HARMONY OF VIRGIN OLIVE OIL AND FOOD PAIRING:A METHODOLOGICAL PROPOSAL
LORENZO CERRETANI1,3, GIANNI BIASINI2,MATTEO BONOLI-CARBOGNIN1 and ALESSANDRA BENDINI1
1Dipartimento di Scienze degli AlimentiUniversità di Bologna
Piazza Goidanich 60, 47023 Cesena (FC), Italy
2Communication TechnologyVia del Monte (108047023)
Cesena (FC), Italy
Accepted for Publication October 24, 2006
ABSTRACT
The growing interest in sensory analysis of olive oil, as required byEuropean Union (EU) law 2568/91 (EEC Reg.) and following revisions (ECReg. 796/02), calls for the need to define an analytical method to properlydescribe the sensory attributes for harmonic pairing of virgin olive oil to aspecific food. To accomplish that, in February 2006, the sensory analysispanel of the Department of Food Sciences of the University of Bologna (Italy)carried out systematic sensory analyses of extra virgin olive oils and foods toevaluate the harmony of the pairing. Specific scorecards for olive oil, food andpairing harmony were defined; the resulting harmony was visualized graphi-cally. Some examples of virgin olive oil and food pairing were also presented.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
The key finding in this study is its use in the development of a method andrelative harmony scorecard for virgin olive oil and food pairing. The results ofthe study suggest a disharmonic index to evaluate the harmony of pairing.
INTRODUCTION
In the last 30 years, there has been a growing interest on the use of oliveoil in cooking because of a greater awareness of Mediterranean food and the
healthy virtues of a Mediterranean diet (Helsing 1993; Grigg 2001). Becauseof its characteristic production technology (obtained directly from fruitwithout any chemical or biochemical process which could alter the product),virgin olive oil is characterized for a particular fatty acid composition (a highlevel of monounsatured fatty acids and a restricted content of polyunsaturedfatty acids, Rossell 2001) and for the presence of minor compounds (phenoliccompounds, tocopherols, sterols and volatile compounds) (Angerosa 2002;Carrasco-Pancorbo et al. 2005). This latter fraction (particularly phenolic andvolatile compounds) determines the characteristic sensorial profile of virginolive oil. In particular, the phenolic compounds have been reported to beresponsible for majority of its flavor (Gutiérrez et al. 1989; Andrewes et al.2003), whereas volatile molecules have olfactory attributes (Angerosa 2002).
Several reports have emerged concerning the need for harmonic pairingof olive oil with food, although to date, an analytical theory to evaluate theharmony of pairing has been lacking. The Associazione Italiana Sommelier orAIS (Paris, France) proposed applying the same method used for food andwine pairing (AIS 1998), describing olive oil with the same descriptors usedfor wine. Although both food and olive oil are thoroughly described by them-selves, the harmony of pairing is evaluated using only the overall intensity ofolive oil aromas and the overall complexity of the food. While a method couldbe used as an initial approach, it is oversimplified and unfit, as the sensorycomplexities of olive oils and foods should be investigated in a more analyticalfashion in order to obtain the optimal harmonic match. Moreover, the AISmethod does not distinguish between oil, which is present in the mouth alongwith food, and wine, which is present in the mouth after swallowing food.
Slowfood (Bra, Italy) also proposed a method to evaluate olive oil usinga 100-point scale that closely resembles the AIS method and divides attributesinto five groups (Ricci 2000; Borella and Scrobogna 2003): appearance (10points for color, limpidity and defects); smell (20 points for intensity, compo-sition and quality); taste (30 points for sweet, bitter, pungent and structure);smell–taste (20 points for flavor and smell–taste balance); and a syntheticevaluation (20 points for balance, harmony and fineness). Although appropri-ate for a brief description of an olive oil, this method assigns 50 of the 100points utilizing parameters not recognized by the International Olive OilCouncil (IOOC) and does not offer any help in determining the harmony ofpairing with food.
The aim of the present study was to evaluate a new methodology for thepairing harmony of virgin olive oil and food. In February 2006, the sensoryanalysis panel of the Department of Food Science of the University of Bologna(Italy) carried out systematic sensory analyses of extra virgin olive oils andfoods to evaluate the harmony of pairing. Specific scorecards for olive oil, foodand pairing harmony were defined, and the harmony was visualized graphically.
