How to properly store olives

Olive oil

More than 2 million tons of olive oil are produced annually in the world. It is used in many cuisines around the world, but for our country olive oil is still classified as exotic.

The benefits and harms of oil depend on many factors:

• varieties of olives and places of their cultivation;
• the method of collecting them (manually or mechanically);
• what kind of olives the oil is made from (green or black);
• how the oil is made (first or second pressing, cold or hot);
• conditions and period of its storage.

How is olive oil made?

Olive oil is made from olives of varying degrees of maturity. Most often these are ripe olives, but some varieties of olives are grown for pressing in their unripe form, for example, the Israeli green oil Barnea.

The process of making olive oil consists of several successive stages:

• fruit sorting;
• cleaning them from leaves and stalks;
• washing in warm water;
• first oil extraction;
• grinding pulp and seeds;
• second oil extraction.

Most oil producers try to create a full production cycle: from growing the crop to making the oil. It is worth noting that the production of olive products is practically waste-free: biogas is made from olive pomace, and briquetted environmentally friendly fuel is made from olive pits.

Types of Olive Oil

Depending on the method of collection, extraction and thermal or chemical treatment, olive oils are divided into several types.

Extra-virgin (extra-virgin)

This unfiltered oil is obtained by first cold pressing. No heat treatment or chemicals are used in its manufacturing process. During laboratory testing, the oil should contain less than 1% acids. This product contains all the vitamins, microelements and essential fats that are found in the fruits themselves, as well as the antioxidant oleocanthal.

Virgin (virgin)

This oil is produced in the same way as extra-virgin oil, so the content of nutrients in it is preserved. The difference between virgin oil is the higher permissible acid content in it - up to 3.3%. Due to this acidity, virgin oil has a milder taste.

Refined olive

It is obtained by refining from oil that has an acidity of over 3.3%. The taste of refined oil is neutral, it also does not have a special aroma. This is a product that contains almost only fat and none of the beneficial substances that olive oil is so famous for.

Pure olive

This product is obtained by mixing virgin and refined oils to improve the taste and aroma properties of the latter. Accordingly, the beneficial properties of this oil are somewhere between virgin oil and a refined product.

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Light and extra light

In the process of producing these oils, various technologies are used (separation, deodorization, bleaching, heat and chemical treatments), resulting in a product with a “lighter” fat composition, and at the same time with a reduced content of all other substances.

Extra virgin and virgin oils contain many beneficial substances and are the most expensive, while refined and light oils are the cheapest.

In addition to cost and usefulness, the choice of olive oil is influenced by its purpose:

• Unrefined oils are not suitable for frying, because carcinogens are formed in them during heat treatment;
• Refined brands of oils are not suitable for dressing salads because they lack the expected olive taste and aroma.

How to store olives

08.04.2013

As a rule, high-quality olives are a natural product. Cheap oxidized olives may contain dyes and preservatives, which leads to the fact that after lying in the open air for several weeks, such olives do not lose their “consumer” properties (if any...) They look and taste the same. The same cannot be said about natural olives. Natural olives are usually stored either in a salty brine consisting of water with spices (but this is extremely rare), or in a salty solution consisting of a suspension of water and olive oil with spices, or even in pure olive oil. In the latter case, these are, as a rule, small, usually glass, jars with elite varieties of olives. The most common way to store olives is in a plastic or tin jar in a suspension of salt water and olive oil. When the consumer opens such a container, he sees that all the olives are covered with liquid. In the process of taking olives from the container, more and more liquid becomes available, provided that it is not also removed from the container for storing olives. If it is not possible to store an open container in the refrigerator, then several conditions must be met:

• All olives must be covered with liquid

• Pour a little olive oil on top of the liquid.

Olive oil will spread over the surface and form a thin oil film, blocking the access of air to the olives. If this is not done, then after a certain period of time the olive oil contained in the water-oil solution forms thin oil fractions on the surface, which in turn form a favorable environment for the development of mold and other similar nastiness.

