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Why no olive oil on Pesach?



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mirah2




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 8:01 am
Sorry if this has been asked before, I've just never seen a satisfactory answer.

Why do so many people go for all these crazy rare cooking oils on Pesach like different nut oils, instead of just using olive oil?

I get that you may want to have supervised KLP olive oil rather than the regular EVOO one can find in the shops all year round. But why avoid even that? (especially as even with the extra supervision it will probably be even cheaper than, say, walnut oil).

My husband and I are both struggling to understand, as it's not like olives are kitniyot. We've asked chareidi friends in London here and they have no idea, it's just 'what they do'...
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5mom




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 8:12 am
Two possible answers:

Their ancestors didn't have much access to olive oil in Eastern Europe years ago. It was quite expensive.

Olive oil isn't good for baking, and sometimes has a strong smell. Some people just don't like it.

ETA: I know that my grandmother used to buy a goose in winter, kasher her oven and render the fat to use for Pesach. Cooking in animal fat, aka schmaltz, was more common than using liquid oil.


Last edited by 5mom on Sun, May 15 2016, 8:42 am; edited 2 times in total
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Iymnok




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 8:12 am
I use the nut oils in baking, occasionally in something else for flavor. For regular cooking it's olive oil.
Those who don't use processed things on Pesach may do differently, but evoo is way less processed that nut oils.
The other option is schmaltz
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cm




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 8:16 am
This is news to me - I use only EVOO on Pesach.

https://oukosher.org/passover/.....-oil/
"All extra virgin olive oils are Kosher for Passover, as long as it bears the OU symbol."

I understand wanting to use something with a blander flavor for baking.
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mirah2




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 8:25 am
OK, the baking makes sense. I don't bake much, so haven't paid attention to how baked goods turn out with different oils.

What really confused me was a friend complaining about not shallow-frying things during Pesach because of the high cost of the (nut) oils she was using. She just shrugged when I asked about using olive oil instead. (yes, I know frying in olive oil is not recommended health-wise, but the type of frying we're talking about here is not something that would kill you if done a few times a year!).

As for not using it because your ancestors didn't do so in Eastern Europe...where on earth does one draw the line in that case? Just live off meat and potatoes (or just potatoes)? Even at the expense of one's health/financial security?
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cnc




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 8:25 am
Some people don't use processed items on Pesach so they only use shmaltz or walnut oil that they made themselves.
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joy613




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 8:29 am
The reasons I know of why people dont use it is because it's more expensive, and they think it will ruin the taste of the food.
We use only olive oil on Pesach.
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5mom




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 8:46 am
mirah2 wrote:

As for not using it because your ancestors didn't do so in Eastern Europe...where on earth does one draw the line in that case? Just live off meat and potatoes (or just potatoes)? Even at the expense of one's health/financial security?


I don't know where others draw the line, but I've seen lots of posts here by people who only eat whatever was available in some shtetl.

We eat anything that isn't chametz. (Or kitniyos.)
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egam




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 9:07 am
Using only what their ancestors used in shtetle argument doesn't work in this case. There was no nut oil available at the time. Everyone used schmaltz.
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miami85




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 9:11 am
I think that Olive oil is somewhat limited b/c it doesn't cook well on high temperatures. It is more expensive and has a strong flavor and probably wasn't widely available by our ancestors.
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etky




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 9:20 am
mirah2 wrote:
OK, the baking makes sense. I don't bake much, so haven't paid attention to how baked goods turn out with different oils.

What really confused me was a friend complaining about not shallow-frying things during Pesach because of the high cost of the (nut) oils she was using. She just shrugged when I asked about using olive oil instead. (yes, I know frying in olive oil is not recommended health-wise, but the type of frying we're talking about here is not something that would kill you if done a few times a year!).

As for not using it because your ancestors didn't do so in Eastern Europe...where on earth does one draw the line in that case? Just live off meat and potatoes (or just potatoes)? Even at the expense of one's health/financial security?


Here (Israel) the olive and nut oils are about the same price. The better olive oils are even a tad more expensive. I use nut for baking, frying and some of the cooking. Olive for salads and cooked dishes when I want the olive oil taste.
And of course butter for dairy. Yum.
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m in Israel




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 9:20 am
I think most of the time it is for practical purposes -- as others have said, olive oil is not good for baking and some people don't like the taste in certain types of cooking or frying.

