Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil

by Tom Mueller

For millennia, fresh olive oil has been one of life’s necessities—not just as food but also as medicine, a beauty aid, and a vital element of religious rituals. But this symbol of purity has become deeply corrupt. A superbly crafted combination of cultural history and food manifesto, Extra Virginity takes us on a journey through the world of olive oil, opening our eyes to olive oil’s rich past as well as to the fierce contemporary struggle between oil fraudsters of the globalized food industry and artisan producers whose oil truly deserves the name "extra virgin."

• ISBN10: 0393343618
• ISBN13: 9780393343618
• Publish Date: 12 April 2013 (first published 5 December 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: WW Norton & Co
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[adamfortuna]

What makes great olive oil? What makes it poor? Although I'd love to answer those questions with an answer that I could bring to the store and use, I didn't end up with a satisfactory answer. The taste and smell notes that make a oil great are elaborated on, but are tricky to understand without being there. A more useful exploration into olive oil would be finding a local place to hear about olive oil from someone who can be a guide to understanding the difference between lamp oil (which is what is in many supermarkets) and real extra virgin olive oil.