Olive Oil Facts: Bitterness, Coughing, Anti-inflammatory Properties
I set out to write about bitterness in olive oil and was caught off guard by some interesting facts about the compounds that create the flavour and, sometimes, full-bodied experience of tasting a good olive oil.
I recently had a chance to taste three different olive oils from three different regions, thanks to the discount rack at our local grocery store.
All three olive oils were produced around the same time.
The first was a Tunisian oil that we often cook with. The flavour is mellow. I don’t have great smollier skills, so “mellow” is really the only word I can come up with here. We probably didn't do justice to this oil because it sits beside our cooktop, which means it sometimes warms up a bit, which causes the compounds in the oil to break down.
The second is a Greek olive oil. It was deeply floral and rich in flavour. It was a very present flavour and made for a great dipping oil or dressing.
The third was a Spanish olive oil, and the flavour was light and floral. I really enjoyed the delicacy, but it had a bitter finish. Had it gone bad? What’s going on here? After trying it again, I started to enjoy the bitter flavour the same way I might like a bitter coffee or blue cheese.
A quick web search taught me that the bitterness is expected and even desirable in some olive oils.1
Olive Oil Source says:
These tastes and fragrances derive from compounds like hexanal (green, grassy), trans-2-hexenal (green, bitter), and 1-hexanol and 3-methylbutan-1-ol, which are the major volatile compounds of olive oil. Many of these flavor compounds decompose if temperatures during milling are too high.2
Essentially, the more flavourful your oil is, the better the milling process was and the fresher it may be.
Olive Oil Source continues: “We are often asked whether the component in olive oil that is peppery and sometimes makes people cough is oleic acid. It is not.” Pardon me? Cough? I have never heard of this!
They explain (emphasis mine):
Different olive oils with the same amount of oleic acid may be quite peppery or not [at] all. Many studies have been done to try to predict a flavor profile based on the oil's chemistry. In "The Handbook of Olive Oil" by Harwood and Arapicio, they cite studies done by the authors that show that aglycons are responsible for the bitter and pungent sensory attribute, as well as tyrosol and possibly alpha-tocopherol. The phenols are related to astringent attributes. It is probably the combination of bitterness and astringency that causes a person to cough.
And then, just to blow your mind, they drop this in there:
An interesting related fact: Gary Beauchamp and other chemists published a September 1, 2005 article in Nature that shows that oleocanthal, the pungent compound in some oils which creates a stinging sensation in the throat, has similar properties to anti-inflammatory compounds such as ibuprofen.
Next time I’m in pain, I’ll just chug my favourite olive oil.