I use nut oils for baking and deep frying because of the taste, and olive oil for most other things (salads, sauteing, savory kugels, etc.). Most of the people I know who buy nut oils don't avoid olive oil for kashrus reasons but just for the types of recipes they are using. (And Pesachdik cakes tend to use a lot of oil, so it does get expensive!)
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FranticFrummie




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 9:54 am
DH is Lubavitch, from London, and he remembers when he was younger that the only oil allowed for Pesach was peanut oil! shock

Then one day, everyone changed their mind, and said peanut oil was no good, you had to use sunflower oil. Then after that, everyone decided that sunflower oil was "too much like kitniot", and then you could only use olive oil.

Of course, everyone still used shmaltz, but for bottled oils, it changed over time.

Personally, I don't get most the the Pesach minhagim. I just go along with whatever keeps Shalom Bayis, and my mantra is "It's only for 7 days, you'll live." I wish I had a shekel for every time I said that while shopping!

(I've also been known to mumble "My next husband will be Sephardic", but not where DH can hear me.)
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etky




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 9:57 am
OP's question is an interesting one that I've thought about quite a bit.
My great grandparents in the Shtetl probably used shmaltz as their main cooking fat.
My grandparents and parents used peanut oil in the US, before it was phased out for Pesach use b/c of the kitniyot issue some time back in the seventies I think. After that they used safflower IIRC.
Here in Israel safflower is largely considered kitniyot and is not available for Pesach use (at least not for Ashkenazim).
So in my own home here in Israel l have always used nut and olive oils (palm grosses me out).
Recently however, many of our friends have begun to use canola oil b/c our Mara D'atra does not consider rapeseed kitniyot.
I continue using the nut oils though, even though they are vastly more expensive and even though I will eat canola w/o a problem in other peoples' homes, b/c I want everyone to feel comfortable to eat in my home and I really like the nut oils. But also -probably mainly - b/c it is what I myself have always used and it seems wrong somehow to suddenly switch.
I laugh at myself though b/c I realize that my use of the nut oils is hardly a deep-rooted minhag in my family. If I wanted to be authentic I would only use shmaltz (and possibly butter). Still, there seems to be an emotional need for continuity that somehow comes very much to the fore davka on Pesach. Maybe b/c of all the holidays, Pesach is the quintessential holiday of historical commemoration - and the food that we eat plays a big part in that commemoration so we want everything to be as 'traditional' as possible.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 12:12 pm
People keep saying (on other topics too) that olive oil gives everything a strong taste. I use EVOO for some things like salads where the taste is suitable, but for everything else I use the "extra light" olive oil, which is readily available KLP from Jewish brands and not very expensive, and I don't notice the taste at all in baking and cooking. I'm not sure about frying, I don't do all that much frying overall but I'll fry scrambled eggs and sautee onions and never had any problem.
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amother
Ginger


 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 2:38 pm
I use olive oil all year. Extra virgin for salads and things
Light for other things including baking. Never noticed a taste. I do the same on pesach....
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cm




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 3:37 pm
FranticFrummie wrote:
DH is Lubavitch, from London, and he remembers when he was younger that the only oil allowed for Pesach was peanut oil! shock


Me too, in the US. Then the rules changed, so to speak.

Certainly every family and community has its own customs, and that is probably what the OP has noticed about olive oil.
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shooting star




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 6:55 pm
So I believe my husband learned this year that olive oil needs to be specifically kosher for Passover in order to use it. Previously this wasn't the case, but upon closer inspection it was found that there was something in the manufacturing process that would not be ok for Passover. We have a Chabad Rabbi.
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amother
cornflower


 

Post Sun, May 15 2016, 7:52 pm
shooting star wrote:
So I believe my husband learned this year that olive oil needs to be specifically kosher for Passover in order to use it. Previously this wasn't the case, but upon closer inspection it was found that there was something in the manufacturing process that would not be ok for Passover. We have a Chabad Rabbi.

The local rav hamachshir (Melbourne Australia) told us that there is an enzyme they use for processing that is not listed and could be chametz or kitniyos derived so that's why you need a special hechsher for Pesach. (He discovered it with our own local olive oil brands- but there were one or two small local producers that we could use with a mehadrin hechsher. And yes evoo is the best, has the least problems with kashering etc
He also told us that ou had not been aware of it and he had to tell them.
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