1. How should I store olive oil?
Olive oil doesn’t need any special favours; just keep it away from sunlight in a cool, dark place. Room temperature’s just fine. Prefer the fridge? Go for it – your bottle of Squeaky Gate may turn cloudy and solidify, but will be fine again as it warms up.
2. How long can I store olive oil?
Stored in a cool dark place, olive oil should keep for 24 months. It’s best enjoyed fresh after opening and should keep up to 3 months.
3. So just how healthy is olive oil?
Glad you asked: olive oil is deliciously, naturally high in monounsaturated fats and antioxidant vitamins A and E. It has many scientifically proven health benefits.
4. What on earth does ‘smoke point’ mean?
An oil’s ‘smoke point’ is the temperature at which the oil is heated and begins to smoke and discolour.
If you’re cooking with oil and it begins to smoke, you’ve hit its smoke point and it’ll start to smell and give food nasty flavours. Next comes the ‘flame point’ where the oil will burst into flame all by itself.
Luckily, olive oil has a moderately high smoke point – about 190-205 degrees Celsius for extra virgin olive oil, allowing temperatures perfect for sautéing, stir frying, chargrilling and deep frying.
5. Define extra virgin...
Extra virgin olive oil is the product of the first extraction or cold pressing of the olives resulting in a rich, fruity, deep-flavoured oil. It’s also the highest, most sought after grade of olive oil.
6. Why does some olive oil make me cough a bit or seem to catch in my throat?
Fresh extra virgin olive oil has a high level of polyphenols – a powerful anti-oxidant. So normally the stronger the oil, in terms of peppery or bitter taste, the more polyphenols in the oil. The sign of a very healthy oil is one that makes you cough or tingles the back of your throat. It’s nothing to worry about.
7. Where does your olive oil come from?
Squeaky Gate Extra Virgin Olive Oil is sourced from growers all around Australia. The best regions for growing olives can be found in the southern states of Australia which have Mediterranean style climates characterised by long dry summers and short cold winters. Squeaky Gate oils are carefully blended from oils produced in South West WA, South Australia, VIC and Southern NSW. The blending ensures that we have a consistent flavour profile for each of our variants.
8. How do we get the different flavour profiles?
The different flavour profiles are the result of a combination of harvest period, olive variety, climate and soil. For instance, olives picked earlier during the harvest or grown in cooler climates, with heavy clay soils, tend to have a stronger, more robust flavour profile.
9. I found the Extra Virgin olive oil cloudy or sediment in the tin or bottle. Is this okay?
Don’t panic. The cloudiness and sediment is not harmful, and in fact shows that the oil is in its most healthy and natural state. When the olives are pressed, the oil extracted contains small amounts of olive flesh and moisture which are suspended in the oil making it cloudy. Over time these settle to the bottom of the tin or bottle in a thin layer of sediment like a good red wine. These particles give the oil a lot of the natural goodness and flavour.
10. Does olive oil contain trans fat?
All olive oil contains a negligible amount of naturally occurring trans fats.
11. How do I open the tin?
