UPDATE: Apple Slicer Review

In its September 1 issue, Cook's Illustrated reviewed apple slicers. It turns out their criteria for an apple slicer is pretty much what mine were --they wanted something sturdy that made clean, even slices of even firm, thick-skinned Granny Smith apples with minimal effort.

Fortunately, their pick is the one I already own--the Williams-Sonoma Dial-A-Slice Apple Divider:

Its wider-than-usual, 1-inch, serrated corer gripped the apple and ensured the entire core was removed. We also liked the comfortable rubber handles and plastic cap that pushes the hard-to-reach bottom of the apple entirely through the blades. (Other models left slices attached, forcing us to push the apple back up, which meant we were handling the sharp blades.)

Good to know my impulse buy compares well. Check out their review.

(image courtesy yucca2k6 / http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaughnhalls / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil Tasting

I don't mean to be obsessed with extra virgin olive oil.

But, it is one of those products that, when it's good quality, can make a basic sandwich or vinaigrette better. (My personal favorite is sopressata, provolone, and tomato on bread spread with olive oil vinaigrette.)

And yet, the bottles are a mystery--in any given supermarket or boutique grocery, there could anywhere from a half-dozen to a baker's dozen different brands and/or varieties. There's also no guarantee how long a particular bottle has been sitting on the shelf, exposed to light and heat. When higher-end olive oil can easily go for $30-$50 per liter, a bad bottle can be an expensive disappointment. But I've talked about this before.

In the incident that led directly to this blog post, I found myself purchasing a bottle of Colavita at Whole Foods in Washington Square, Brookline.

"Is this yours?" asked the checkout woman.

"Uhhh....yeah," I said, articulately.

In a friendly, slightly superior air: "You should put that back and get the 365 brand. It's really high quality and half the price."

I was reluctant to tell her to mind her own business, for some reason, so I ended up buying both--rationalizing my decision by hitting on the idea of a taste test.

In this highly unscientific taste test, I and one other person tasted five different olive oils.

Four of them were widely available supermarket brands: DaVinci, Filippo Berio, Colavita, and 365, the Whole Foods brand. We also added a ringer--Cook's Illustrated's favorite premium extra virgin olive oil, Columela, which I've written about previously (same link as above).

It was a blind taste test, in which we tasted each olive oil plain, and then drizzled on some bread. Each of us then ranked the oils in order of preference, and scored them. A first place vote from a taster received 10 points, a second place vote, 8 points, a third place, 6 points, and so on.

Here are the results, from worst to first:

4th place (tie): DaVinci Extra Virgin Olive Oil, $16-$17 per liter

Both tasters were more or less in agreement on this one--this was supposed to be extra virgin olive oil? "Not a very strong flavor," wrote Taster One. "Well...it's oil," wrote Taster Two.

Taster One liked it a bit better overall, finding "nice herbal notes" when tasted straight that were masked when eaten with bread. Taster Two thought Taster One was nuts.

4th place (tie): Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil, $24 per liter

Both tasters found this oil strongly flavored, although they couldn't agree whether that was necessarily a good thing. Taster One found it had an "interesting musky flavor, but...not enough bite to cut through." Taster One seemed to get more and more repulsed by this oil, saying that the bread didn't "mask enough" of the flavor. "It almost tastes spoiled."

Taster Two liked it better, but found it so pungent when tasted straight that it stung the palate. "It has character...very smoky, but with green and briny accents. It's a little overwhelming...I wanted to like this more than I did." Taster Two concluded that "it could be great for dressings, salads, where you're not eating it BARE."

Although Tasters One and Two put Colavita in fifth and fourth place, respectively, based on the oil tasted straight and on bread, after the tasting, we gave it a second chance. Used in a simple vinaigrette, it held up, and gave a basic green salad a huge flavor payoff.

Colavita Fruttato (apparently a premium version of the Colavita we tasted here) was a Cook's Illustrated runner-up in their July 2008 tasting of supermarket extra virgin olive oils, for what it's worth, so that oil could definitely be worth a second look. The Cook's Illustrated website (subscription required) doesn't note that they tasted the premium version, but the image of the bottle they used clearly says "Fruttato" on the label.

3rd place: Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil, $14-$15 per liter

Both tasters found this oil to have a very clear flavor with a nice velvety richness to it. Taster One thought it had a "very herbal flavor, but didn't contain a lot of sweetness." Taster Two thought it was fruity and pleasant, but too mild--it lacked any real assertive, peppery, green elements. "It seems like it could be boring if you used it in a recipe rather than tasting it straight."

2nd place: 365 (Whole Foods brand), $14 per liter

This one started slow and picked up. On first taste, Taster One thought 365

"[didn't have] a strong flavor, but had a decent fruitiness." It did, Taster One noted, have enough flavor to show up well when tasted with bread. "Nice and light...with some sweetness," Taster One concluded.

