In a Nutshell
My go-to olive oil is fruity, gently bitter, and peppery, with enough character to enjoy on its own but enough restraint for everyday cooking. It’s easy to find at Middle Eastern grocers and online, and is affordable enough that I can use it freely for sautéing, frying, roasting, and more.
Growing up in Jordan, I never knew olive oil as something that came into our house by the bottle. It came in large tins, hauled back from the West Bank by family members in quantities that would look excessive to anyone who didn’t understand how quickly we used it up. My parents usually kept two tins around. By the time one was empty, they were already arranging with family in the West Bank to send another with whoever was next traveling to Jordan.
This was not an oil anyone measured out by the teaspoon or saved for special occasions. We used it freely and for nearly everything. We cooked with it. We fried eggs in it. And despite the persistent myth that extra-virgin olive oil should not be exposed to high heat, our editorial director, Daniel, has shown through testing that it is perfectly suitable for sautéing, searing, and frying. We poured it into pots and pans with the casual abundance many American households might reserve for vegetable oil. It dressed salads, slicked bread, finished beans, and generally found its way into nearly everything we ate. A family of five can put away a remarkable amount of olive oil when it is used both for cooking and for finishing dishes.
I live in Brooklyn now, but olive oil remains as central to my cooking as it was when I was growing up in Jordan. It is still the fat I reach for most often, and working as a food editor and recipe developer has only sped up how quickly I go through it. Which creates a problem. I want one inexpensive enough to pour into a skillet without performing mental arithmetic, but flavorful enough that I can still taste the olives. I use too much olive oil to spend nearly $40 on a fraction of a liter, but I am also unwilling to settle for mediocre oil simply because I need a lot of it. (I do keep one or two bottles of more special oil in my pantry—like ones I have carefully packed into my suitcase from Spain, praying they do not break open in flight and seep into every piece of clothing—and reserve them for specific uses like topping labneh, hummus, warm bread, or anything else where the olive oil is meant to announce itself.)
My favorite oil for everyday use has become Nablus Olive Oil, an extra-virgin olive oil with a fruity, peppery flavor and enough character to taste good straight from the bottle, but a price that does not make me hesitate before pouring it into a pan.
What I Love About This Oil
For everyday cooking, I do not need the assertive bitterness and throat-catching heat I seek in some finishing oils. I want freshness, fruitiness, and a little peppery lift, but in balance. Nablus hits this exact register. It is fruity, with a gentle green bitterness and a peppery finish that gives it character without taking over. I use it to fry eggs, sauté onions, roast vegetables, make vinaigrettes, and start the base of a stew.
And as Daniel has reported, there is no reason to avoid cooking with extra-virgin olive oil, even over high heat. I refuse to accept the idea that a mediocre olive oil becomes perfectly good simply because it is headed for a hot pan. Heat does change olive oil: As temperature and cooking time increase, some volatile compounds responsible for its aroma diminish or change, and some phenolic compounds break down, softening some of the bitterness and pungency you notice in a raw oil. But heating doesn’t make all olive oils interchangeable. Extra-virgin olive oil is relatively stable during cooking, thanks in part to its high proportion of monounsaturated fat and naturally occurring antioxidants, and enough of its character survives that I still want to start with an oil that tastes good. I may not reach for my most expensive, throat-tingling bottle when I sauté an onion, but I am not pouring bad olive oil into the pan, either.
How I Discovered Nablus Olive Oil
One of the great consolations of living in New York City is that homesickness rarely has to extend to food. The city’s enormous Middle Eastern and SWANA communities mean I can find most of the ingredients I grew up with without much trouble, even if they require a trip to a neighborhood grocery store rather than the nearest mainstream supermarket. I first came across Nablus Olive Oil after moving to the US, when I kept seeing it in the Middle Eastern grocery stores I frequented in New York. The name caught my attention because my grandmother had once lived in Nablus, and over time it became the olive oil I reached for most often. It is relatively easy to track down here, and even during my years in Boston, I could usually find it at Armenian grocers. Depending on the retailer, a roughly three-liter container currently runs about $37 to $50, or around 40 to 50 cents per fluid ounce, making it a comparatively good value for an extra-virgin olive oil I use this generously.
Nablus, for which the brand is named, is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank with a long history of olive cultivation, olive-oil production, and olive oil-based soap making. The oil sold under the Nablus name in the US, however, is currently labeled as a product of Lebanon and is imported by New Jersey-based Baroody Imports; the brand has been in use since at least 1987. So while the name draws on a place deeply associated with olives and olive oil, the bottle itself is not currently labeled as Palestinian-grown.
Where to Find Nablus Olive Oil and How to Store It
Nablus Olive Oil is commonly stocked at Middle Eastern grocery stores around the country, not just in New York City, and it is also widely available online. It comes in a three-liter clear jug, a little over 100 fluid ounces of olive oil at a time. For someone who develops recipes for a living and goes through olive oil at a rate that sometimes makes it seem as though I might as well be drinking it straight from the bottle, that is enormously convenient. I can pour a quarter cup into a skillet without watching the bottle empty before my eyes, and I am not constantly replacing the comparatively petite bottles that line the olive oil aisle at stores like Whole Foods.
Because it comes in a clear container, I keep mine tucked inside a cool, dark cabinet rather than leaving it out on the counter. Light speeds the oil’s oxidation, gradually dulling its flavor, while heat and repeated exposure to air can hasten that deterioration as well. Keep the container tightly closed between uses and away from the stove or any other source of heat.
The Takeaway
Olive oil is far more versatile over heat than its reputation sometimes suggests. Good extra-virgin olive oil can handle sautéing, roasting, searing, and frying, and its high proportion of monounsaturated fat and naturally occurring antioxidants make it relatively stable during cooking. A good all-purpose olive oil can easily become the bottle you reach for first. If you cook with it as freely as I do, it is worth finding one that tastes genuinely good and is affordable enough to use every day.
Read the original article on Serious Eats