Spring 2007

Back when I grew up in Chicago, olives were a model of mediocre food consistency on the American market; pretty much all you could find came in two colors (flat black or pale green), two main flavors (bland or sort of salty), and two types of packaging (tins or bottles). Today the table has turned completely inside out and upside down. There are — I’m happy to say — so many olives for sale on the American market that it’s a challenge just to keep up with what’s available. Some of the best of the bunch come from Spain.

Olives arrived on the Iberian Peninsula in about the fourth century BC, courtesy of the Carthaginians. The Romans followed about two hundred years later, and proceeded to plant olive trees all over Spain. Within a century, Spain — or Betica as the Romans referred to it — had become the primary supplier of olives and oil to the Empire. Today, Spain is the world’s largest producer and exporter of olives and olive oil. Working with a base of about 300 million trees, Spanish growers produced almost 648 million pounds of olives in 2005. (For more information, visit www.asemesa.es, the Spanish Table Olives Association.) Nearly every olive growing region in Spain boasts its own varieties, each with its own unique flavor, each of which contributes to the character of the distinctive local cuisine.

Contrary to what many consumers still suppose, green and black olives do not come from two different trees. Rather, the color of an olive mostly indicates the degree of ripeness at which it was picked. As is true of many other types of fruit, green olives are not ripe. In most cases they are picked early in the autumn; September or October. They usually have a firm, almost crisp, texture (again, think of the texture of any unripe fruit) and a nutty flavor.

Black olives, on the other hand, have been allowed to remain on the branch until they’ve ripened further. As a general rule, the darker the color of the olive, the riper it was when picked. Gathered in November and December, olives allowed to mature longer are softer of texture, sweeter and richer in flavor. They run the gamut in color from light brown to beautiful shades of red and purple, all the way down to deepest, darkest, most devilish black.

The best olives are still picked completely by hand, ensuring that each olive is plucked at just the right stage of ripeness, and that bruising is avoided. The benefits of handharvesting show up in a good olive’s firm, even texture and sweet flavor.

Unlike other fruits we’re used to, olives are essentially inedible in their raw state. The bitterness is due to the naturally high percentage of glucosides found in raw olives. To make the olive edible, you’ve got to go through one of several curing methods.

Lye curing is the method used by nearly every large commercial olive producer in the world. Invented in Spain in the 1920s, it’s the most time- and cost-efficient method of curing. Raw olives are submerged in vats filled with a lye solution, which leaches out the bitter glucosides from the olives in a matter of days or even hours. Unfortunately, the fast acting lye also takes with it much of the fruit’s inherent flavor, and leaves behind a slightly chemically aftertaste.

I prefer olives prepared using the traditional brine curing methods, which have been in use for thousands of years. Freshly gathered olives are covered with water and salt, then left to cure for two to twelve months. The brine extracts the glucosides slowly, while leaving their natural flavors intact. Some producers crack olives to allow brine to penetrate more quickly and intensely into the meat of the olive and some olives are actually seasoned in the brine as well. On top of all that, there are literally hundreds of varieties of olives, each with its own unique characteristics. Here are the main ones you’re likely to see coming from Spain — all make for some excellent eating.

Gordal
These big round green beauties are more commonly referred to as “Queen olives,” but I like the Spanish name, Gorda, which means “fat”. They have a firm meaty texture and benefit from the addition of southern Spanish spices like cumin, garlic, thyme and a splash of sherry vinegar.

Manzanilla
Smaller, crisper and nuttier than Gordal, these cracked, brownish-green, olives are a Spanish classic. The name means “little apple,” a reference to their round shape. Try them dressed with olive oil and a generous dose of chopped fresh garlic.

Farga Aragón or Empeltre
These sweet black olives are native to the region of Aragón in northern Spain. The name means “grafted” in Spanish, a reference to the standard procedure of grafting branches of older trees to start new ones. Almond-shaped, succulently sweet, and, at their best, very ripe and very delicious.

Arbequina
Small round brown olives from the region of Catalunya in northeastern Spain. Originally from the town of Arbeca in the province of Lleida (the Castilian name is Lérida), they’re one of the smallest olives you’ll see (about the size of a standard fingernail). They’re used extensively as both an oil olive and a table olive. They have a unique, nutty flavor and are excellent eaten out of hand.

Jaén Cracked
From Jaén in Andalucía, they’re almost floral in their flavor, with a lovely crisp texture that makes them great for eating out of hand.

Mantequilla
From the region of Murcia, they’re tart, a bit crunchy with a really great buttery flavor (hence their name).

Stuffed Olives
One of the more interesting developments in the retail world is the array of stuffed olives coming onto the market. There are good quality olives from Spain that are stuffed with garlic cloves, almonds, anchovies, tuna, citrus peel, or Piquillo peppers.

Cooking with Olives
Olives aren’t just for eating out of hand. There are also many great dishes to preparein which they play a key role. Pere Selles, a Catalan who now imports many great traditional Spanish foods to the US, told me about his uncle roasting black olives in red wine in a clay pot in the oven. Janet Mendel’s excellent book, My Kitchen in Spain, has a very delicious dish of duck braised with green olives (along with garlic, sherry, orange zest and vegetables). She’s also got a roast chicken stuffed with olives, bread crumbs, hard cooked eggs, Serrano ham, pine nuts, ground pork.

The main thing of course is to eat and enjoy olives in all their forms. Pere Selles told me that, “for me, olives are eaten like potato chips are here. We would always have an olive plate as an aperitivo before the meal.” While I didn’t grow up with olives the way Pere did, I do love to eat them today. Whether it’s on a simple plate of three of four different olives, or in a prepared dish, in either case I love textures and flavors that olives bring to my table. Here’s to exploring the olives of Spain in as many ways as possible.

Ari Weinzweig is a founding partner of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor, MI. He’s the author of “Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating” and “Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service”. The annual Fiesta de España will run in Zingerman’s throughout September. For more information please visit www. zingermans.com.

Arbequina olives www.olicatessen.com	Farga, arbequina, and manzanilla olives www.demedici.com
Queen olives www.acamacho-usa.com	Perdigón olives www.goya.com
Arbequina olives www.catalangourment.com	Arbequina olives www.klkellerimports.com
Manzanilla olives www.torrereal.es	Olive cocktail www.casaponsusa.net