If the container in which the olives are stored has been opened and it is large enough, then you can package the olives in smaller jars and fill them with the solution remaining in the large container. Very often it turns out that there is not enough solution for all the jars. It's not scary. You just need to take the required amount of water, dissolve salt in it, pour in the olives and, as already written earlier, add a little olive oil on top. And you can notice. Olives are a product that absorbs the external environment very well. This allows you to make ready-made olives either more salty, more spicy or more bland. Everything is determined by the marinade that is poured onto the olives, packaged in containers. This fact gives housewives the opportunity to prepare olives of different tastes, initially taken from the same container. For example, you can cook:

• Salted olives - fill with salty solution

• Spicy olives – adding allspice

• Unleavened olives in oil - washed, filled with a weak solution of water mixed with olive oil

How olives are harvested

Olives are eaten in prepared form. They are prepared for consumption in different ways:

• dried;
• dried;
• salted (by dry salting);
• marinate;
• canned.

How to remove bitterness from olives

After harvest, olives for preservation are washed and immersed in barrels of brine for several months. Thanks to the fermentation of this brine, the olives lose their bitterness and become soft and sweet. After this, the fruits are sorted, stalks and leaves are removed, and sorted by size.

Olive caliber

On a jar of canned olives, their caliber must be indicated. Their cost depends on this. To inform the consumer about the size of the olives in the jar, symbols are used - two numbers separated by a fraction. These numbers indicate the minimum and maximum number of olives of this caliber in 1 kg. Accordingly, the smaller the numbers indicated in the fraction, the larger the caliber of the olives. There are four calibration categories:

1. Giant or royal olives are especially large in size (70/90, 91/100, 101/110).
2. Large (111/120, 121/140, 141/160).
3. Average (161/180, 181/200, 201/230, 231/260).
4. Small (261/290, 291/320, 321/350, 351/380).

Thus, knowing how many grams are in the jar and the size of the olives, you can figure out how many fruits are in the jar.

How to remove pits from olives

Olives can be preserved pitted or pitted. How do you remove pits from olives? The seeds are removed using a special apparatus with knives. All these processes in large production facilities are carried out on automated lines.

Green olives are often stuffed. Capers, gherkins, anchovies, lemon, pepper, garlic, onions and other various ingredients can be used as filling. This process is carried out manually.

Right choice

They usually appear on our tables canned. Tin cans do not allow light to pass through and the price of such olives is cheaper. But in glass it is better to see the quality of the product. If you see olives with a cloudy, opaque marinade, you are looking at a low-quality product.

A good manufacturer has containers with caliber information, with two indicators, that is, the minimum and maximum number of fruits in kg with dry weight.

The standard indicator is calculated for 80 -120 olives per 1 kg. If the difference between the lower and upper indicators is too large, know that you are in a jar with a mixed variety.

Important!

A good product will not be cheap. Because it is collected by hand and prepared according to a special recipe for a long time.

Beneficial features

Olive products, due to the large amount of essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals they contain, have many beneficial effects on various organs and systems of the human body when consumed orally. The beneficial properties of olives and olive oil make it possible to include them in therapeutic dietary menus, as well as in the daily diet for various pathologies of internal organs. They can be eaten with or without the pit. It is difficult to answer which olives are healthier: with or without pits, because they act on the body differently.

For the cardiovascular system

Olives are a leader among foods that are good for the cardiovascular system. Polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are contained in large quantities, are absorbed into the human blood from the intestines and exhibit their beneficial properties:

• anti-atherosclerotic effect (binds cholesterol in the blood, prevents the formation and reduces existing atherosclerotic plaques);
• increase the elasticity of blood vessels (by restoring damaged vascular endothelium);
• reduce vascular permeability (by strengthening the connections between the cells of the vascular walls);
• reduce blood viscosity, thereby reducing the risk of pathological thrombosis;
• help reduce blood pressure.

