Hi.

I love cooking & have recently been trying out many of the recipes shown on TV & in celeb cooks cook books etc.

Many of the recipes contain olives but as none of us here like olives I normally just leave them out.

But they are obviously included for their texture & what their flavour can do to compliament what they are being cooked with.

Have any of you got any suggestions as to what I could try as an alternative?

I mean do they add sourness or acisity or sweetness? what else could I add,

To me they just taste like what I imagine old boots taste like

Olives can be an acquired taste - but there's nothing exactly like them to be used an alternative. You could try to get to like them, there are so many varieties on the market today and some are really delicious whilst other really make your mouth pucker up!

Currently I'm buying Atis Marinated Greek Olives from my local ethnic supermarket - they're fairly mild and just perfect for recipes calling for olives.

You might want to pop in to your local delicatessen and ask to try the mildest olives thay have and give them a try. With time you may find them more palatable.

We get through a massive jar of olives a week in our house! I even buy fresh baguette bread with olive pieces in, from Somerfield.

Some are bitter and horrible, others are delicious. You need to experiment - and I'm talking as someone who once hated them.

How about substituting with capers or anchovies?
Alan

Thankyou.

I will try with different varieties first.

Anchovies sound a good idea, esp if I buy fresh from the fish monger.

Cheers.

Crikey. There's over 600 varieties of 'em:

http://www.chefs-help.co.uk/medartic...section=Olives

I used to be the same - hated the damn things, but it is possible to "get the taste" for them. Cooks & Co do a range of olives stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes, or feta cheese. They are TRULY delicious - keep trying, they do grow on you

I'm another who never used to like them, but I love them now. Generally the supermarket deli counter ones are pretty rubbish (and often past their best), but luckily I work near Borough Market, and Borough Olives are the business!

Proper Kalamata olives are not bitter at all - the ones that M&S do are really excellent so I'd give them a try if I were you. Also some dishes that call for olives do so because they are brought out by another ingredient, often garlic so you could also try marinating them in garlic oil before use as that mellows their flavour somewhat.

I used to hate Olives, still not much of a fan of green ones, but if they're mixed in with other things they can really enhance the flavour of dishes and you can acquire a taste for them. Just don't overdo them.