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The Flavour of Mechanisation
Olive oil was revered and cherished by the ancients. But its distinctive peppery taste is really a modern invention
Rich in oleic acid and natural antioxidants, olive oil was marketed to American and north European consumers as a solution to the chronic ailments brought on by industrial methods and additives. To imbibe olive oil is to enter into what the anthropologist Anne Meneley calls the ‘imaginaries of the Mediterranean’ as a site of real food and of slow and authentic forms of sociability, the combination responsible, it has been argued, for the higher number of centenarians in this region. The International Olive Council (IOC) states that the main requirements for an oil to be classified as extra virgin are an absence of defects in its flavour, a perceptible fruitiness, and certain chemical properties – like a free acidity lower than 0.8 per cent.
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