Indications for regular consumption of olive products for heart and vascular diseases are:

• atherosclerosis;
• cardiac ischemia;
• arrhythmias;
• arterial hypertension;
• neurocirculatory dystonia;
• varicose veins;
• thrombosis and thrombophlebitis;
• thrombophilia;
• post-infarction and post-stroke conditions;
• angiopathy.

The benefits of olive tree fruits and olive oil for the heart are proven by scientific research. After mass clinical examinations of residents of European countries, they found that residents of the Mediterranean suffer less from coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis of blood vessels than residents within the continent.

For the digestive system

What are the benefits of olives for the gastrointestinal tract? Polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamins from olive products have a beneficial effect on the functioning of the digestive system:

• stimulate the production of digestive juices and enzymes;
• heal defects in mucous membranes;
• restore liver cells;
• have a choleretic effect;
• prevent the formation of stones in the bile ducts;
• normalize intestinal peristalsis (forward movements);
• remove toxins from the intestines;
• restore intestinal microflora;
• help with hemorrhoids.

Olives affect a person’s stool, but it is difficult to say unambiguously whether olives strengthen or weaken, because the effect of their use depends on the presence of a pit in them.

Olive pulp, containing a lot of fat, promotes accelerated excretion of intestinal contents. Therefore, when eating olives in small quantities daily, they have a laxative effect and prevent constipation.

And the oil seed, containing a lot of tannins, strengthens, and is therefore useful for digestive disorders associated with diarrhea. Indigestible fiber, due to its spongy structure, is able to absorb toxins and toxic substances and remove them from the body, so activated carbon can be replaced with olives.

For the genitourinary system

Olive products can reduce the tendency to form stones due to urolithiasis. Regular consumption of olive oil helps get rid of kidney stones.

The inclusion of olive products in the daily diet is beneficial for the health of the female reproductive system, since fatty acids are included in fat metabolism and help normalize the synthesis of female sex hormones. For men, olives are useful for their ability to increase potency and improve sperm quality.

For metabolic disorders

Olive products can be consumed for diabetes. They normalize blood glucose and cholesterol levels in type 2 diabetes, thereby preventing the development of diabetic macro- and microangiopathies.

Olive oil is useful for gout because it helps dissolve uric acid salts that are deposited in the joints and urate stones in the kidneys.

For neurological diseases

Fatty acids and B vitamins contained in olive products normalize the functioning of the central nervous system, increase its performance, and improve memory. Scientists have proven that daily consumption of olive oil improves the condition of patients with multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, and restores cognitive functions of the brain after strokes.

For inflammation

Olive products block the synthesis of prostaglandins - substances that cause inflammatory reactions in the human body. Oleocanthal, present unchanged in extra-virgin olive oil, has anti-inflammatory properties that mimic the effects of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). This allows you to include olives and products made from them in medical nutrition for arthritis, arthrosis, osteochondrosis and spondylosis.

For the body losing weight

The beneficial properties of olives and products made from them are successfully used in various diets. However, they should be included in the diet menu in doses, since they have a high energy value. For example, in the Dukan diet it is allowed to alternate black and green olives, but no more than 4 pieces per day. Their benefit for weight loss lies in the complex effect of the substances contained in olives on the human body:

• binding of “harmful” fats and cholesterol in the intestines and blood;
• saturating the body with essential fatty acids;
• antianemic effect;
• increasing the elasticity of blood vessels and skin;
• improving the condition of the skin and its appendages (hair, nails);
• normalization of stool;
• improving mood.

Why do people who are losing weight crave olives so much? What is missing in their body? Olives are rich in sodium salts, so the desire to eat them arises when there is a deficiency. This desire is especially relevant for people on a diet. To satisfy your desire to eat olives, you should not include them in your diet in canned, pickled or salted form. This cooking process makes the olives very salty, and salt is known to retain fluid in the body. It is better to give preference to dried, dried olives or olive oil.

