FWIW - My neighbor says he owned a restaurant in California.

[RushIsRot]

He claims that the cure for a bitter spaghetti sauce is to add some black olive juice. YMMV

I would appreciate some feedback should anyone try this.

[Lucinda]

1. Hmmm....interesting. I usually don't have any bitterness problems but

I still may chuck a little into my next sauce and see what happens. :)

[RushIsRot]

2. It, at least, shouldn't hurt. Great experiment.

[Tesha]

3. I believe it...

Unlike Mr T, I have a very low tolerance for "bitter" - fresh tomato sauce can be very unpleasant sometimes. I've added a pinch of sugar, cured olives, sauteed onions... lots of different things to cut the "bitter".

[RushIsRot]

4. Great to see independent confirmation.

[supernova]

5. Sounds reasonable

BOJ has a kind of "buttery" flavor, for lack of a better word. It's much more mellow than virgin olive oil.

[hippywife]

6. I've never had that problem but

are you talking an actual juice of black olives or just the brine out of the can?

[RushIsRot]

7. My guess was he used the brine from the can.

[hippywife]

8. That seemed to make more sense

since it's salty, and salt is frequently used to eliminate bitterness from foods like eggplant, for instance.

[troubleinwinter]

9. It makes PERFECT sense.

Olives are too bitter to eat straight from the tree. Black olives are soaked in sodium hydroxide (lye- caustic soda, which is extremely alkaline, opposite of acidic) to soften them and counteract the bitterness.

I would think that some trace amounts of sodium hydroxide leaches out into the canned brine. The brine then would neutralize acididy and bitterness.

That is a very interesting thing to learn from your friend. I have used sugar, but that doesn't actually neutralize bitterness or acidity as sodium hydroxide would.

[RushIsRot]

11. Was totally unaware of their being soaked in sodium hydroxide.

Good place for learning.

[AlecBGreen]

10. *ACK*

i cant stand olives. I try, i really do, cause i know they're supposed to be so good but everytime i eat them I want to :puke:

They taste like metal to me for some reason. definitely NOT appealing.

nice tip though ;)

[hippywife]

12. Olives are one of my

desert island foods. I can eat them any time and just about any kind. I have yet to meet an olive I didn't like. :9

[AlecBGreen]

13. to me...

people who like olives are like people who can dance well. Its really cool to watch you enjoy yourself but Im probably never going to experience that particular joy myself!

dont they taste a bit metallic to you? is it just me!? its like licking aluminum foil :shudder:

[hippywife]

14. I really love them any way they come

but have you tried really, really good ones that are not in a can? Like the ones on the olive bar at Whole Foods.

[AlecBGreen]

16. kinda

I got the ones in the "mediterranean salad bar" at our grocery store. they look pretty high end. still a no-go for my stomach or tastebuds. oh well, there's always fruit...

[Retrograde]

18. it really depends on how they're cured

I love olives, for the most part, but I've had some that were borderline, and some that were downright bad. It all has to do with how they were treated: oil cure, salt-cured, lye-cured, marinated with whatever...

Avoid the canned ones, although my local grocery's olive bar has some varieties that manage to taste just like that at five times the price. That may be where the tinny taste comes from.

[Duer 157099]

15. That's interesting. If it's really the pH involved, I wonder if sodium bicarb would work?

Maybe just a pinch of baking soda?

Hmmmm

[troubleinwinter]

17. I had been wondering the same thing.

Makes sense, huh?