Olive Oil Mousse

March 2, 2006 3:56 AM

Olive Oil Mousse - Is it possible?

I've been wanting to create a solid form of olive oil (as a spreadable butter replacement) for some time but haven't been able to find any info about how to do it or even whether it's possible.

I got my inspiration from a recipe I tried recently where you melted chocolate, mixed it with water and after some beating it formed a mousse of chocolate chantilly. The recipe was based in the science of molecular gastronomy.

I think what i'm looking for has something to do with emulsions but i'm not sure...any ideas?

posted by mikeanegus to Food & Drink (19 answers total)

I think Mayo is "Oil Mousse." You'd need some sort of protein to make an emulsion.

You could try one of those crazy chemical additives to see if you could get that to work. But no idea which one.

A true butter replacement would require you to change the molecular structure of Olive Oil to something more saturated. I think this is usually done via hydrogenation - but this would sort of be pointless as it would destroy the taste and health value of olive oil
posted by JPD at 4:18 AM on March 2, 2006

I suspect it's possible, but I'd expect that it involves more chemistry than what you're likely to be able to perform in a home kitchen. I believe that hydrogenated vegetable oil—that stuff that among all the fats is least healthy—is liquid fat to which extra hydrogen is added, producing a solid at room temperature.

If that's the case, then even if you can make it happen, the result is going to be missing most of the "good fat" benefits of olive oil, and you might as well be eating butter. I also recall seeing something in the last year or so that indicated butter has been getting a bad rap, anyway, so you might as well enjoy the real thing (unless there are flavor or religous/moral reasons you're avoiding the cow fat).

Only love beats butter.
posted by phrits at 4:22 AM on March 2, 2006

Isn't this the basic gist of margarine?
posted by mkultra at 4:41 AM on March 2, 2006

I have to say, that if it was super easy to do, wouldn't somebody have done it already?

And getting that thought, I did a quick google search (for "olive oil spread") and came up with this olive oil spread recipe. The title of the page specifically lists it as a butter substitute, so there ya go.
posted by antifuse at 4:45 AM on March 2, 2006

alinea, an amazing restaurant in chicago, does an olive oil lozenge course, which i believe is attained by freezing the olive oil... other than that, you do need some protein, as jpd suggests.
posted by judith at 5:22 AM on March 2, 2006

Yes, you would have to hydrogenate the oil, and then you're eating trans fats, which, IMHO, is a no-no.
posted by youarenothere at 6:07 AM on March 2, 2006

Well, this is probably not what you had in mind, but if you freeze olive oil, it will turn solid and basically spreadable.

[When I saw the title of your post, I instantly flashed to olive oil ice cream (mmm....) but that's probably not something you would want to spread on toast.]
posted by veggieboy at 6:10 AM on March 2, 2006

In other words: What Judith said. My contribution, I suppose, is to say I've done it at home and it works.
posted by veggieboy at 6:14 AM on March 2, 2006

veggieboy beat me to it. No chemistry needed: just put it in the fridge.
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:17 AM on March 2, 2006

Yeah, the critical difference between olive oil and chocolate is that chocolate is solid at room temperature. The recipe you mention in your post won't work with a liquid fat, so olive oil — or, AFAIK, any other vegetable oil — is out. You could probably try it with lard or suet, since those are solid at room temp too, but I'm not sure you'd want to.

(JPD is right about mayonnaise, by the way — it is an emulsion made with liquid oils. But olive oil isn't so great for mayonnaise either, since it has too strong a flavor.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:27 AM on March 2, 2006

1. Take EVOO and cool it until it solidifies. This is the basis for that "olive oil spread recipe" posted above. No need for the disgusting yeast/calcium addition.

2. Partially or fully hydrogenate your olive oil, making olivey margaraine.

3. There's a variety of agents that can be used to gel-ify liquids in appealing ways, but they're all based on aqueous reactions. What's a good start for finding a compound or set of compounds that will gel your oil at room temperature? Johnson's Baby Oil Gel, in addition to mineral oil, contains Hydrogenated Ethylene/Propylene/Styrene Copolymer.
posted by rxrfrx at 6:46 AM on March 2, 2006

There's already a product on the market (at least in Canada) called Olivina. It's an EVOO based margarine.

My family has used it for ages. It basically tastes like margarine with an EVOO hint.

So, possible! At least with access to industrial margarine production equipment.
posted by generichuman at 8:11 AM on March 2, 2006

do you mean the classic "paté di olive"?

a cup of green olives (remove the pits!)
1 anchovy fillet
1 tiny bit of garlic
half a cup of olive oil
put in the blender

(I cheat, and I add half a teaspoon of tumeric to make it greener)
posted by matteo at 8:31 AM on March 2, 2006

I wouldn't go so far as to say that nutritional yeast plus calcium is a "disgusting" addition. I know the word "yeast" makes it sound disgusting, the product itself isn't at all offensive. They're trying to make a butter substitute. Usually that means a recipe for vegans. The nutritional yeast flakes have a cheesy flavor to make it taste less like olive oil, and more like a dairy product. It also will act as a thickening agent, making it more spreadable. And it has a lot of the B vitamins that vegans have trouble getting in their diets. Same for the calcium. It doesn't add any flavor, but you might as well get some calcium if you aren't eating dairy. If you're going to use this instead of butter, why not pack in as much nutritional value as possible?
posted by team lowkey at 10:47 AM on March 2, 2006

There are at least two brands of olive oil based margarine in my tiny country that have no trans fats, so there are probably some where you live.

Or you can learn to make proper mayonnaise, which is really just olive oil emulsified with egg yolk. It will not taste like that terrible sweet shit you buy in a jar.

I often do make mayonnaise or aioli and use it in place of butter. You can make mayonnaise in a blender or food processor and if you use enough oil it will get plenty stiff enough to spread.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 11:01 AM on March 2, 2006

For toast, just skip the solidifying part. I like to pur a teaspoon of flax seed oil on my toast, and top it with some honey. Yummy and packed with omega-3 fatty acids.
posted by Sara Anne at 11:10 AM on March 2, 2006

team lowkey, to avoid veering into a debate about what one's food should taste like, I'll just say that butter should taste like butter, fake butter should taste sorta like butter, and yeast does not taste like butter. If you need B vitamins, you can get them without putting yeast in your fake butter.
posted by rxrfrx at 11:20 AM on March 2, 2006

I think we need a clarification of the goal of this expirement. When I first read the question, I thought he was just looking to make a spreadable olive oil because it would taste good. It's unclear whether mikeanegus cares about Omega-3's, B vitamins, calcium, hydrogenated oils/trans fats, etc. It sounds like he just wants butter that tastes like olive oil. I wonder if you could use the compound butter technique of softening butter at room temp, adding flavorings (usually herbs, but EVOO might work if you don't go crazy with it), placing in a mold or rolling in a log, and chilling again. I may try it tonight just for fun.
posted by rorycberger at 1:02 PM on March 2, 2006

Fair enough, rxrfrx. Olive oil and nutritional yeast definitely won't taste like butter. But it might make a healthy and tasty spread. I just had to come to the defence of poor old nutritional yeast. It's not disgusting. It needs some marketing to help steer it away from it's unfortunate role of being a yeast. Maybe they should start calling it brewer's flakes or something.
posted by team lowkey at 1:20 PM on March 2, 2006