Using olives

What are they?

Olives are the cured fruit of the olive tree, and they actually start out bitter and inedible. What you buy (green, black, wrinkly, shiny) is the result of different harvest times and curing methods, not different “ripeness” levels like other fruits.

Green olives are harvested earlier and cured; black olives are left on the tree longer or sometimes chemically darkened.
Olives can be dry-cured, oil-cured, or just brined and marinated, all of which yield different flavors and textures.

After curing, jarred olives are usually pitted, and then jarred or sold fresh.

They are sometimes stuffed with pickled peppers, garlic, anchovies, or even blue cheese.
Increasingly, grocers in Europe and the US (like at Whole Foods) have olive bars where you can purchase by weight, a great place to mix & match to discover what you like.

How to come around to olives:

Castelvetrano or frescatrano olives are a great “starter olive”: mild, buttery, and crowd-pleasing if you think you “don’t like olives.”
If you hate black olives (like the ones on supreme pizza), you probably just don’t like mass-produced, chemically blackened olives. Try an oil-cured black olive, which will be wrinkly, delicious, and won’t have ferrous gluconate on the ingredient list, the color-changing chemical.

What’s their flavor?

Taste: Salty, lightly savory (umami), sometimes bitter

Aroma: Briny, slightly funky, fruity

Texture: Meaty, firm, or buttery (good olives should have bite, not mush)

Sight: Range from vibrant green to deep purple or black

Human: A daily table food across many Mediterranean cultures and a staple ingredient in a few iconic punchy dishes (puttanesca or muffalettas, for example). Their strong flavor can be controversial or off-putting to some people.

Why should you buy some?

If you don’t eat olives straight up, they are still a valuable cooking ingredient. Think of olives as a seasoning shortcut: they bring salt, briney acidity, light umami, plus texture, all at once.

They last a long time in the fridge once opened (especially submerged in brine).
Chopped up, a small handful can completely change a dish: pasta, salads, stews, chicken, fish, even in place of capers in a pan sauce.

What can you make with them?

Olive-forward pasta (puttanesca, olive–lemon pasta, olive + anchovy situations)
Chicken thighs or fish braised with olives, citrus, and herbs
Added whole to shredded meat dishes like ropa vieja
Chopped into tapenade or stirred into grain salads and roasted vegetables, or spread onto the iconic muffaletta sandwich
Enjoyed whole on a snacky charcuterie or mezze spread

Try these and more on our app:

Let’s Cook!

FRAMEWORK OF THE WEEK ✅

Punchy pasta salads

Pitted and chopped olives are the perfect addition to cold pasta salads, like this orzo version.

They add texture, color, and a punchy flavor to make bites more interesting. For more pasta salads, check out our recipe collection on the website, all of which you could add olives to:

Cook the Collection

READER Q&A 🧠

Buttermilk substitutes

You can make homemade buttermilk in a pinch by adding acid to milk, although the viscosity won't be exactly the same.

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Question: “What can I use instead of buttermilk? I hate buying a whole carton only to use one cup for a recipe.” - Will B.

Answer: Buttermilk does two main things:

Adds tangy, cultured dairy flavor
Provides acidity, which tenderizes foods and activates leaveners (baking soda)

How you substitute it depends on what you’re cooking.

For baking (pancakes, biscuits, cake): Stir 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice into 1 cup milk and let sit 5–10 minutes. It won’t be as thick as real buttermilk, so you’ll have adjust batter consistency, but it gives you the acidity needed to activate the baking soda.

For dressings or dips (like ranch): Use thinned yogurt, sour cream, or creme fraiche for a similar tang and texture.

For marinades (like for fried chicken): You mainly need acidity, so yogurt + a splash of water works great, or milk + a little vinegar, or even just skipping the dairy entirely and using other sour marinade ingredients like pickle brine or hot sauce do the trick.

All-purpose: Kefir (a thin yogurt drink) is the closest 1:1 swap to true buttermilk.

Often, you can buy a smaller container of kefir, a more convenient option if your store only sells large buttermilk cartons.

Storage Tip - If you’re baking often, real buttermilk might be worth buying, and extra freezes well (unlike normal milk). Just thaw and use like normal.

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