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The Bitter Truth About Olives (2016)

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: The Bitter Truth About Olives (2016)

#51

Post by upvotinglurker »

jhbadger wrote: post #38
derrasterpunkt wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, it would be weird if they mentioned potatoes or tomatoes in their texts.

Although a lot of Americans get confused when "corn" is mentioned in various translations of the bible, not understanding that maize is not being referenced (which would be very weird indeed) but that the word "corn" used to (and still does to some extant) be used to refer to grains in general and wheat was probably being referred to.

Also, even more archaically, to grains of salt - for example, those used to cure corned beef.

Re: The Bitter Truth About Olives (2016)

#52

Post by mcphage »

coldtea wrote: post #48

> Thank goodness we figured out how to press olives into oil, because eating them raw is not a pleasant option. We eat olives raw (and cured etc) for several millennia in my side of the woods, and its a totally pleasant option -- and traditional part of Italian, Greek, etc cuisines... Black olives are totally not a "California invention" either, and they're totally fine (except perhaps just those sold in California).…

> Black olives are totally not a "California invention" either, and they're totally fine (except perhaps just those sold in California).

There's a particular kind of processed olive sold in the US as "black olives" which I think this is referring to. If you haven't had one, imagine... imagine that you need to eat an olive, but you hate olives and everything about them, so you invent something that's the shape of an olive but not.

Re: The Bitter Truth About Olives (2016)

#53

Post by balabaster »

coldtea wrote: post #48

> Thank goodness we figured out how to press olives into oil, because eating them raw is not a pleasant option. We eat olives raw (and cured etc) for several millennia in my side of the woods, and its a totally pleasant option -- and traditional part of Italian, Greek, etc cuisines... Black olives are totally not a "California invention" either, and they're totally fine (except perhaps just those sold in California).…

Now now, many of the British have far more varied and refined palates than you suggest. Since we actually have some of the leading chefs in the world our cuisine has actually stepped up it's game. It's not been the bland stodge we built a reputation for since I was a kid.

Re: The Bitter Truth About Olives (2016)

#54

Post by brooklyn_ashey »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #12
seszett wrote: post #5

> Black olives, though labeled as “ripe” on supermarket cans, actually aren’t: these, a California invention Maybe that's true of all black olives in the US, I don't know, but black olives are supposed to be ripe olives. Only the cheapest black olives are not ripened, and at least in France they cannot be called just "black olives". They're easy enough to distinguish as they are smooth and firm like green olives, rat…

These are very particular canned olives in the US that have a different taste. Twenty or thirty years ago they were the only black olives you could get here. They are still available, but now you can easily get real tree-ripened black olives as well.

yeah- kinda the olive version of the maraschino cherry

Re: The Bitter Truth About Olives (2016)

#55

Post by iosonofuturista »

spodek wrote: post #2

I predict that olive oil will soon go through the transition that orange juice did. When I was a kid, people viewed orange juice as healthy. Now we see it as unhealthy -- just the sugar. Maybe some vitamin C, but not many people get scurvy. Whatever health benefits it has are overwhelmed by the otherwise empty calories. People want to believe more olive oil will make their diet into a healthy Mediterranean one, but i…

You are 30 years late. In the 80's processed sunflower seed oil, was seen as the healthy (and cheaper of course) alternative to olive oil, and benefited from massive marketing campaigns.

Can't really remember the supposed claims, but involved the usual transfatty acid, saturated / insaturated fat mumbo jumbo.

Fast forward to today, and the sunflower oil is the devil incarnate while olive oil is the hero again.

The same happend with vegetable butter vs animal butter.

I wish i could backup with a source, but I'm really not finding any, and even if I did, most likely would be in Portuguese, so not very useful.

Re: The Bitter Truth About Olives (2016)

#56

Post by coldtea »

dmm wrote: post #49
coldtea wrote: post #48

> Thank goodness we figured out how to press olives into oil, because eating them raw is not a pleasant option. We eat olives raw (and cured etc) for several millennia in my side of the woods, and its a totally pleasant option -- and traditional part of Italian, Greek, etc cuisines... Black olives are totally not a "California invention" either, and they're totally fine (except perhaps just those sold in California).…

You've plucked an olive from a tree and eaten it? Try it sometime and you'll see... The olives eaten in Italian and Greek cuisines are all processed using one of the methods described in the article to remove the extremely bitter compound oleuropein.

