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Olive oil has generally been declared as being the healthiest cooking oil. No wonder then, this light and fragrant oil is finding its way into everybody’s kitchen shelves. Apart from being healthy, olive oil is also one of the tastiest cooking mediums and definitely adds lovely flavor to your food. Since most of us are new to cooking with olive oil, unlike many of our European cousins, we can definitely do with some tips about using olive oil in cooking.

• Since we know that extra virgin olive oil is the best, almost all of us who can afford it have started using it for all our cooking needs. However, you might have noticed that this oil fails to give you the same flavor it does in salads and dressings when you use it for frying. This is because extra virgin olive oil, being of a very light consistency, smokes very fast and is not suitable at all for deep frying and cooking under high heat. So if you want your food to taste as good as possible, use regular (or mixed) olive oil for deep frying. This will not only save you money, it will also give you better taste.

• Now that you know where not to use extra virgin olive oil, let’s talk about where exactly you should use it. Extra virgin olive oil is a delight when used in dressings, salads and vinaigrettes. You can also sprinkle a little on top of your Italian pizzas and pastas before baking and relish the instant improvement in flavor.

• If from the above two tips, you have not already gathered that you should keep at least two kinds of olive oil to cater to your cooking needs, then let us spell it out. Keep at least one regular olive oil in large quantities-this can be a cheaper variety (but not too cheap either)-and a good quality extra virgin olive oil in your kitchen at all times.

• Special care is involved in storing olive oil if you want it to retain its flavor. It is best to keep your olive oil in a cool, dark place. This is because both heat and light are like absolute poison for your olive oil and will spoil it sooner than later. So do not store your oil near or above your cooking range, like you do with other cooking oils. Keep it in a cupboard instead, since it might spoil due to condensation if kept in the fridge. Make sure that your bottle of olive oil is tightly capped to prevent it from aeration.

• Olive oil, unlike other oils turns rancid quite fast. This is especially true of cheaper varieties of olive oil. In order to judge whether your oil is rancid or not, taste it. If it tastes buttery, that means it has already turned rancid. In some cases, you might find that a new bottle tastes rancid. While you can use rancid olive oil for cooking, it will not taste as good as fresh oil. The trick here is to taste your oil before buying if possible. Once you have bought your oil, keep it tightly capped and use it within 6 to 8 months, extending to a maximum of one year at the most. Olive oil stays best in tinted glass bottles, so transfer your oil into these if you have some. Green or brown wine bottles with light caps, which have been properly washed and dried, will do just fine.