Never Cook With Extra Virgin Olive Oil

George Mateljan explained why he never cooks with olive oil, but he should have said why he never cooks with extra-virgin olive oil.

The oil has was using was extra-virgin oil which has a greenish color as he explained in the video. The reason why it is important to make the differentiation is because extra-virgin olive oil and refined olive oil have different smoking points.

Mateljan said he doesn’t cook with (extra-virgin) olive oil because it starts to smoke quickly. This is true because extra-virgin olive oil has one of the lowest smoking points of oils.

Refined olive oil has a higher smoke point than extra-virgin olive oil. He says not to cook with (extra-virgin) olive oil over 200-250˚ but doesn’t say if that is Celsius or Fahrenheit.

Either way the degree he stated is a bit baffling because the smoke point for extra-virgin olive oil is 160˚ C which is way below the 200-250˚ stated which would be way to high to cook extra-virgin olive oil.

The smoke point extra-virgin olive of is also 350˚ F, which is much higher than the temperature he stated not to cook with.