Have you ever tried an olive straight off the tree only to spit it out in horror? What you taste is the compounds that give extra virgin olive oil its natural bitterness and a number of its health benefits; however they also make unprocessed olives inedible.

There are as many variations for making your olives edible/delicious as there are villages across the Mediterranean, which simply means there is no right way or wrong way, only the method that creates the style you love.

Whenever you preserve food, regardless of what it is, you have two options:

                1. kill all pathogens and ensure that nothing can enter the food until it’s ready to be consumed, e.g. pasteurisation
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