Cooking with olive oil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Uses, Sorted by What Each One Needs
A map rather than a method. Four families of use, what grade and freshness each one demands, and a link to the article that covers each in full.
The short answer
Extra virgin olive oil has four families of use: raw and finishing, dressings and emulsions, moderate-heat cooking, and baking and desserts. Each demands something different from the bottle. The raw uses need the freshest, most peppery oil you own; baking is the one place a quieter oil is fine.
There is no shortage of lists of things to do with olive oil. What is usually missing is which bottle each use actually needs, because a peppery new-harvest oil and a tired one behave very differently in the same dish.
This page sorts the uses into four families, says what each demands, and points at the article that covers the method.
Raw and finishing: the uses that need the best bottle
Nothing is heated, so nothing is hidden. Every fault and every virtue of the oil reaches the mouth intact, which makes this the family that repays a fresh, peppery, recently harvested bottle and punishes a flat one. It is also the cheapest family to run, because the quantities are spoonfuls.
Dipping and bread is covered in olive oil for bread, and the reason a good oil bites at the back of the throat is in why olive oil tastes bitter.
Dressings and emulsions: where the oil does structural work
Here the oil is not only flavour, it is the thing holding the sauce together. A dressing needs an oil with enough character to survive being cut with acid, so a refined oil disappears entirely and a strong extra virgin does not. Freshness matters slightly less than in raw uses, but not much.
The ratios are in extra virgin olive oil salad dressing, and the vinegar side in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Moderate-heat cooking: the largest family
Sauteing, roasting, gentle pan-frying and tumis all sit around 140 to 180 degrees Celsius, comfortably below the point where extra virgin olive oil begins to smoke. Some aroma is lost, so this family does not need your best bottle, but it does not need a different oil either.
The dish-by-dish version is how to cook with olive oil, the temperatures are in olive oil smoke point, and vegetables specifically in roasting vegetables.
Baking and desserts: where a quieter oil is fine
Oil in a batter is doing a texture job rather than a flavour job, keeping a crumb moist for days in a way butter does not. Sugar, citrus and flour mask a great deal, so this is the one family where an oil past its most aromatic weeks is still perfectly useful rather than wasted.
The conversion and the method live in olive oil for cakes and baking. Do not take a ratio from this page; take it from that one.
Which use needs what?
The table below is the whole page in one block. Read down the first column to find the job, across to see what the bottle has to offer, and follow the link for the method. Nothing here explains how to do any of them, on purpose.
| Use | What it needs from the bottle | Where to read the method |
|---|---|---|
| Dipping and bread | Freshest, most peppery oil you own | Olive oil for bread and dipping |
| Salad dressing | Character strong enough to survive acid | Extra virgin olive oil salad dressing |
| Finishing a grilled dish | Aroma intact, added off the heat | How to cook with olive oil |
| Roasting vegetables | Ordinary extra virgin, quantity over finesse | Olive oil for roasting vegetables |
| Sauteing and tumis | Any extra virgin, kept under the smoke point | Olive oil smoke point |
| Cakes and bakes | A quieter oil is fine here | Olive oil for cakes and baking |
Which uses is it wrong for?
Two. A wok at full flame and a pot deep enough to fry in both run past what this oil tolerates, and both use enough of it that the cost is real. A refined oil is the correct tool there, and the extra virgin bottle goes back in the cupboard for the plate.
That is a decision about heat and volume, not about quality. Is it good to cook with extra virgin olive oil sets out the three bands.
Start with two
A bottle that is used in one family gets finished; a bottle bought for everything gets used twice. Pick one raw use and one cooked use from the table, follow the two links, and the rest of the map is there when you want it.