Can you eat olives raw

While olives are edible straight from the tree, they are intensely bitter. Olives contain oleuropein and phenolic compounds, which must be removed or, at least, reduced to make the olive palatable. Skip to content Miscellaneous. May 22, Joe Ford. Very experienced growers will sometimes taste an olive from the tree. Even they, though, often test just mature, black olives, which are slightly less bitter than the green. Cato says to get the oil away from it as soon as possible.

Studies show that they are good for the heart and may protect against osteoporosis and cancer. The healthy fats in olives are extracted to produce olive oil, one of the key components of the incredibly healthy Mediterranean diet.

Place the olives in a glass storage container. Mix 6 tablespoons pickling salt in a gallon of water and pour it over the olives to cover them. Let the olives cure for a week, at which point they're ready to eat.

Store the olives in the refrigerator in their brine for up to a few weeks. Olives are delicious and nutritious fruit that you can eat in so many ways. They are famous for Mediterranean cuisines. We lack the time or even knowledge on how to process and cook them sometimes.

So, the question is, can you eat olives raw? Raw olives are very edible and cannot affect your health. But before consuming them, there are some essential things you should know. Keep reading to understand whether you can eat olives raw and much more. Raw olives are the unprocessed olive fruits picked straight from the tree.

Raw olives have a green and black color and a firm texture that is not mushy like processed olives. The fruits are pretty edible, only that they contain a bitter substance referred to as oleuropein.

Taking a bite into raw olives is not a good idea. The fruit is bitter, and you will probably cough and spit it out in the first bite. Worst still is that the bitterness lingers in the mouth for long, which is quite disgusting and could even lead to digestive issues. There are no other health risks associated with consuming raw olives, but it is best to avoid picking that raw olive from the tree straight into your mouth. Olive farmers have, however, mastered the art of distinguishing the more edible fruits with lesser oleuropein.

You can get rid of the bitterness by brining the olives in salty water. Once cured, you can consume your olives immediately. Olive pits are the hard surface that covers the olive seed and lie under the olive flesh.