404 L. CERRETANI ET AL.
The panelists were trained weekly in olive oil analysis, and were trainedin food analysis through a number of panel sessions led by food experts.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Pairing olive oil and food requires choosing an olive oil that balances thecorresponding sensory intensities of the particular food. The first step of theprocess is to determine the organoleptic attributes that better describe the foodand the olive oil with pairing in mind. The second step of the process is todefine a method to evaluate the harmony of the pairing. The third step is thento investigate the correspondence between sensory attributes of olive oiland food.
It should be stressed that both olive oil and food are present in the mouthat the same time. The food attributes should be defined as a function of thisaspect, differently from food and wine pairing. To better investigate the oliveoil sensory attributes as a result of olive variety and oil production technology,only monocultivar oils were considered for pairing to permit repeatability.
Formal sensory analysis of an olive oil should be carried out by an officialpanel of sensory analysis. The panel of sensory analysis of the Department ofFood Science of the University of Bologna is one of the most academicallyqualified and the most experienced panel in the field of olive oil sensoryanalysis. Taking advantage of the panel, scorecards for food and olive oil weredefined, and a method of evaluation of the pairing harmony was identified.
Food Attributes for Pairing with Olive Oil
The food attributes evaluated were intensities of the basic taste sensa-tions: sweet, salty, bitter and acid, along with spiciness, aromatic quality,fatness and the persistence of the various sensations. The intensities of thedifferent sensations were quantified using a 10-point scoring card (Fig. 1).
Sweetness. Food sweetness is the intensity of sweet taste and is due tothe presence of starches, carbohydrates or sugars. The presence of starches andcarbohydrates, as in pasta, yields an intensity of sweetness from barely to wellperceivable (2–6). Crustaceans have little perceivable sweetness (2–4). Thepresence of sugars, as in desserts, determines an intensity of sweetness fromperceivable to very perceivable (6–9). For oil and food pairing, there is noreason to distinguish between sweetness and sweet tendency, as requiredby the AIS food score method. For wine, in reality, the distinction betweenthe two sensations is functional to the different wine-pairing strategy withsugary food.
405HARMONY OF VIRGIN OLIVE OIL AND FOOD PAIRING
Saltiness. Food saltiness is caused by the presence of salt, which can beadded during cooking or seasoning, as for cheese and ham. In an insipid food,the intensity of saltiness can range from imperceptible to slightly perceiva-ble (0–4). An adequately salty food has intensities of saltiness in the per-ceivable range (4–6). A salty food achieves values from perceivable to veryperceivable (6–8).
Bitterness. Bitter taste in food can be intrinsic as in liver, artichoke (2–4),lateTreviso radicchio (3–5), Chioggia radicchio (4–6), Eruca sativa (5–7), earlyTreviso radicchio (6–8), Lindt (Lindt & Sprüngli, Kilchberg, Switzerland)Excellence 70% chocolate (7) and the 99% variety (9); or can be due to burntsubstances caused by heat, as for grilled pork chops (4–5) and grilled eggplants(5–7). Bitter taste can also be due to the presence of aromatic herbs.
FIG. 1. SCORECARD FOR FOOD SENSORY ANALYSIS WHEN PAIRED WITH OLIVE OIL(MODIFIED FROM AIS 1998)
406 L. CERRETANI ET AL.
Acidity. Acidic taste in food is given by the presence of acid ingredientsas most dairy products, tomatoes, vinegar or citruses.
Spiciness. Food spiciness is caused by the presence of spices.
Aroma Quality. Aroma quality sensation can be intrinsic as in fish,cheese, mushroom and crustaceans, or can cause by the presence of aromaticherbs. Prolonged cooking of aromatic herbs also increases the perception ofbitter taste that can reach perceivable intensities (4–6).
Fatness. Fatness is a tactile sensation caused by the presence of fatsgiving a solid perception between tongue and palate, as in butter, lard, choco-late, meat, cheese and ham fat. Fatness is frequently paired with sweetness.When the solid fats melt, the fatness becomes unctuous, which is a tactilesensation veiling the tongue. For olive oil and food pairing, unctuosity of foodsdoes not need to be evaluated.
Persistence. Persistence is the duration of smell–taste sensations afterswallowing.
