[Sca-cooks] Kanz: First olive recipe

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Stefan li Rous replied to Galefridus:
> I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. So far, I've not tried to 
> find raw olives, but we will see.
>
> I actually tend to prefer stuffed olives to plain olives, especially those 
> stuffed with blue cheese or feta cheese. Has anyone seen any evidence of stuffed 
> olives in period? I assume not with pimentos, though. :-)

I didn't like olives as a child - they were either black rubbery olives from cans that had almost no flavor - or hideous pimento-stuffed olives from expensive little jars. It wasn't until i was living in France and went to an outdoor market where there were dozens of merchants selling olives, which i would guess, given where i was (Provence) and when it was (1973), most had cured themselves, that i discovered that olives could be delicious - and sooo many varieties!

While i enjoy California olives stuffed with almonds or anchovies or garlic or jalapenos (or combinations of the above), i have not run into stuffed olives in my reading of SCA-period Near and Middle Eastern cookbooks. There is at least one recipe for olives, already cured, that are then smoked and seasoned, however, and it is undoubtedly already in the Florilegium, since i posted it here years ago.

Based on how most merchandising seems to run, i would imagine the best quality items (olives, coffee, etc.) are not stuffed or flavored. That's usually a way of treating lesser quality products and selling them for more than they're worth. And clearly not all olives from olive-growing regions are of high quality, viz. rubbery tasteless California black olives in cans and Spanish olives stuffed with pimientos (yuck! one reason i disliked olives as a kid).

Of course, even quality olives have some bitterness (in fact, that's part of their character), so if that's what's putting you off olives, Stefan, then i guess eating truly high quality olives won't make much difference.

Urtatim (that's oor-tah-TEEM)