Storage of olives

[Philip F. Wight]

I love the various "gourmet" oilives I can buy from specialty markets in
the area, olives such as Kalamata, and other Greek, Spanish, French and
Portuguese olives. They are usually sold from vats in these stores which
are un-refrigerated. However, I find when I store them at home sealed but
not refrigerated they rather quickly seem to deteriorate, become soggy and
off-flavored, and sometimes develop a white slime on top.

Do these need to be refrigerated at home? If so, why don't they need
refrigeration in the stores where they sell them?

Thanks for any information.

Cheers,
Phil

[lebasel]

In article <phil-31089...@Milpitas01.news.internex.net>,

Dear Phil--

This effect is due to a number of reasons.

1.) Need some of the mother brine that the olives came in, or
need to make some more. The olives should be fully immersed.

2.) The olive vat in the store is generally large (high capacity),
opaque so the olives are kept away from light, and while the
place usually isn't refrigerated, it is kept fairly cool. Water
(the brine) is a pretty good insulator, so the olives should be
kept at a constant temperature, a few degrees lower than the
ambient air temp.

Now, when you buy the olives the vender pulls out some olives
from the stock, and puts it in a little clear or translucent
plastic container. It lets in a lot of light, and its small
so it can heat up quickly to room temperature. Not only that,
room temperature might be fairly high.

The last thing is that the vendor pulls off the olives from the
stock using some sort of clean utensil. If you get the urge to
snack (like me!!), you might forget and pull off a few olives
using your fingers (like me!!). You've just added to your olives
whatever you had on your fingers.

Takehome message: Refrigerate, keep dark, and use a spoon.

Leslie
leb...@nando.net