If you make a habit of reading the labels on bottles of a store-bought salad dressing — including the fancy ones — you are unlikely to find olive oil on most ingredient lists. This is partly a matter of cost, but it’s also a matter of taste.

If there is one hill I will die on, it is that boxed mix brownies are usually the only brownies worth my time — but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to get fancy with them. If you’re looking to pass yours off as a little more gourmand, simply change the oil.

When it comes to confusing labels and price points, I find olive oil to be second only to wine. Once you get a handle on the whole virginity thing, there is the matter of region to contend with, and it can be hard to know which one you "should" cook with.

If you've watched any appreciable number of cooking shows, you've most likely been instructed by some famous chef to "finish" your dish with a drizzle of oil, a sprinkling of salt, or some freshly chopped herbs. "Finishing" a dish, which is quite different than polishing one off, simply means adding those extra flourishes to help the food shine and become its best self.

Due to its low-ish smoke point, olive oil isn't the best choice for searing meats or other single-layer, high-temperature cooking methods. However, as Chef Helen Rennie explains, that doesn't mean you can't crank up the heat when cooking a range of foods in olive oil - from caramelised onions to sauted potatoes.

Tomato paste adds a super concentrated boost of flavour to everything it graces, and a teaspoon is all it takes to turn your morning egg into something truly savoury and special.

Good olive oil is usually pretty expensive. If you want to get the freshest bang for your buck, the coming winter is a good time to buy a new bottle.

Some products try to use phrases and tags like "Made in Italy" as a selling point, even if it's not entirely true. This app can tell you if that olive oil, cheese, or clothing item was actually made in Italy.

You may think of olive oil as a strictly "savoury" cooking fat, but its fruity, grassy flavour can add surprising depth to all sorts of desserts.

That Parmesan cheese is actually wood, that honey has corn syrup and the cake is a lie. There's no guarantee the food you're buying at the store is what it says it is, so keep an eye out for these usual suspects if you don't want to waste your money on fake, inferior products.

Canned beans are the ultimate in convenience, but they can be a little lacklustre. To transform these plain Jane legumes into something sexier, just simmer them in some good olive oil for a few minutes.

You're probably familiar with what rancid oil is, but you might be less familiar with what it smells like. When checking oils of fatty foods for rancidity, sniff for metallic, bitter or soapy aromas.