HOW DO YOU USE OLIVE OIL?

In Greece, olive oil is THE ingredient in meals, more than almost any other food. It is taken for granted, served at the dinner table in “table watering cans” and, if necessary, offered in small plastic bags for on the go. Did you know that good olive oil can actually be made from all olives?
The punch line: many people don't know. Not even the farmers themselves. And that's a real shame, because so many of the olive oil's nuances and aromas are lost just through the harvesting and extraction methods, but such oil is all too often praised in "connoisseur circles" as "really not bad at all". And that's right, but "really not bad at all" isn't good enough for us!

To get really good olive oil, a few things need to be taken into account when harvesting and pressing:

• the olives should be harvested sooner rather than later
• the harvested olives should receive as little sunlight as possible and find their way to the mill as quickly as possible
• harvested olives need air, the worst thing is the transport to the mill in plastic bags
• The shorter the pressing process, the better for the aromas and health-promoting substances.

For most producers, however, it is not so much the aromas and health-promoting substances that matter, but rather the yield. And there is a very simple rule for this: if you want to increase the yield, ignore all of the above points. That will give you the best results in terms of quantity. Since our TEIKEI farmers have calculated the production costs very well, we can influence production and instead devote ourselves to producing a really good olive oil, instead of having to generate the most yield.

We may have already produced a good olive oil, but it is still a long way from finding its way to your home. Here, too, we have to pay attention to a few things, but the details of which would go beyond the scope of this article.
So let's take a little leap and move on to the point where you finally hold the freshly harvested TEIKEI olive oil in your hands...

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS

Use fresh...
It is very worthwhile to stock up on olive oil in small quantities for daily use. This way, its taste is least likely to change due to influences such as oxidation and UV exposure from the sun's rays. So think carefully about how you want to use your olive oil and which containers are best for you.

REFILLABLE OLIVE OIL – STAINLESS STEEL BARREL

With TEIKEI olive oil in reusable barrels, we "put" a food-safe gas on top of the olive oil in the barrel. This gas prevents the olive oil from coming into contact with oxygen. The gas is heavier than air and therefore stays in the barrel even when the olive oil is released and protects the oil until it is completely used up.

OLIVE OIL IN A CANISTER

If, for reasons unknown to us, you still reach for the tin canister, we will give you a few tips to ensure that you can enjoy olive oil for as long as possible:

• After opening the canister, pour the olive oil into smaller bottles and close them tightly so that no air gets in.
• Don't use transparent bottles, only brown, green or blue. The UV light destroys the fine aromas very easily and that would be a real shame considering all the effort we have made for you.
• Store the bottles in a temperature-stable place protected from light.

… & prepare

Just as many aromas are lost when the harvested olives are “stored” for a long time in front of the oil mill, the same applies to the cooking time for meals. We appeal to all kitchen heroes to use a short, crisp preparation time when cooking with olive oil so that the aromas are preserved. Of course, this is not always possible, but who likes overcooked vegetables? In Asian cuisine, they know exactly how to prepare vegetables very aromatically. Unfortunately, there is almost no olive oil there. So it is probably NOW time to marry Asian cuisine with Greek cuisine. We would be delighted if you could send us your self-invented recipes, including pictures and preparation, by email. Email Maybe there will be a TEIKEI cookbook with this collection 😉

... and if you can't avoid a long cooking time, as can sometimes be the case with oven-baked vegetables, just add a good splash of olive oil to the cooked food at the very end. This will freshen up the olive oil flavor and give your meals the most enjoyment!