>You've plucked an olive from a tree and eaten it? Try it sometime and you'll see...

More often than you'll think. But we usually cut them open, and treat them (is this called "curing"?) in water, salt, and oil.

But the article starts with "Thank goodness we figured out how to press olives into oil, because eating them raw is not a pleasant option" which is simply not true, except if raw here is meant like "exactly as they are on the tree" (as opposed to the oil or paste form that it seems to imply).

Re: The Bitter Truth About Olives (2016)

#57

Post by NikkiA »

jhbadger wrote: post #38
derrasterpunkt wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, it would be weird if they mentioned potatoes or tomatoes in their texts.

Although a lot of Americans get confused when "corn" is mentioned in various translations of the bible, not understanding that maize is not being referenced (which would be very weird indeed) but that the word "corn" used to (and still does to some extant) be used to refer to grains in general and wheat was probably being referred to.

Most brits still picture wheat fields if you say 'cornfield', even though maize is grown here too these days.

Re: The Bitter Truth About Olives (2016)

#58

Post by logfromblammo »

balabaster wrote: post #53
coldtea wrote: post #48

> Thank goodness we figured out how to press olives into oil, because eating them raw is not a pleasant option. We eat olives raw (and cured etc) for several millennia in my side of the woods, and its a totally pleasant option -- and traditional part of Italian, Greek, etc cuisines... Black olives are totally not a "California invention" either, and they're totally fine (except perhaps just those sold in California).…

Now now, many of the British have far more varied and refined palates than you suggest. Since we actually have some of the leading chefs in the world our cuisine has actually stepped up it's game. It's not been the bland stodge we built a reputation for since I was a kid.

A lot of cuisine options open up with international shipping and with international immigration.

It's not a surprise when a climate that can only reliably grow rye, barley, oats, potatoes, beets, and cabbage produces cooks and traditional dishes that don't even recognize the existence of certain flavors. But once the ships make it there and back again, those same cooks are forced to experiment to figure out what to do with new (to them) foods, and sometimes come up with results and combinations that the cooks for whom those foods are native have never even thought to try.

But that has a dark side as well. International food markets also make it possible to replace the cocoa butter in "chocolate" with oil-palm-based oils without being immediately struck down by Ek Chuaj for that blasphemy against cacao.

Re: The Bitter Truth About Olives (2016)

#59

Post by oeoeo00 »

microcolonel wrote: post #22
seszett wrote: post #5

> Black olives, though labeled as “ripe” on supermarket cans, actually aren’t: these, a California invention Maybe that's true of all black olives in the US, I don't know, but black olives are supposed to be ripe olives. Only the cheapest black olives are not ripened, and at least in France they cannot be called just "black olives". They're easy enough to distinguish as they are smooth and firm like green olives, rat…

Black olives in Canada and the U.S. refers exclusively to "California ripe olives" (at this point not the brand, which IIRC still exists, but the process), they've been called that in North America for longer than they've existed elsewhere, so to mandate the name be qualified on shelves would cause more confusion than it would solve.

I dunno this sounds rather dismissive of the average person.

That they couldn’t cope with such a non-shock is a bit helicopter parenty, and being overly concerned with gramas sensibilities regarding trivial things.

Riots in the streets over it? I mean when we don’t riot over real drama, why not over changing labels on olive cans?

Re: The Bitter Truth About Olives (2016)

#60

Post by chrisseaton »

coldtea wrote: post #56
dmm wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've plucked an olive from a tree and eaten it? Try it sometime and you'll see... The olives eaten in Italian and Greek cuisines are all processed using one of the methods described in the article to remove the extremely bitter compound oleuropein.

> You've plucked an olive from a tree and eaten it? Try it sometime and you'll see... More often than you'll think. But we usually cut them open, and treat them (is this called "curing"?) in water, salt, and oil. But the article starts with "Thank goodness we figured out how to press olives into oil, because eating them raw is not a pleasant option" which is simply not true, except if raw here is meant like "exactly…

If you’ve treated it by curing it in salt then it’s no longer raw, is it?
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