Olive Oil Attributes for Pairing with Food
To evaluate olive oil, the categories as defined by IOOC (1996) have beenintegrated with the intensity of sweetness and the green and ripe sensations,as well as with the overall persistence (Fig. 2). The total sample score has aqualitative meaning only when comparing olive oils of the same fruitiness.
Fruity. Oil is fruity when its flavor and aroma are similar to that of amature olive. This attribute may disappear in a few months in some oils. Atruly fruity oil maintains this characteristic aroma over time.
Bitter. A taste typical of olive oils obtained from green olives or olivesturning color. Bitter can be more or less pleasant, as a function of intensity.
Pungent. A rough, burning or biting sensation in the throat typical ofolive oils produced at the beginning of harvest from mainly green olives.
Sweet. The opposite of bitter, stringent or pungent. Found in mellowoils.
Green. Typical of a young, fresh, fruity oil. Often mixed with bitter.Causes a spicy–bitter cough sensation at the back of the throat.
407HARMONY OF VIRGIN OLIVE OIL AND FOOD PAIRING
FIG. 2. SCORECARD FOR OLIVE OIL SENSORY ANALYSIS WHEN PAIRED WITH FOOD(MODIFIED FROM IOOC 1987 AND OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN
COMMUNITIES 1991, 2002)
408 L. CERRETANI ET AL.
Ripe. Typical of a mature oil. Often mixed with sweetness.
Persistence. As defined for food, persistence is the duration of smell–taste sensations after swallowing.
Measure of Pairing Harmony
In order to measure the harmony of pairing, a scorecard with sevenpairing attributes was defined: fruity taste, pungency, bitterness, sweetness,greenness, ripeness and fruity smell. For each pairing attribute, a value from 0to 10 was given (Fig. 3). A perfect harmonic pairing was a value of 5. Valueslower than 5 were given to pairings with olive oils that were increasingly too“light” compared to the food; values higher than 5 were given to pairings inwhich the olive oil was too intense.
From the harmony scorecard, a disharmonic index, Id, was calculated asthe sum of the absolute distances of the median panel values for the sevenharmony attributes from 5. A weight of 70% was attributed to the gustatory
FIG. 3. SCORECARD FOR OLIVE OIL AND FOOD PAIRING HARMONY
409HARMONY OF VIRGIN OLIVE OIL AND FOOD PAIRING
harmony and 30% to the olfactory harmony and green/ripe sensations. Forperfect harmonic pairing, Id equals zero, and increasing values of Id reflected alower harmony of pairing.
RESULTS
In February 2006, two panel meetings were held to evaluate the harmonyof food and olive oil pairing by analysis of 10 different foods with increasinggustatory intensity for saltiness, bitterness and sweetness. The harmony of thepairings with monocultivar extra virgin olive oils was evaluated. For eachfood, the distances from the central value for each of the harmony attributeswas analyzed to define the ideal profile of the perfectly harmonic olive oil. Thematrix of food and “ideal” olive oil attributes provided the basis for statisticalanalyses on the correspondence between sensory attributes of food and oliveoil. The correlation (Pearson’s r) analysis between the series yielded therelations shown in Table 1.
For harmonic pairing of olive oil and food, the intensities of fruity andpungency of olive oil have to balance the intensities of saltiness, spiciness andaroma quality of the food; the green and bitter intensities of the olive oil mustbalance the bitter intensity of the food, and the sweet and ripe intensities of theolive oil should balance the sweetness and fatness intensities of the food. Thesweet attribute of the olive oil also balances the acidity of food as in citronette.Based on these results, a graph was designed to visualize the balance betweenthe corresponding attributes (Fig. 4).
CASE STUDY
Mantis shrimps (Squilla mantis) were cooked in three different ways withincreasing gustatory intensity. The shrimps were quickly boiled using three
TABLE 1.PEARSON’S r CORRELATIONS BETWEEN FOODAND OLIVE OIL ATTRIBUTES FOR AN OPTIMAL
HARMONIC PAIRING
Food Olive oil
Saltiness + spiciness + aromaquality
Fruity r = 0.99 P < 0.02Pungent r = 0.87 P < 0.17
Bitter Green r = 0.99 P < 0.02Bitter r = 0.94 P < 0.10
Sweetness + fatness Sweet r = 0.91 P < 0.01Ripe r = 0.78 P < 0.04
Acidity Sweet r = 0.90 P < 0.15
410 L. CERRETANI ET AL.
different court-bouillon. For shrimp #1, pure natural water was used(Sant’Anna, Fonti di Vinadio, Cuneo, Italy); for shrimp #2, salt was added tothe water; and for shrimp #3, salt, pepper and parsley were added.
