Contents
Olives cured for eating rather than pressed for olive oil. Raw olives are inedibly bitter with oleuropein, and every olive you have ever eaten has been through one of four cures: water, brine, dry salt, or lye.
The four cures, and how they taste
| Cure | Time | Result | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brine | months | Complex, fruity, firm | Kalamata, Castelvetrano, Nyons |
| Dry salt | weeks | Wrinkled, intense, chewy | Moroccan oil-cured |
| Water | weeks | Mild, delicate | Some Greek greens |
| Lye | days | Fast, mild, uniform | Californian black, most tinned |
The tinned black olive is the odd one out. Californian-style black olives are green olives lye-cured quickly, then oxidised with air and fixed with ferrous gluconate to turn them black. That is why they taste of almost nothing and have that uniform matte colour. Check the ingredients for ferrous gluconate; it is the tell.
Buying for cold food
- Buy them with the stones in. Pitting is done mechanically and the flesh suffers; stoned olives are softer and blander. Pitting by hand takes seconds — press with the flat of a knife and the stone slips out.
- Kalamata for Greek salads and orzo salad. Castelvetrano — bright green, buttery, mild — for a board or anyone who thinks they dislike olives. Oil-cured black for couscous bowl and anything North African.
- Olives from a deli counter in their own brine beat a jar; a jar beats a tin.
In cold food
Tear rather than slice for a rough edge that holds dressing. They are salty enough to season the dish, so add them before you correct the salt, not after. Rinse briefly if they are aggressively cured.
Keeping
Submerged in their brine, months refrigerated. If you have drained them, cover with olive oil.
Elsewhere on the site
Used in: orzo salad · cold pasta salad · farro salad · mezze plate · gazpacho · caprese sandwich
Related: olive oil · capers · roasted red peppers · feta