not taste as fresh and bright and distinctive as an oil bottled and tasted in January, a month or two after most olives are harvested.

One of the most important economic lessons one can get from this book is the fact that you are wasting money if you use an expensive olive oil to sautee, pan fry, or deep fry, as heat kills most, if not all of the distinctive flavors of the extra virgin oil. The whole point to producing extra virgin oil is to do it without any application of heat and without any technique which creates heat. If you are an avid follower of Mario Batali and believe that even deep frying should be done in extra virgin olive oil, be aware that there are several very good brands of extra virgin which will not fracture your pocket book. After all, if you are intent on following Mario to pure southern Italian goodness, then you may expect to have to pay for it. (Mario's point is that Italians used EVOO because that was all they had. The techniques for squeezing the second and third pressings from the olives simply did not exist until the 19th century).

If you did not already know of olive oil's health benefits, this book will also fill you in on this score. Olive oil benefits by being a mono-unsaturated lipid that, by itself, is better than saturated animal fats such as butter and lard, and also better than poly-unsaturated fats such as canola and safflower oils. Olive oil adds value by containing vitamins, anti-oxidants, and other good stuff that only a chemist can pronounce. The down side is, I suspect, that this goodness degrades with time, enhancing the importance of getting the fresh stuff.

The book contains an excellent list of internet sources, which, surprisingly, leaves out two of my favorites, Zingermans in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which does a national mail order business and DePalo in Little Italy, Manhatten, NY, NY. I cite this store because it is one place where I am sure you can go in and request a taste of olive oil samples and you will receive them with a smile. They also make primo fresh ricotta and mozzarella.

The recipes are useful and comprise the lion's share of pages in the book, but the real gold comes before you get to the recipes.

Highly recommended if you dote on Mediterranean food, or even if you just dote on good food and health.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great Guide to Olive Oil: tasting, selecting, and cooking, December 6, 2002

By 

Stephen Weissmann "rkorchid" (Lakes Region of New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Flavors of Olive Oil: A Tasting Guide and Cookbook (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book. It includes an extremely lucid discussion of what extra virgin olive oil is and how it is produced. The descriptions of almost 150 oils from around the world are extremely useful, especially since it includes oils commonly found in most supermarkets in addition to specialty oils (lots of web addresses are included). The discussion on how to classify and taste olive oil is probably the best I have ever read. Almost 2/3 of the book is devoted to wonderful recipes based on olive oil. I have not even finished reading it yet and I have already marked favorites and just took the first batch of olive and pepper knots (an easy cocktail treat) out of the oven. Finally, the book is filled with practical advice and hints on cooking, cookware, and just eating well. This book is definitely worth the purchase for anyone who wants to learn more about olive oil or to explore Mediterranean cooking.