Taster Two was underwhelmed at first, but then noticed some "fruitiness backed up with some assertive peppery tang....This one won me over."

For the price of $6.99 per 17-oz bottle, not a bad choice. However, the hands down winner was...

1st place: Columela Artesano Extra Virgin Olive Oil, $30-$35 per liter

There wasn't really any contest. Taster One found Columela "fruity and herbal, with a nice bite while remaining sweet enough...Not an overwhelming flavor, but held up on bread and was not too greasy or oily." Taster Two liked the "green, sharp" beginning flavor that was tangy without being overwhelming (like the Colavita). The tasters thought this was by far the most well-rounded oil, with the "best olive flavor" and balance of tangy and sweet.

So, what's the verdict?

While DaVinci and Colavita both received one fourth place and one fifth place vote each, for the remaining olive oils, the two tasters agreed right down the line the oils that were in first, second, and third place.

If you have the money, the Columela Artesano Extra Virgin Olive Oil (an unfiltered blend of four different varieties of Spanish olive) is highly recommended. It usually retails for between $15-$18 per 500-mL bottle, more than twice the price of the runner-up, 365. For my money, it's more than worth it, particularly for special occasions or dishes where the flavor of the olive oil will make a significant difference.

Both can be difficult to find. Unfiltered olive oils, although they frequently have more olive flavor than filtered versions, have a shorter shelf life because the particulate matter can speed up spoilage. This means that most supermarkets won't carry unfiltered oils, unless you happen to live in or near a place where such oils get high turnover (like, say, Brookline, home of Cook's Illustrated magazine, and foodie haven). 365 brands, on the other hand, are sold exclusively in Whole Foods stores, which might not be convenient unless you live near one--and they (ahem) also tend to congregate in areas in which might be classified as foodie havens. Or, at least, areas where people are willing to pay extra for "quality".

In that case, Columela Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the filtered version of Columela Artesano, should be available at more stores. There are also online retailers, even Amazon, which carry olive oils, although frequently they are not particularly price-competitive, especially when you factor in shipping. Colavita, while too pungent for tasting straight, should work well in recipes that call for strong flavors.

My personal plan is to keep 365 Extra Virgin Olive Oil on hand for everyday use, and Columela Artesano for special occasions or just to eat with crusty bread from my fantastic local bakery...which is, as they say, another post.

Now I have to go back to that checkout woman at Whole Foods and pronounce my peccavi for doubting her and her "twelve years in grocery".

Pointless Kitchen Paraphernalia, Episode 1

In my browsing around the internet, I occasionally run into some cooking- and kitchen-related objects whose utility I question. In the first of what may be an ongoing series, here is some Pointless Kitchen Paraphernalia.

When I first came across this example of PKP, I thought, you've got to be kidding me. Perhaps it's because I don't try to roast a lot of jalapenos, but I don't get spending $20 (+ $6.50 shipping) for a stuffed jalapeno roaster. What else could you conceivably use this for to justify that kind of money, when I figure you could likely make something perfectly workable using aluminum foil, that you then could just throw away, thus avoiding the arduous process of trying to scrub burnt cheese off of 18 individual 1/2-inch-wide holes?

Maybe I'm wrong, the reviews on Williams Sonoma have it at 4.5

out of 5. I suspect these reviews are all from dedicated jalapeno-roasters.

Entry number 2 in today's PKP sweepstakes is an asparagus

peeler, also from Williams Sonoma. (I don't mean to beat up on Williams Sonoma, although it does seem to be a rich source of PKP.)

My first thought was, why on earth would one need an asparagus peeler? After some research, it appears that many chefs--especially French ones, apparently--recommend peeling the bottoms of asparagus to improve the texture and let it cook more evenly. All right, fair enough.

But let's look at this particular example. It offers two services--the snipping off of the woody, fibrous ends of asparagus with its "integral nylon blade" and the removal of the asparagus peel with its metal peeling blade. If you had a choice, would you prefer to cut off the ends of asparagus a foot above the counter, using an awkwardly shaped pair of nylon scissors with a sharp metal blade in one handle? Or would you rather rest the spear on the counter, and cut it with something you already own, like, oh, a knife? And, (bonus!) with a knife, you can cut several asparagus spears at the same time! Now, let's address the second service this gadget provides. If I'm not mistaken, the metal peeling blade appears to be identical to that of the vegetable peeler currently residing in every kitchen drawer in America. The only difference here is that, since this metal peeler is attached to the second lever for the scissor blade, it makes it more difficult to use to peel, say, a potato or a radish.

