I was having lunch once with a coworker at Olive Garden and he said that the Olive Garden chain of restaurants consumes 20% of the world’s black olive crop. I don’t know what made him think that was even remotely possible.
Amazing. That’s the kind of bullshit fact that sticks with you for a long time
Looks around… WHAT?!
This very much sounds like a mushroom (psilocybin) moment.
Though full disclosure, the one time I tried mushrooms, I didn’t experience anything that I could actually attribute to an altered brain-state.
They knew. The lyft drivers always know.
Fun fact: “Black olives, though labeled as “ripe” on supermarket cans, actually aren’t: these, a California invention, are green olives that have been cured in an alkaline solution, and then treated with oxygen and an iron compound (ferrous gluconate) that turns their skins a shiny patent-leather black.”
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/olives–the-bitter-truth
even NatGeo with a fucking wall, I love the internet
What the fuck.
It’s worth noting that there are naturally occurring “black” olives, but they tend to have a sort of purple hue, there are also sun dried black olives that are kind of wrinkly.
But those ink black ones you get on pizzas? Nah.
Those fake ones are my favorite haha. Used to get scolded cause I’d eat the whole can on thanksgiving lmao
What in the goddamnolivefuckery did I just read … thx, I hate it.
(fascinating read tho, actual thx for sharing)
The Chinese have a method for curing eggs in alkaline solution until they turn black and somewhat translucent, too.
With olives, there’s basically no way to eat them off the tree and have them taste edible. They have to be processed in some way to remove the bitter compounds, usually by brining or curing. So using an alkaline brine is one method, and not that uncommon (even for other colors of olives).
Other uses of alkaline compounds in cooking include using a lye bath for browning for baking pretzels or bagels, certain types of springiness and chewiness for noodles (for example, for fresh ramen), and processing corn into cornmeal through nixtamalization.
Yes, I’ve known abut those eggs, what fresh olives taste like, and lye in cooking, I was surprised by the ferrous gluconate.
It’s also the only food where ferrous gluconate is allowed to be in, at least in Germany (and EU I guess). For everything else it’s forbidden.
Actual black olives exist, but they’re expensive.
Actual black olives exist, but they’re expensive
😦
What have I been buying from Del Monte for ~$4?
Green olives that have been artificially blackened.
Reverse-greenwashing.
If so they are real olives, not whatever everyone is talking about.
They’re also not called black olives, though. If that’s what they meant, those are natural.
Honorary turk
Their first mistake was telling that to their Lyft driver.
So can I. It’s just that they’re… Expensive :(