Against cancer

According to medical statistics, women in Mediterranean countries suffer from breast cancer several times less often than European women living in other areas. The assumption that the reason for this is the large amount of olives and olive oil in the diet was confirmed in large-scale studies conducted in Spain from 2021 to 2021. The purpose of the research was to prove the anti-cancer effect of olive fats.

Spanish doctors examined about four thousand women who adhered to different diets:

1. The first group of women followed a Mediterranean diet with olive oil for a long time.
2. The second is the Mediterranean diet with hazelnuts.
3. The third is a low-fat diet.
4. The fourth group was a control group and did not involve changes in diet.

During the medical examinations of women who took part in this experiment, it was found that women in the first group were almost 70% less likely to develop breast cancer than women in the other three groups.

For pregnant women and nursing mothers

The mother's body experiences an increased need for nutrients, vitamins and minerals, especially essential (irreplaceable) ones, in order to provide their baby with them in sufficient quantities. If there is a deficiency of such substances, they begin to be “washed out” from the organs of a pregnant woman or nursing mother, leading to disruption of their functioning. If the deficiency of nutrients persists, the child will also develop a deficiency in the future.

The substances in olives have a beneficial effect on a woman’s body during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Their benefits are undeniable both for the female body and for the harmonious development of the child. Olives, especially those that have ripened on their own, are a source of iron, and therefore prevent the development of anemia in pregnant women. The healthy fats in olive oil improve the condition of the placenta and cervix before childbirth.

Regular consumption of olives (except canned) and olive oil helps pregnant women and nursing mothers, without compromising their own health, provide their baby’s body with the substances it needs for growth and harmonious development.

Olives are good for children, but they need to be introduced into children’s diets very carefully. At what age it is best to do this depends on the state of the child’s digestive system. Considering that in our country olives are sold in the form of canned food, children over 3 years old can start introducing these products into the menu.

It’s better to start with ripe olives, which are sold in glass jars, but no more than 1 piece per day. At the same time, the product should not contain preservatives, especially iron gluconate. This preservative may cause allergies.

For animals

Olive fats are also beneficial for pets (dogs and cats): they improve digestion and make the coat smooth and shiny. Therefore, it is not at all surprising why dogs and cats love food flavored with olive oil.

But sometimes it also happens that animals are “drawn” to eat olives from the owner’s table or drink the brine in which they were kept. Owners have quite natural questions: “Are they harmful to animals? Is it possible to give them to a dog or cat?

It is not known for certain why cats love olives. They probably instinctively feel the usefulness of this fruit. Fresh, dried or dried olives can be given to animals, but in a limited form. As for canned olives, it is not recommended to give them to pets, as they contain a lot of salt and preservatives.

Benefits of seeds

Many olive lovers are interested in whether it is possible to eat olive pits? What are olive pits good for?

Olive pits dissolve in the stomach, enveloping its walls, which is useful for erosions and ulcers of the gastric mucosa. In order for their antiulcer effect to manifest itself, it is enough to swallow 4-5 seeds on an empty stomach.

Swallowing whole olive pits can often be difficult and sometimes dangerous (some varieties of olives have large, sharp pits). To avoid harm to health, to treat stomach ulcers it is better to grind the seeds and eat them in powder form.

Olive pits are useful as absorbents after alcohol abuse. The bone is partially digested in the stomach, enveloping its mucous membrane, and the rest of it dissolves in the intestines, absorbing toxic substances.

For face and body

The rich chemical composition of olive oil has a good cosmetic effect, improving the condition of the skin and its appendages (hair, nails). Based on it, a variety of homemade cosmetics for women are made (creams, ointments and balms for the body, masks for the face and hair, baths for nails). It is also included in industrial cosmetics.

Cosmetics based on it are recommended for use every day, because they have virtually no contraindications. But before using them, especially for problem skin, it is necessary to conduct skin allergy tests. To do this, apply a little product to the bend of the elbow joint and after 30 minutes look at the reaction of the skin in this place. An allergy test can be considered negative if there is no feeling of burning, itching, redness or irritation at the site of application.

