Saturday 7 August 2010

OLIVE OIL AND VIRGINS

I have always been somewhat baffled by the concept of extra virgin olive oil. I thought that "virgin" was one of those words, like "pregnant", that was either/or; you can't be half pregnant, or sort-of pregnant. I know that a lot of people, notably politicians, have started saying "pretty unique", but that is just bad English.

When I was at school, there were a lot of girls who said that they were virgins, but I can't remember anybody ever saying that they were "extra virgin". As I say, I am baffled.

Walter Blotscher
Posted by Walter Blotscher at 09:47

1 comment:

  1. Joachim Satchwell8 August 2010 at 18:13

    According to the retail grades of the IOOC, virgin oil basically means the oil was produced without any chemical treatment (as opposed to refined oil). The term also indicates an acidity of less than 2%. The lower the acidity, the apparently better tasting oil, hence the term "Extra-virgin", indicating an acidity of no more than 0,8% in virgin oil, and thereby a better product.

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