Olives

[chefette]

I procurred an amusing selection of olives from one of those nifty olive boutiques at a Whole foods market. I am just a recent and somewhat hestitant convert to olives so I never really paid much attention to them. What turned me onto these was hunger actually. I was having drinks with friends and they ordered hot olives with cheese and fresh pita. There didn't really seem to be any other options when I arrived so eventually I tried one and it was actually good -- olives served hot in olive oil in a small fondue type pot with fire to keep it warm, fresh feta and hot from the oven pita breads. Anyway, thought I would serve somethin akin to this to guests recently, but had fewer than anticipated takers, now I have all these stupid olives. How long can I keep them? Is this what the cockroaches will be munching on in the post nuclear war environment - do they last forever?

[hollywood]

Can't answer your question directly but I've had mock rumaki with black olives standing in for the chicken liver.

[Dave the Cook]

--and water chestnuts standing in for the olives

--and scallops standing in for the water chestnuts

--and shrimp standing in for the scallops (don't these have their own name?)

...proving, of course, that the point of rumaki is bacon.

We now return you to olives, in which I have very little interest (sorry).

[hollywood]

--and water chestnuts standing in for the olives

--and scallops standing in for the water chestnuts

--and shrimp standing in for the scallops (don't these have their own name?)

...proving, of course, that the point of rumaki is bacon.

We now return you to olives, in which I have very little interest (sorry).

Nice reductio ad absurdum, however, I think you are supposed to have a slice of water chestnut in any and all versions. But you're right, it's about the bacon.

[Dave the Cook]

--and water chestnuts standing in for the olives

--and scallops standing in for the water chestnuts

--and shrimp standing in for the scallops (don't these have their own name?)

...proving, of course, that the point of rumaki is bacon.

We now return you to olives, in which I have very little interest (sorry).

Nice reductio ad absurdum, however, I think you are supposed to have a slice of water chestnut in any and all versions. But you're right, it's about the bacon.

You're right--I'd forgotten that the WC was obligatory. Must be a mental block--used to serve rumaki by the hundreds (Durkee's, if my memory hasn't failed me again).

[Double 0]

No they don't. Two thing you can do to make them last longer is to keep them covered with olive oil. I have one of those nifty olive crockpots from Restoration Hardware. The other important thing to remember is to use a clean utesil to pluck them out of the container (prevents nastiness from growing on the olives). Depending on what kind you've purchased I wouldn't refrigerated them (unless its the bottled ones from the supermarket).

[Bux]

Why wouldn't you refrigerate them. I've noticed most shops don't refrigerate their bulk olives, but we generally do at home. I can't say the keep longer than way, but I can't see the harm either. I've seen old olives that are just soft and mushy--unpleasant rather than rotten and I've seen olives get moldy, but otherwise I've not seem them go bad in any other way. If they're not moldy and taste good, I should think they are good to eat.

[g.johnson]

Two thing you can do to make them last longer is to keep them covered with olive oil.

Won't this run the risk of encouraging clostridium botulinim?

[Nick]

I can't say I really know anything about this, but wouldn't they keep better in some sort of vinegar?

[snowangel]

My kids (olive freaks; they love them) say that old olives are slimy and gross. But, they still eat them. I just make sure there's enough of that liquid stuff they put in the containers (I buy then from Holy Land Deli counter, not in jars) to cover them.

[nyfirepatrolchef]

I keep all my stuff like that...capers..olives...preserved lemons in the fridge just on principle. My calamatas keep a couple of months without a speck of mold (unlike the ones we sold at macy*s)...the other varieties I used to keep...smaller olives I cant remember the names of...but they were green to begin with...they turned moldy on me in a comparatively shorter time frame.

[chefette]

OK, those olives are going in the trash tonight.

[=Mark]

I can never seem to keep olives around long enough to worry about them getting old...

Anyone else notice the apparent racial bias among canned olives? The green ones are arranged in nice patterns and shown off in fancy glass jars while the black ones are unceremoniously dumped into tin cans...