There’s a new variety of Filippo Berio olive oils on the shelves. Berio’s Extra Virgin and Extra Light oils are available in spray bottles now but they spritz, they don’t pretend to mimic an aerosol. A gadget queen who’s also a pushover for new products couldn’t help but buy one.
You might remember a gadget that took the country by storm about ten years ago. It was a plastic spray bottle for oil that worked — and I’m using that term loosely — by having us pump the nozzle about thirty times to build up pressure so we could spray the oil like an aerosol. That was theory. In practice, the pressure rarely held and the nozzle clogged hopelessly after just a few uses.
Your gadget queen had one, of course. Actually, I had two. After the first one’s nozzle perma-clogged, I stubbornly bought an imitator, prettier with its metal bottle. It promptly clogged too, and was even worse at holding the pressure.
The fact that Berio’s is a spritzer gives me hope of avoiding nozzle clog. It’s a good supermarket olive oil, not the best perhaps but fine for my purposes. And Berio is sold and used by the gallon on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. If you’re ever in New York, that’s where to go for a small but thriving Little Italy known even to Italians, just a short walk from the Bronx Zoo.
I bought the Extra Virgin to use two ways primarily: to spritz onto salad greens and steaks. You know the savings in fat and calories that can be had by spraying oil onto salads; when I grill steaks I rub them first with a cut clove of garlic and some oilive oil, often letting too much out of the bottle and always ending up with oily fingers that need immediate washing. A secondary reason is to spray it in pans for light sauteeing. I’ve tried it the first two ways and loved it.
Berio recommends the Extra Light for stir-frying (I have my doubts) and for baking, which makes great sense for pan preparation, especially non-stick pans. It requires a leap of faith sometimes to bake a cake in a non-stick pan without reaching for non-stick spray, which is the worst thing to come into contact with a non-stick pan. In a short time it leaves an invisible residue that hinders the non-stick properties. This seems like a practical alternative.
The only selling point I don’t get is the hype on the label that it has no odors or fumes. I happen to love the scent of olive oil — anyone who doesn’t should probably buy another oil — and fumes are something I associate with turpentine and cheap hair spray. If the point is that it’s all-natural, we can see it’s olive oil in there with a little tube leading to the nozzle; how dumb do they think we are?
Smart product, though. I paid about $4.50 for the Extra Virgin; the Extra Light was a little under $4. Both are 7 ounces. Ounce for ounce, that’s substantially more expensive than Berio in the bottle — the store where I bought the spray has Berio 25.5-ounce bottles on sale for $6.99 — but there’s no waste.
If the one I have doesn’t clog, I’ll try the other too. I’ve learned my lesson about clogging nozzles.
Ella’s Fun Factoids: Arthur Avenue is a stone’s throw from Belmont Avenue, which gave doo-wop’s Dion (DiMucci) and the Belmonts their name. They were homies.
After using this for several weeks, I can tell you a bit more. The oil squirts in a stream, not a broad spray, and that’s okay with me. More important, the nozzle has not clogged yet. The extra-light was on sale recently and I bought that too.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Somewhere in the nether regions of my base cabinets is a super fantastic oil atomizer
An oil spritzer that actually spritzes will be most welcome here! Thanks for the headzup.
The bottle that fits the spritzer? Iz refillable?
Pet Peeve of mine is the McCormick Spices most handily sized pepper grinder bottle of tri-color peppercorns. That I must throw away when empty of said peppercorns! Never mind that they also sell the whole peppercorns in bulk. arghhhhhhhhhhhh!
There’s a doo-wop vibe this Sunday Morning. CBS Sunday Morning did a piece, too.
Hi, sage! You know, I meant to add that about the bottle. Thanks for the reminder. It’s all one piece and the spritzer doesn’t seem to be screwed in and does seem to be there for good.
I’ll know for sure when I’m done with it and report back. It’s “stuck” enough that I don’t want to use pliers to get it off.
You need a real grinder and then you can buy the peppercorns from Penzey’s (on my Useful Links page) and save a loooot of money. If you’re within striking distance of a TJ Maxx they usually have decent grinders in the $10 range. If not, try K-Mart. They always have them. I once paid a small fortune for a pepper mill from England. I dropped it. It broke. Never again will I pay that kind of money for one. The one I’m using now cost $2 at a Tuesday Morning.
If PBS has one of their gazillion doo-wop specials tonight, it’ll be time to cue the theme from the Twilight Zone!
I had one of those spritzer bottles, but haven’t a clue where it went. It’s gone, now. I’ll give this new product a try.
If you’ve never heard The Persuasions’ album, Streetcorner Symphony, it’s a must. It’s on CD and downloadable now. You can find it at Acapella.com, too, along with the Gregorian Chant and English madrigals!
And by the way ~ your site looks fabulous. I like the new format.
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Shore – how could you have known I love Gregorian chants? And the mere title of the Persuasions’ album resonates with me. Sometimes I think I was born too late. (Other times I feel as if I witnessed the Ming Dynasty.)
I’m so glad you like the new look. For good or ill, I designed it all and executed it. There are still a few elements I want to redo, but even if it’s not ready for the red carpet, it’s presentable enough to run into town. Thank you so much for the encouragement.