If not black olives...

[gariotin]

Yay for you, Johnsmith! I am so glad that you enjoyed your olive exploration. Those stuffed olives at WF are probably the hand-stuffed ones from Greece. There is no comparison - the ones w/red pper are suffed w/real pepper, not pimento paste. They also have cheese stuffed ones like feta and blue cheese that are to die for. And you are right - olives are a fruit. Sometimes you can remember that when you have a crunchy fruity Lucques or a oil cured black Thasos that has a smoky, almost pruney flavor.

And Smithy, glad y liked the tip. Wait till you try chard or kale when you've used some brine in the braising liquid. Tart it up w/some garlic or onion, a small handful of dried currants and some pine nuts...maybe crumble a little feta on there. To die for.

[suseyblue]

I am still trying to find an olive like the ones my Calabrian grandma used to make in the fridge (from a tree of unknown origin in the yard). It took weeks, & I know lots of salt (and garlic!), but they were the best. Green, wrinkled, oily- she used brine & oil (and maybe lye, for all I know). Sicilian ones are the closest, but still not there. If I lived in Cali still (with a source for uncured olives) I'd give it a shot (I'm nothing if not an intrepid experimenter).

Sigh.

(Thanks for bringing up 'olive fingers' That is a fine memory.)

[Rebecca263]

Being Syrian, one of my favorite meals is a platter of Syrian basket cheese, some really soft, fresh pitas, and an obscene amount of soft, almost black, fatty, rich, salty 'Syrian' olives.

There are so many varieties of salt cured olives at the groceries, it's hard to remember which ones are my likes and dislikes, and I often end up having to buy 3 containers in order to get the 'best' ones.

My lovely foodie child does not eat olives! Or capers, for that matter, what a weird kiddle I have raised.

As for green olives, my #1 boy always has 3 in his gin martini, and I get 2 of them! At home I keep a jar of Manzanilla olives stuffed with pimento, just for those martinis. Did you ever notice that they have lactic acid in the ingredients? I always wondered why, no other olives seem to.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I ADORE those lye processed black olives, the immense (super colossal) ones are the best! My favored method of preparation is also the fingertip method.

[slo_ted]

I love olives of all kinds, but the handiest are those canned black olives from the Central Valley. We love to drain a can of EXTRA LARGE black olives, and dump them on a paper plate at the central work station of our clinic for folks to snack on in the middle of the afternoon.

[Kent D]

Well, the worst thing about black olives is you can't use them to make a martini, or at least not one you'd want to drink. But you got to have some black olives on the Thanksgiving relish tray, or the kids won't have anything to jam on their fingertips and wave about while they wait for dinner to be ready.

I still think black olives have their place (on top of pizza, as part of my olive relish for muffaleta sandwiches, etc.), but I really prefer big, nasty green olives for salads, snacking, or the aforementioned martinis, dirty with a nice splash of brine.

[gariotin]

A Dirty Martini is heaven for olive lovers. Whoever thought that up should win a medal.

[suseyblue]

And don't forget a nice shmutz for your muffaletta. I can find room for some Lindsay's black olives with the greens & kalamatas.

[gfron1]

Since I'm sampling jarred olives at my store right now, here are 6 varieties to consider:

From California Harvest (Santa Rosa), Olive Melange is a blend of Sevillano and Manzanillo with garlic and bay leaf. These are naturally cured - our customer favorite. The Mission are dry cured in rock salt, washed, sun-dried then coated in olive oil.

The Manzanillos are Greek-style with lemon and thyme. The Sevillano are the Scicillian-style with champagne vinegar, orange and fennel (my favorite).

From Haddouch in the Seattle area. These imported Moroccan olives are grown in the Atlas range. The Bigaradier olives have "red olives" bay leaf and lemon. The Tunisian are cracked green with lemon, hot pepper and bay leaf.

I'll break out a wedge of cheese later for my lunch!

[Smithy]

Thanks so much for showing those jars with the respective olives. Do let us know how they taste to you, and describe the flavors and texture to the best of your ability.

I was disappointed in the manzanillo olives with thyme - somehow the flavor combination just didn't work for me. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the rest of them, to make sure I give them a fair trial, and to use them up.