Restrictions and contraindications for use

Canned olives, like any other canned food, are saturated with salty marinade, so eating them daily is not recommended. This is especially true for oxidized black olives, which contain the preservative ferric gluconate. One can of oxidized black olives contains more than 20 mg of ferrous gluconate, with the maximum daily dose for an adult being 10 mg, so it can cause food poisoning. This preservative makes olives an allergenic product.

Consumption of canned olives is not recommended:

• children;
• pregnant women, especially in the early stages;
• women with breastfeeding (breastfeeding);
• with gastritis with high acidity;
• for pancreatitis and cholecystitis in the acute phase;
• with cholelithiasis;
• for kidney stones;
• with cystitis.

Contraindications to the use of canned olives are also individual intolerance and allergies.

How to use

Canned oxidized olives are tasty, but they cannot be used as a remedy: they should be considered solely as a delicacy that should be included in the diet only occasionally.

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How many olives can you eat and what kind? In order for olives to fully exhibit their healing properties, they must be consumed daily in dried, dried, pickled form in the amount of 5-7 pieces per day.

Fruits can be replaced with olive oil. It is preferable for adults to consume high-quality unrefined vegetable oil daily for medicinal purposes, preferably extra-virgin or virgin, 1-3 tablespoons. It should be remembered that 1 tablespoon of olive oil contains 200-220 kcal.

How to Best Use Olive Brine for Cooking

The brine tastes salty, savory and, according to many, umami.

• This is an excellent marinade for meat or poultry (especially turkey). Use brine to marinate beef steaks. Skip the salt and pepper and let the pork chops marinate in the olive brine in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. The pork will be juicy and flavorful!
• Use a mixture of water, vinegar and salt in much the same way as regular vinegar, for example, to make salad dressing.
• Use olive brine to make tomato sauce for pizza or Italian pasta.
• In Mediterranean dishes, use the brine for hummus, olive bread and yogurt-based sauces.
• Mix a few drops of brine with a little extra virgin olive oil to make a tasty “sauce” that’s great for dipping into rustic ciabatta bread. The mixture can be supplemented with dried chilli flakes, a pinch of grated lemon zest and finely chopped basil.
• Are you preparing sautéed vegetables, but you find the cabbage rather bland? Add a little brine (about 100-150 ml) to the pan during cooking and the dish will become more flavorful.
• Another reason why you shouldn't discard the olive brine is when making a Dirty Martini cocktail. For 1 serving of the drink, mix 15 ml olive brine, 70 ml gin or vodka and 15 ml vermouth.

How to choose olive oil

Recently, Chinese entrepreneurs have begun to produce olive oil from fruits purchased in bulk from olive farmers. Transporting fresh olives adversely affects the quality of their oil, so it is better to avoid such a purchase.

In today's market, according to the University of California, about 80% of olive oil sold is counterfeit. Counterfeits often have bottles and labels similar to the original ones, so it is very easy to make a mistake. How to distinguish fake olive oil from real one?

To protect yourself when purchasing this valuable product, you must follow simple rules:

1. It is advisable to buy the product in specialized or brand stores, which is better than purchasing it on the Internet or on the market.
2. It is better to prefer oil from well-known brands.
3. Before purchasing, you need to study on the Internet (preferably on the manufacturer’s website) how the original packaging and label differ, and what its approximate market value is.
4. Carefully inspect the packaging and label on the selected product container to ensure they match the original ones.
5. The label must contain information in Russian about the manufacturer, type and method of oil extraction, storage conditions, container volume, expiration date.
6. The price of the original product should not differ significantly from the average market price.
7. You should not purchase expired olive oil. Not only will it be bitter, but it can also cause food poisoning.

When you get home, you should put the container with oil in the refrigerator. At low temperatures, natural olive oil becomes cloudy and flakes appear. At room temperature, the oil becomes clear again and the flakes dissolve.

How to choose olives

It is best to buy olives in the regions where they are grown. It is there that you can buy the most delicious and healthy fruits that are difficult to find here.