So, why not use the peeler and knife you already own instead of this $9.95 (+$5.50 shipping) green nylon beauty? Hmm. Good question.

Dial-A-Slice Apple Divider

I picked up this apple corer and slicer a few days before Christmas, on a rare trip to Williams Sonoma. (If it weren't next to Barnes & Noble I'd probably never go there.) The Dial-A-Slice Apple Divider cores and slices an apple into either 8 or 16 slices.

As I've previously mentioned, I make a lot of apple pie during the holidays. So anything that makes it easier is appreciated. So how well does it work? Well, here's my review.

Pros: There's no doubt it's easier to make it through four pounds of apples than with a knife. By the time I get to the last apple when working with a knife, my fingers are tired, wet, and stinging from the acids and the sugars in the apple juice, and I'm usually afraid that I will cut myself. This gadget is faster--I can get through the same number of apples in about a third of the time--easier, and saves the fingers. The "dial" device which allows you to switch from 8 to 16 slices consists of two rotating wheels with sharp metal spokes used to divide the apple into segments, and the mechanism is easy to use and sturdy. The rubberized handles are comfortable and much less likely to bruise the hands than all-metal models of apple slicers I have seen.

Cons: The manufacturer recommends handwashing the slicer, which is inconvenient, as the dial device can get tiny pieces of apple stuck in its hub. In order to remove them, you must reach past the sharpened metal slicers. (A toothpick might be a better solution than that rough-and-ready method.) The other main drawback lies in the fact that apples are not always perfectly round, with the core running straight down the center of the apple. This can lead to no stable surface on the bottom of the apple, making the consistent downward pressure used to divide the apple a chancy business. (Since I peel my apples first, which makes them slippery, I had a few apple projectiles shooting around the kitchen before I learned to slice a flat surface into the bottom of an apple.)

Summary: Much easier than a knife, and with some practice, I will be working through piles of apples in nothing flat. Cleanup could be easier, and there's more of a learning curve than I expected, but on the whole, worth it. 4 out of 5.

Price: $19.95 + S&H at Williams Sonoma's online store. I paid about $13 (sale price) at Willams Sonoma in Hingham, MA.

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UPDATE: Cook's Illustrated reviewed apple slicers, including this model, in their September 2009 issue. Click here for an updated post and link to the CI review.

Columela Artesano Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Here's a constant problem for a wannabe gourmet on a grad student's budget...getting good quality ingredients for affordable prices. It takes a fair amount of research, both online and the boots-on-the-ground kind. It also takes an ability to prioritize...for which products does getting the premium version actually make a difference?

One of those products where money frequently does equal quality is extra virgin olive oil. (Although not always, as certain fraudsters have recently proved. Also check out the full New Yorker article on fraud in the olive oil industry.) I've had some really bad experiences trying to cheap out on olive oil (the kind you drizzle, not the kind you cook with. The latter is a place you can go cheap.) So I've been looking for an extra virgin that was good quality, but not too rich for my blood. Say, nothing over $15-$16 a bottle.

Cook's Illustrated gave top marks in 2008 to Columela, and several other taste tests in magazines rated Columela at least near the top, so I decided to give it a try. $18 bucks for a half-liter bottle was still a little too expensive for me, though, no matter how good.

Fortunately, Boston is a foodie haven, which means that there are lots of stores that carry a range of premium brands at a high rate of turnover. This means that if you shop around, you can luck out. I ran into the bolder version of CI's winner, Columela Artesano Extra Virgin Olive Oil, at the Whole Foods near Washington Square in Brookline, for a mere $13.99 (on sale from its regular price of $14.99). Most online retailers seem to price it at around $15. (That is, of course, without shipping costs.)

It's buttery and very slightly sweet, but still sharp, peppery, with just the right amount of "green" flavor to it. It tastes like it's an actual agricultural product; really worth a savor.

And, you can savor the price, too.

UPDATE: Recently found Artesano at $9.99 for a 500 mL bottle at Marty's Liquors in Allston, across from the Harvard Ave. T stop. If you've never been to Marty's, it's not your typical college town liquor store. They have a great deli, specialty gourmet foods, an aisle full of microbrews, and a wine selection (complete with an ask-an-expert desk) that will take you from the $7 vin de table to the $200/case vintage Bordeaux. Where else in Allston can you pick up a six pack and a block of Gruyère in a single stop?

Update May 2010: Sadly, Marty's Liquors in Allston closed last year.  I've been to their Newton, MA location, and the prices are as much as half again what I used to pay in Allston. I now buy this olive oil wherever I can find it. Salumeria Italiana in the North End carries it in stock regularly. (For some other options for inexpensive-yet-good olive oils, check out my recent extra virgin olive oil tasting featuring Columela Artesano.)