In news:rec.food.cooking, Mark Thorson > posted on Fri,
19 Mar 2010 11:42:02 -0800 the following:

> Olives are naturally very bitter, and the purpose of curing them is to
> remove that bitterness.
>
> A favorite trick of olive farmers is to show visitors the olive trees
> laden with dark, ripe olives and invite them to try one. Invariably,
> they have to spit it out because it is so darn bitter, while the farmer
> is laughing his ass off.

I was once under the impression that olives were somehow naturally salty,
so if I could use olives in food instead of salting it, I would somehow be
getting the flavor of salt, without all the alleged dangers of eating too
much table salt. So that could be why the olive industry is so
successful. People might feel that they're eating "healthy salt" and
fulfill their need for salt with less guilt. The olive producers know
better than this, but they simply snicker and probably don't talk about it
that much by saying, "Oh, it's just normal salt in that olive. If it
wasn't that salty, it would taste like shit."

I actually do like black olives, but I can only eat one olive by itself if
all I'm going to do is eat an olive. I like them sliced on pizza and on
salads. That's pretty much it. I sometimes would put black olives on my
homemade pizzas to make them a little saltier without adding salt.
Actually salting pizza, especially after it's already baked, has always
made pizza taste very odd to me, so I never have salted pizza at the
table. If it needs salt, I find a way to work it in with the hamburger
meat, or by putting olives and/or feta cheese on it. A little feta goes a
long way on a pizza that has pepperoni on it.

Damaeus