Olive - Olive - olive

The ancient Egyptians believed that the goddess Isis taught people to cultivate and use the olives. The Greeks also believed that this is Athena, the goddess of wisdom, bestowed upon mankind the olive tree, having won in a contest among the gods on the most useful gift. Whatever it was, for thousands of years in all countries where they grow olives, this oil is considered sacred. Cultivate olive trees in the Mediterranean began six thousand years ago, but only two thousand years ago were made from olive oil. Phoenician traders brought the olive to Spain and Greece and the Greeks then - in Italy. While oil has been one of the most valuable commodities. And today in the Mediterranean is 99% of the olive oil. Local farmers have treated him with great respect and appreciate even more than wine. Olive oil in its history, acted in various capacities - from money to drugs. Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca spent an olive sapling many of his poems, and in particular these lines: "I know your magic, olive tree, you're the blood of the land taken for the world." Until recently, olive oil could be found only on the shelves with overseas curiosities. In 1970 he published a study showing that the peoples inhabiting the Mediterranean countries, the lowest level of cardiovascular disease in Western Europe. Largely the result of active consumption of "liquid gold". Olive oil is 80% of monounsaturated fatty acids, which help raise the level of "good" cholesterol and reduce LDL "bad". In addition to fatty acids in olive oil rich in vitamin E and polyphenols. These substances slow down the oxidation of fatty acids, which, in turn, reduces the risk of atherosclerosis and some forms of cancer. In the late 80-ies in the Western countries started booming olive oil. For one season in 1982-83, the United States was imported almost 38 million liters of olive oil, and in 1997-98 - up to 5 times. Oil from olives pressed under the hot sun of Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Portugal. Gathering the olive fruit begins in late autumn. Despite the fact that the types of collection are different - from manual to machine - nearly all of them are equally time-consuming. Olives, plucked straight from the tree - the bitter, inedible due to its high content of substances glycoside okuropeina. Therefore, buying "fresh" olives (even very cheap) makes no sense - they become edible only after special treatment in alkaline solution (the bitterness disappears.) At home, make such treatment possible. Often referred to as green olives, fruit, and black - olives. That's basically wrong. In fact, and black, and green fruits - these olives, but in a different stage of maturation. Olives as they are called because of its high fat content: the more mature fruit, the more oil in them. Therefore, those olives that are used to prepare the olive oil, harvested from the trees fully matured. However, as a separate dish, they are too "fat" (containing up to 50-75% fat!). However, in the color of olives have a lot of options, different varieties yield ripe fruit purple, reddish, blue, and even a whitish color. But the taste of oil is not impaired. But green olives - a product in all respects useful. Their flesh contains sugar, protein, pectin, ash, vitamins B, C and carotene. They are well affect the digestive tract and liver. For hundreds of years the process of making olive oil significantly improve-vershenstvovan and mechanized, but in our day, as well as hundreds of thousands of years ago, olives crushed with stones (which are no less useful than the flesh), the liquid is separated from the cake, and then - the water from the oil. After grinding turns dark brown pasty mass. It is distributed in the round braided nylon mats and strung on a pole. On top of the pile of rugs wear metal circular plate, and an olive paste using a hydraulic press at 400 atmospheres extracted liquid. A mixture of water and oil slowly dripping from rugs to a tank already in it oil rises upward, and the water remains at the bottom. After that the oil can be poured into bottles, in small private farms is usually done manually. Industrial use heavy steel mill, and for separating oil and water - centrifuge. Best Olive Oil - first cold pressed (extra virgin olive oil). To meet this quality, the oil must be extracted from olive fruit only by mechanical means, ie pressing, without the use of heat, have less than 1% acidity and meet certain standards of taste and smell. In addition to this category of olive oil can be seen as (in descending order of value during heat treatment): extra virgin olive oil, pasteurized at 80 ° C (virgin olive oil), refined olive oil (refined olive oil) and simply olive oil (olive oil ). Of olives depends on oil color - from pale yellow to emerald green. Extra virgin grade oil intended for filling dishes, and fried in refined: it does not chadit and is not absorbed into the products. Butter marked with «mix» - a mixture of vegetable oils with just the addition of olive. To make at home to determine whether the product you have purchased an olive oil origin, the experts' Rostest "advise on the day - two to put the bottle of oil in the refrigerator. At present 100% of oil should form a white precipitate - the so-called stearin produced from saturated fatty acids with hydrogen. This sign of authenticity of olive oil unsophisticated consumer is often mistaken for a manifestation of its poor quality. Unlike olive oil, with soya or sunflower oil in the cold cake does not fall because of greater solubility of stearin. In the warm olive oil once again becomes transparent. By the way, keep it in the refrigerator is not necessary: ??a good oil, and under normal conditions, even in the open form, is stored for a long time - up to 2 years.