The resulting sensory analysis medians are shown in Table 2. The differ-ence between the three court-bouillon employed is clearly shown in Table 2 forsaltiness, spiciness and aroma quality values. The monocultivar olive oilstested in pairing were Leccino Fior di Venere 2005–2006 produced by Frantoiodella Fazia (Rocca S. Giovanni, Chieti, Italy), and Nostrana di Brisighella2005–2006 produced by Agriturismo Vezzano (Brisghella, Ravenna, Italy).The olive oil was poured on top of the food, as in normal food preparations.
The medians of the sensory analysis are shown in Table 3. These particu-lar olive oils were selected as end-members in sensory intensity, because theLeccino is a very mild oil and the Nostrana di Brisighella is very strong.
FIG. 4. GRAPH OF OLIVE OIL AND FOOD PAIRING HARMONYAttributes in lowercase are for food, in uppercase are for olive oil.
411HARMONY OF VIRGIN OLIVE OIL AND FOOD PAIRING
The analysis of Id (Table 4 and Fig. 5) shows how the Nostrana di Bri-sighella is penalized by the lack of sweetness when paired with foods havingsome sweetness. As for the intensity of the fruity taste, the harmony increaseswith increasing food saltiness, aroma quality and spiciness. The best harmonyfor the Leccino is with mantis shrimp #3 (Fig. 6), while the Leccino is too lightfor both #1 and #2 (Table 5).
DISCUSSION
This study demonstrates the adequacy of the present method for measur-ing the harmony of olive oil and food pairing, based on the statistical corre-lations between olive oil and food sensory attributes. The intensity andpersistence of fruitiness and pungency in the olive oil should balance theintensities and persistence of saltiness, spiciness and aroma of the food. Withincreasing saltiness, spiciness and aroma of food, an increasingly fruity andpungent olive oil is needed. The intensity and persistence of sweetness and
ripeness attributes of the olive oil should balance the intensity and persistenceof sweetness and fatness of the food. The intensity and persistence of bitter andgreen attributes of the olive oil should balance the intensity and persistence ofbitter taste of the food.
Non-harmonic Pairing
Olive oil and food pairing is not harmonic when the fruitiness and pun-gency of the olive oil are either too light or too strong compared to the foodsaltiness, spiciness and aroma.
TABLE 4.MEDIANS OF SENSORY ANALYSIS FOR HARMONY OF THE OLIVE OILS AND MANTIS
SHRIMP PAIRINGS
Fruitytaste
Pungent Bitter Sweet Green Ripe Fruitysmell
Id
Mantis shrimp #1 withLeccino
-1.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 -1.0 0.6
Mantis shrimp #1 withNostrana di Brisighella
1.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 1.0 1.6
Mantis shrimp #2 withLeccino
0.0 0.0 0.5 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.3
Mantis shrimp #2 withNostrana di Brisighella
1.0 1.0 1.0 -1.0 -1.0 -1.0 1.0 1.0
Mantis shrimp #3 withLeccino
0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 -1.0 -1.0 -1.0 0.3
Mantis shrimp #3 withNostrana di Brisighella
0.0 1.0 1.5 -1.0 -1.0 -1.0 1.0 0.9
Id, disharmony index.
0
2
#1 #2 #3
Leccino
Nostrana
FIG. 5. Id INDEX OF DISHARMONY FOR THE LECCINO AND NOSTRANA DIBRISIGHELLA AND MANTIS SHRIMP PAIRINGS
413HARMONY OF VIRGIN OLIVE OIL AND FOOD PAIRING
Harmonic-enough Pairing
Olive oil and food pairing is more harmonic when the fruitiness andpungency of the olive oil balance the saltiness, spiciness and aroma ofthe food.
FIG. 6. GRAPH OF LECCINO AND MANTIS SHRIMP #3 PAIRING HARMONY
TABLE 5.DISHARMONY INDEX (Id) FOR THE OLIVE OILS AND
Olive oil and food pairing is also harmonic when the sweetness andripeness attributes of the olive oil balance the sweetness and fatness of thefood, and when the bitter and green balance the bitter taste of the food.
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