Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Green?

[liberty]

I have lately taken up cooking. Today I fried some potatoes and notice that the olive oil was green. This don’t seem right; a oil that is green in color. Is this some kind of communist plot?

[Crackpot]

Not really. If it was a communist plot it would be red

[Gob]

Ok, and Sister Mary may correct me on this, but olive oil comes in various colours from light yellow to dark brown and all colours in between.

[Guinevere]

Yes, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil has a greenish color. But be careful cooking with it -- cook with a lower grade olive oil which has a higher smoking point. The extra virgin is best used for salad dressings and other instances where you are not heating it.

[Gob]

Always use old oil for chips (freedom fries) and par boil them first.

[liberty]

Not really. If it was a communist plot it would be red

No, that would be transmission fluid.

[loCAtek]

[@meric@nwom@n]

Olives being green and all you do have to wonder that the oil would be green. I would have figured for blue or purple.

[Guinevere]

Hey, some of them are black, too. And the kalamatas sometimes have a dark deep purple-y kind of look to them

[Sue U]

Crap, now I have to go over to the olive bar at Wegman's. You people!

[@meric@nwom@n]

Hey, some of them are black, too. And the kalamatas sometimes have a dark deep purple-y kind of look to them

The black ones are ripe , says my limited knowledge.

[Guinevere]

Sorry, nope. There are green, black, even brown olives. Green does not equal unripe.

[@meric@nwom@n]

The only difference between green olives and black olives is ripeness. Unripe olives are green, whereas fully ripe olives are black.

http://homecooking.about.com/od/fruit/a ... ieties.htm

I await your humble apology.

[Guinevere]

Sorry, "homecooking.com" is wrong too.

The California rare fruit growers state:

Fruit: The olive fruit is a green drupe, becoming generally blackish-purple when fully ripe. A few varieties are green when ripe and some turn a shade of copper brown. The cultivars vary considerably in size, shape, oil-content and flavor.

They also state:

For California canned commercial olives, black olives are identical to green olives. The black color is obtained by exposure to air after lye extraction and has nothing to do with ripeness.

Full article here: http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/olive.html

[@meric@nwom@n]

Or your source is wrong and mine is right. I found multiple others to support that the balck ones are black because they ripen on the tree.

[@meric@nwom@n]

Your honor, for exhibit A I should like to submit:


http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&sour ... =&gs_rfai=

[Guinevere]

I'd prefer to rely on olive growers for facts about olives, rather than "homecooking.com." And I found multiple sources who agree with me -- there are multiple varieties of olives, and when ripe, some are black, some are green, some are brown.

[@meric@nwom@n]

I shall argue futher later, I have lives to save.

[Guinevere]

Your honor, for exhibit A I should like to submit:


http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&sour ... =&gs_rfai=

So a photo entitled "ripe olives" includes olives that are both green and black. I rest my case.

Off to promote peace, justice, and the american way!

[Andrew D]

At any decent supermarket, one can readily find containers clearly labeled "ripe green olives".