The cost of harvested olives depends on many factors:

• where and how trees grow;
• how the harvest is harvested;
• caliber;
• preparation method (salted, pickled, canned);
• the presence of a seed (with or without seeds);
• integrity of fruits (whole or cut);
• type of filling.

In order for the purchased olives to be tasty and healthy, you need to know how to choose them. Today you can purchase these fruits by weight (in barrels or polymer containers) and in individual packaging (in jars or vacuum packaging). Which ones are healthier?

Buying in bulk

When buying olives by weight, you need to pay attention to:

1. Container with olives. The container must be plastic and have a lid. If olives are sold from an open tin container, such a purchase should be abandoned. When opened, tin containers quickly oxidize and release toxic substances into the product.
2. Label. The label must be available to the buyer so that he can familiarize himself with the manufacturer’s information and clarify the date of manufacture and expiration date of the product.
3. Temperature and storage conditions. Storing pickled olives without brine is unacceptable. The fruits must be completely covered with it. The storage temperature of an open container with pickled olives in brine should not exceed +6°C.
4. Brine color. The brine should not be cloudy or dark. It is advisable that the brine be covered with a layer of olive oil on top, which prevents it from spoiling.
5. Type of olives. Crumpled, weathered and wrinkled fruits should not be found among fresh ones. If there are any, this indicates that the seller mixed unsold remaining product with fresh product.
6. Taste of fruits. Try one drupe. Its pulp should be soft and easily separated from the stone. No foreign smell or taste should be felt.
7. Pay attention to how and how the fruits are removed from the brine and what equipment is used for this. The safety of the released product depends on the cleanliness of these devices.

But, no matter how attentive and careful the buyer is, he is not immune from unscrupulous sellers. To avoid deception and counterfeiting, you can purchase olives in individual packaging.

Purchasing individual packaging

What types of individual packaging are there? How to choose canned olives? On store shelves, consumers are offered olives in different types of packaging: glass, tin and vacuum packaging. Which ones are better? When choosing from the proposed options, it is better to give preference to olives in a vacuum or a glass jar. This way you can see what the drupes look like, what color and size the fruits are.

The label must indicate how much the product weighs without containers (net weight). Be sure to pay attention to the expiration date of olives. Expired fruits can cause food poisoning or intoxication with heavy metal salts.

How to choose

The fruits of the olive tree can most often be purchased in canned form. In tin or glass jars. Tin does not transmit light and is cheaper, which on the one hand is good. But a glass container allows you to carefully examine its contents and make sure of the quality of the product. This can be done based on the size and condition of the canned food and marinade.

Being in a glass container, the product does not interact with it, which is also an important factor. A cloudy, opaque marinade is a sign that the product is of low quality.

A good manufacturer must indicate the size of the fruit on the jar. Caliber is the number of olives in one kilogram of dry weight. There are two indicators: the minimum and maximum number of olives. The lower these numbers are, the larger the size of the fruit. The standard range is from 80 to 320 olives per kilogram. If the difference between the lower and upper indicators is too large, most likely there is a mismatch in the jar.

When choosing this product, you should not skimp on its quality. The fruits are picked by hand and marinated according to a special recipe for a long time. Therefore, high-quality olives cannot have a low cost.

How to store the product

Canned olives can be stored in an airtight container for 3 years. After opening the original packaging, the shelf life is reduced many times over. How long open cans of olives are stored depends on the material from which the container is made.

Storing olives in an open tin is strictly prohibited. The inner surface of this container is not designed for contact with air, so it quickly oxidizes. Toxic oxidation products pass into the brine, and from it into the olives. Consumption of such olives is fraught with severe food poisoning and intoxication. How to store opened olives from a tin so that they do not cause poisoning? Immediately after opening a tin of olives, the product must be transferred to a glass or ceramic container.

How to store opened olives? In glass or polymer containers, opened canned olives in brine can be stored for up to 3 days.

