Download The Olive Tree`s Origin

The Olive oil
The Olive Tree’s Origin
The olive tree’s origin, in its
primitive form, dates back to the
Tertiary Age - before the birth of
mankind - and is placed in Lesser
Asia, perhaps in the Syria or
Palestine, having been found in all
the
Mediterranean
leaves
of
fossilized Olive trees, dated of the
Paleolithic and Neolithic periods.
One thinks that the Olea Europaea
resulted of a crossing of several
species. At three thousand years
before Christ the Olive tree was
already cultivated in the entire
“increasing
fertile”.
The
responsible ones for its dispersion
in the Mediterranean Europe will
have been the Greeks. Later, in
the maritime expeditions, the
Portuguese and the Spanish had
carried the Olive tree to America.
The Olive tree’s
characteristics
The Olive tree is a tree of average
proportions, very resistant, with
roots that can reach the 6 meters,
and there are known about 400
species. It has slow growth and
normally only enters in production
from the fifth year.
The Olive oil and the
present
and the Mediterranean
diet
The Olive oil and the
health
What it is the Olive
oil?
Beyond its benefits in the beauty
area,
the
olive
oil
possess
characteristics that help to diminish
the risk of hart attack, helps to
fight
diabetes,
assists
the
digestion, prevents the formation of
calculus (rocks) and has preventive
effect in some types of cancer.
The Olive oil is a fat essentially
monounsaturated, rich in vitamin
E and other natural antirust
substances,
synthesized
biologically in the olives as
reserve substance, contributing
to assure the reproduction of
the specie. It is extracted of
the olive only by mechanical and
physical
processes
that
in
conditions, essentially athermic,
do not lead to its alteration.
How is produced the
Olive oil?
The method of production of
the Olive oil includes a series of
stages that go since olives
caught to its storage, passing
through a series of processes
that allow its attainment and
assure its quality.
The quality of the
Olive oil
The Olive oil in the
kitchen
The olive oil gives flavour, aroma
and colour, integrates the food,
personalizes and identifies a meal.
It
supports
very
well
high
temperatures, with out modifying its
own structure, despite other fats
do it, what allows all forms of
cooking. It creates a crust in the
surface of fry’s foods, which do not
allow the penetration of olive oil to
its own interior. With olive oil one
can obtain drier and desirable fries.
The oils virgin extra have softer
flavour and therefore they are ideal
to temper, to use in sweets and
desserts. The olive oils with intense
flavour are more appropriate to
intensify the flavour of cod dishes,
fish-stews,
squabbles,
panadas,
etc...
Used since immemorial times as a
gastronomic ingredient, the olive oil
was
currently
“rediscovered”,
having itself became into one of
the principal ingredients of the
modern and healthful kitchen.
The Quality of the Oil goes to
be determined by the region,
the variety and the olives’
maturation stage, the sanitary
state of the fruits, the process
of extraction, the way of
conservation and the age of the
olive oil.
The olive oil can also be produced
by biological processes, even so in
lesser amounts and at higher prices.
Nevertheless this kind of oil has a
lot of advantages, once it’s not used
any kind of chemical products.
The Olive oil in
Portugal
Classification of Olive
oils
How to conserve the
Olive oil
The Olive oil was always present in
the hiding places of the daily life
of the Portuguese: in the oil-lamp
of the poor and the candelabrum
of the rich one, in the thrifty
table of the peasant and in the
solemn temples of old cults.
According to the characteristics
present
(organoléptica
punctuation, free acidity and
application), the olive oil can be
classified in diverse types of
oil: extra virgin oil that can be
classified in virgin oil, current
oil and lampante oil; and still,
refine oil and only olive oil,
when refine and enriched with
virgin oil.
The biological Olive oil
The olive oil must be kept in
containers of glass, preference
dark, or in containers made of tin
plate or steel inox. It must be
remained in a cool place, without
light and far from products with
intense smells to prevent that olive
oil absorbs them.
Conserve your olive oil well!