Art and science of spanish olive oil

Olive oil in Spain goes back thousands of years

Spanish olive oil as one of its most important products even today goes back to the antique. Already Greek geographers noted the superior quality of Spanish olive oil in their chronicles. Even the holy Isidor of Seville recommended in the 7^th century the sweet freshly pressed oil as cooking flavor whereas the regular oil could serve for every other purpose.

Since then, many generations of Master chefs have used and experimented with its excellent properties as cooking oil, salad dressing, beauty ingredient and medical aid.

Andalusia, the former Al Andalus from the period of Arab domination in Spain, was the heart and center of the Spanish olive oil production. The medieval markets offered so many products based on olive oil, that even in the 17^th century the administrations issued regulation laws on the oil business. Spanish cookbooks in that time are already full of advice about how to preserve fish in olive oil, enrich vegetables or cook some decent eggs and tortillas.

If you are an art fan and have the occasion to visit a museum, don’t miss the picture of Velázquez with the old woman frying two eggs in oil with a wooden spoon. Even today this is a typical dish even in high level restaurants with Michelin stars.

Equally deceptive simple-looking meals like some a fried potato omelet, fried fish, garlic mayo ("aioli") or a thick tomato sauce can be prepared in many different ways depending on the use of one type of oil or another. The Spanish cooking based on olive oil goes far beyond simple salad dressings.

The southern culture of frying in olive oil

As in other Mediterranean countries, about half of the olive oil in Spain is used for cooking food. And many of the typical cooking methods go back to medieval or even roman times. Spaniards love roasting, and this goes back even to the old cookbooks written in the former Al Andalus times: Fish or meat preserved in spiced oil and vinegar, the modern “escabeche” is as popular today as it was the old “iskabay”.  Also the unskinned fish stewed in casseroles with oil and spices goes back to very old times.

Olive oil was also one of the main ingredients of popular simpler dishes like the modern “ajo blanco”, a cold, white soup made from almonds, or the popular “rosquillas”, round pastry rings fried in olive oil.

Today, Andalusia's cookbooks still base widely on cooking and frying with olive oil. The Spanish passion for “churros”, crispy fried and hot served pastry spirals that the Madrileños love to dip in hot chocolate for breakfast, is a clear sign of distinction even at fast food level. Potato chips with olive oil flavor rank as high as the “buñuelos”, inflated donuts fried with olive oil.

Freidurías, a popular and healthy snack in South Spain

But the highlights of all this tasty street food are the popular “freidurías” in Andalusia. These are small shops for fried fish and chips. You will find lots in Seville, Granada, and Malaga, Cádiz or any southern city by the sea in Spain. Small, raw fish, baby octopus or bite-sized pieces of larger fish fried in a bath of whirring boiling olive oil turn in minutes into a juicy and crispy fish and chips dish, served like in the Britain in paper bags. This is a must-try if you ever travel to Spain.

The freidurías are a good example of the art of cooking dishes with olive oil. Small batches of moist fish are coated with a thin layer of coarse flour , and any surplus is shaken vigorously. Without any further delay the fish is put in a large deep fryer with boiling oil, which is kept constantly hot during the whole process and reused not more than just  five or six times .
Though this may seem as a caloric bomb, it is not. In fact, the fish dishes of the freidurías are quite healthy when compared to any sort of French fries or similar street food.

The snacks prepared with this technique are crisp but easy to digest . Research on the matter has stated the  health benefits of these olive oil meals. The oil penetrates food 12% less than sunflower oil and 47 % less than refined soybean oil. Instead, the oil remains on the surface of the fried food , where it forms a thin , impervious seal that includes the flavor of the juice and foods.

When cooked like this, the “pescaito frito” , aka “fried fish” ,  gets done in his own juice inside the dry crispy crust. This leaves a clean oil that has taken little of the fish fat and has only a little of it’s volume.  As Spaniards say, “the oil in  the pan looks like more”.

This remaining olive oil makes the food particularly tasty and easily digestible. One of the main properties of olive oil is that the content of oleic acid does not decrease upon reheating. So the antioxidant and rich fatty oleic acid protects the chemical structure of the oil even at temperatures near the smoke point. So even if you get the fifth and last fried charge of fish in the pan, it still will remain as healthy and fresh as the first charge.

Over the years, scientist have investigated the different varieties of olive oils to establish their properties and benefits. Some varietals oils such as Picual or to a lesser extent Cornicabra and Hojiblanca withstand high temperatures better than oils from other olive types. These are the main and most widespread sorts of oils in Spain .  With 75-80% of oleic acids the Picual olive  stands out as a very healthy olive oil.