It happens that after opening a can of olives, the brine was drained and the entire product was not used. How to preserve leftover olives without brine? Is it possible to freeze them? You cannot store olives without brine: the product quickly weathers, loses moisture, and wrinkles. You should also not freeze olives without brine or with it. Frozen olives become very soft and tasteless after defrosting.

Use in cooking

Whole olives with pits or stuffed olives are used as a separate snack. Cut olives and pitted olives are used to decorate dishes and added to salads, soups, casseroles, and stews. They are ground into puree and olive paste is prepared from them. Thanks to their piquant taste, olives add spicy notes to drinks.

Olive oil is used in cooking for dressing salads, preparing sauces and marinades, and baking. Can you fry in olive oil? Only refined olive oil is suitable for frying. Extra virgin oils are eaten raw.

Are olives eaten raw?

Raw olives have a bitter taste, so they are not usually eaten raw. Everywhere except their homeland - Greece. For example, in one of the central Greek regions of Magnesia, ripe olives are eaten without any pre-processing. This is a special local variety of large dark cherry-colored olives with easily peelable skin and juicy, oily soft pulp. These olives have a tart, bittersweet taste with a spicy aftertaste.

But eating olives in this way is an exception to the rule. More often, olives are used in cooking in processed form. For culinary purposes, they are dried, dried, salted, pickled, and canned.

What do olives go with?

The specific taste of the fruits of the olive tree goes well with:

• spicy herbs;
• lemon;
• pickled garlic and onions;
• vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers);
• greens;
• nuts;
• pickled cheeses;
• fish;
• seafood;
• lean meats;
• alcoholic beverages (wines, liqueurs).

Black olives are more suitable for meat dishes, and green olives are more suitable for fish and seafood.

What do you eat olives with?

Different people have different taste preferences. Very often they depend on the characteristics of the national cuisine. In Greece, they prefer to eat olives with feta, cheese, tomatoes, and eggplants. In Spain, olives are usually served with sweet peppers, meat dishes, and seafood. In Italy, olives are added to pizza, lasagna, and eaten with mozzarella, cauliflower and tomatoes.

But, as they say: “There is no friend according to taste!” Where to add, with what and how to eat olives, everyone is free to choose at their own discretion. The main thing is that it tastes good!

In Mediterranean countries, flavored olive oil is used as a salad dressing. How to make homemade flavored olive oil? To do this, light or refined olive oil is infused for 15-20 days:

• spices (cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, cloves, star anise);
• herbs (thyme, basil, marjoram, rosemary, oregano);
• zest and fruits of citrus fruits;
• vegetables (garlic, celery, horseradish, paprika);
• dried berries.

In recent years, in Mediterranean European countries it has become fashionable to decorate the table with olives, which are colored with natural food dyes in red, orange, and emerald colors.

Useful tips

Sometimes it happens that you need pitted olives to prepare a dish, but there are only fruits with pits in the refrigerator. To remove pits from olives at home, you can use a cherry pitting machine.

There is another secret to pitting olives: use a wide knife blade to lightly press the olive onto the work surface. If the olive is ripe, the pit in it will begin to move. After this, it can be easily removed using tweezers.

To extend the shelf life of opened canned olives, you need to drain the brine and add olive oil to the rest of the product. These canned foods can be stored for up to 2 months.

Tips for storing olives

• After the plastic or tin container with olives has been opened, they should continue to be stored in another container.
• Storing olives without brine will cause the fruits to quickly lose their presentation and taste. Therefore, it is advisable to make the brine on your own, according to the recipe described above. Or pour olive oil over the olives.
• Olives should be stored in an open jar exclusively in a cool place (temperature should not exceed +5°C).
• Fresh lemon (several slices or 1 tablespoon of juice) will help extend the shelf life of olives and give them an appetizing appearance.
• You should not remove fruits from the jar with a wet spoon (especially with wet hands).

The most important thing is to know how to store olives after opening the jar and for how long. Follow the recommendations given in the article, and then you will not face food poisoning.