Olive Oyl was a girl before her Time. While she and Popeye were busy entertaining all the kids and grownups alike, few people really appreciated her namesake or would have ever predicted that it would became such a household staple years later. This week, as you probably already guessed, the soapmaking ingredient I am featuring is olive oil. Some soapmakers (since ancient times) have made soap using olive oil without the addition of any other oils. Castile Soap is one such example. Thousands of years later, it is still one of the primary ingredients in a cold-processed batch of soap.
Nearly all of my soaps have at least a little olive oil in them; some of my recipes have upwards of 40%. Olive oil is known for making a mild and moisturizing bar of soap. It is very kind to your skin. I usually add some other oils or butters so my soap will have a bit more hardness than a purely olive oil soap would yield. This gives me the benefit of the moisturizing properties without sacrificing how I think a bar of soap should feel in my hand.
Olive oil comes from olives (surprising, huh?) which grow on a tree. I might add that an olive tree is extremely hardy and lives for several hundred years. It has a wide and deep root system so it is able to survive droughts really well. (a good thing in the Mideast and Mediterranean) The oil also has a pretty long shelf life and is not likely to be ravaged by humidity or pests. So it's not at all surprising that the area has used olive oil in many ways including food, but also for religious rituals (anointing kings and priests) as fuel for lamps, in medicines, soapmaking, and skin care products.
We didn't use olive oil in my home growing up. I hate to admit it, but this southern girl had most of her chicken fried in Crisco, and any oil in the house was usually just a generic vegetable oil. Of course, there are lots more choices today and more access to information about health benefits of foods of all kinds. If you are like me, you have picked up your bottle of olive oil at the store, not completely sure what the difference was between the various kinds, but pretty sure that extra-virgin was healthier than regular virgin both of which were healthier than those without the "virgin" label. Here's a brief look at where these labels actually come from.
First, olives are crushed, or pressed and ground into a paste. The oil from the initial pressing is removed and labeled "virgin" olive oil. Then, it is tested.
A. If its free oleic acid level is less than 1% and it has a perfect taste when tested (not sure I would want this job) then it is given the distinction of extra-virgin.
B. But if either the free oleic acid is too high (but not higher than 3.3%) or the taste doesn't meet standards, it is called virgin olive oil.
C. If the acidic level is too high or the taste too strong, olive oil can be refined with chemicals to adjust
those factors. When some of this refined oil is added to some regular virgin, they label it Grade A or Pure Olive Oil.
D.Now, back to that paste and pit and skin and whatever else, back in the press.It is called pomace.
Pomace still has some oil left in it, so chemicals like Hexane are added along with some heat to
extract whatever's left. This oil is not suitable for cooking, but skin care folks don't mind putting it in their soaps and lotions. Not sure I agree.
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| Here's one type of ancient olive press utilizing the power of their beasts. |
NOW FOR SOME OLIVE OIL TRIVIA
1. Homer called olive oil liquid gold.
2. In ancient Greece, athletes ritually rubbed it all over their bodies
3. The English word for oil is derived from Anglo-Fr. olie Latin oleum and Greek elaion. Wow! there are a lot of different types of oil, but olives got the generic term named after them.
4. Olive trees thrive next to the ocean and are not affected by high salt water concentration (unlike most other plants)
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