Olive Oil in Cooking

Olive oil is one of the most useful ingredients in the kitchen. It can be used for cooking, but a high-polyphenolic extra virgin olive oil often makes the biggest difference when used to finish food.

This is not about being afraid of heat. It is about using the right oil in the right place.

Can you fry with olive oil?

Yes. Extra virgin olive oil can be used for many common home cooking methods: vegetables, eggs, fish, potatoes, onions, beans and gentle sautéing.

The important thing is to avoid heavy smoking. When oil reaches its smoke point, the temperature is too high, flavour deteriorates and sensitive aroma compounds break down faster.

For everyday frying at low to medium-high heat, extra virgin olive oil is entirely reasonable. For very high heat, long deep-frying or aggressive wok cooking, it is often better to choose a simpler oil or a cooking method better suited to the ingredient.

What happens when olive oil is heated?

Heat affects olive oil in several ways. Some volatile aroma compounds disappear, pepperiness and green fruitiness become softer, and some phenolic compounds may decrease.

This does not mean the oil becomes unsafe as soon as it is heated. It means you do not get the same sensory and analytical value from a premium oil if it is used where the flavour disappears anyway.

For Vala Selection, it is therefore more logical to use CORE primarily cold, warm or as a finishing oil. That preserves more of the green fruitiness, bitterness, pepperiness and documented polyphenol profile.

Where CORE works best

CORE is made for daily use, but not necessarily to replace every cooking oil in the kitchen. It works best where the oil is noticeable:

over tomato, cucumber, herbs and salt
on beans, lentils, chickpeas and soups
over roasted vegetables after cooking
on fish, eggs, potatoes and bread
in yoghurt, fresh cheese or simple sauces
as a finish on pasta, risotto or grilled ingredients

It is a way to make food feel more Mediterranean without making it complicated.

Cold, warm or hot?

Think in three levels:

cold use preserves flavour, aroma and polyphenols best
warm use works very well over finished food
hot cooking works, but should be controlled and not overdone

If the goal is to get the most out of a high-polyphenolic oil, cold or warm use is almost always best.

Frying vegetables, fish and eggs

For normal cooking, olive oil works especially well with ingredients where the flavour fits: vegetables, fish, eggs, potatoes and legumes.

Use medium heat, do not leave an empty pan with oil on the heat for too long, and add the ingredient when the oil is warm but not smoking. If the oil starts smoking heavily, lower the heat, move the pan aside and start again if needed.

A simple rule: if you want to clearly taste the oil's pepperiness and green character, add it after cooking. If you only need a cooking fat in the pan, use a simpler extra virgin olive oil.

Deep-frying and very high heat

You can deep-fry in olive oil, and olive oil has historically been used for frying around the Mediterranean. But for Vala Selection CORE, it is rarely the best use.

Deep-frying requires a lot of oil, long heat exposure and high temperature. That makes the method less economical and less relevant if you want to preserve taste and polyphenols.

The same principle applies to very high-heat searing. It is not a moral question, just a practical one: use the premium oil where it is actually noticeable.

Cooking and health claims

Olive oil in cooking should not be described as treatment or medicine. The EU-authorised health claim concerns olive oil polyphenols and the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress when the conditions are met.

To understand that more precisely, read: polyphenols and oxidative stress.