to wonder who on earth buys olives with the stones in and why?

[Fairylea]

I was pondering this in the supermarket earlier today.

I know black olives aren't everyone's cup of tea, fair enough but for those of you who do enjoy them as I do I can't understand the point of selling them with the stones intact when you can buy them pitted already for no difference in price.

So what do people do with the stones? Why do people buy them whole like that? I've had both types and can't taste any difference either.

My life is not complete unless I know the answer to this aibu.

They had the giant posh [stone in] kalamata and green ones on offer in our Aldi at 50p per jar a few weeks ago. Way bigger juicier and nicer than the stoned versions.

They do taste much nicer, I stopped buying Sainsburys Kalamata olives when they stopped doing the delicious ones with stones in and only did the stone out ones, they were nowhere near as nice.

FUN!

So interesting reading the replies. I feel enlightened

I want to get myself one of trills olive dishes and have myself some olive fun.

My dad ate a handful of spat out olive stones from a bowl on the deli counter, thinking they were peanuts.

Me, because I've just bought two dozen cans of them from Approved Food for a pittance.

I just squish them with the heel of my hand on a board, pick out the stones, & chuck 'em in pasta dishes. Yum.

I prefer olives with the stones still in them, they always seem juicier and fleshier.

They taste better!

We chomped on the fat green and black olives this evening .....Bodega nocellara and alfonso olives. It was partly my way of keeping the dc's quiet for a bit, they have to concentrate to avoid the stone .

I have a rule, tinned sliced olives for veggie dishes / topping pizza. Pitted olives in oil for salads and proper fat chunky olives with stones for tucking into.

We have a competition to see who can spit theirs into the bowl in the middle of the table (when pissed). Now that's FUN.

Witchway's story about a drunk host handing out olive pits reminds me of a similar experience:
On my annual if lucky weekly shopping trip to Borough Market, I nipped into a very naice market shop with free stuff complimentary nibbles.
Now Borough Market has some unusual fare, so I ran to chanced upon a tasting plate and carefully studied the ridiculously specific origin and history of said product. Next I stuffed my face daintily tasted said product. Unfortunately it was almost inedible, overly crunchy and a little bland. At that point I noticed Voldemort Ralph Fiennes looking at me curiously. So I gave him a winning smile then seconds later realised my tasting plate was leftover olive pits from a previous sample plate.

I gamely kept smiling at the noseless one and kept the wretched pits covered in strangers saliva in my mouth until he left.

I have no idea why I did this.

Us, they taste nicer.

Bleurgh.

Olives.

Pitted olives are practically tasteless. If you really were an olive lover you wouldn't buy pitted olives.

I'm not sure swallowing olive/cherry stones is that good for you. I know someone who had their appendix out because a cherry stone got stuck in it.

Probably the same people who use strawberries in a dessert and leave the green bits on or a prawn pasta dish and leave the heads/tails/shells on.

Cause i like to nipple them...

(I've always swallowed cherry stones too. My mum said once I had a nappy full of them when I was little!)

Oh Java!

In front of the ever so sophisticated and sexy Mr Fiennes no less!

i'd like to award fairylea most random thread of the year [applause, applause}

because they taste better

My sister so she can trick me into thinking the spat out stones are smoked almonds, bitch

Olive stones look nothing like smoked almonds.

How on earth did a cherry stone get into an appendix?! boggled!
I like sucking olive stones, but I'm not a fan of black olives, they give me a headache.

Most properly ripe black olives (like kalamata olives) are too soft to be pitted, as they would turn to squish.

So those pitted black olives you buy in tins or jars are actually green olives that have been chemically treated to turn them black.

That's why I don't buy pitted black olives.

Pitted green ones are ok. But with the stones in they are tastier for sure.

Because fighting food is fun.
I much prefer a olives with stones in, and I prefer my prawns to have their clothes on so I can pull off their heads and dainty legs and jacket befor dipping them in something garlicky. Same with mussels.

Who doesn't enjoy a tussle with a crispy duck or even a plate of long spaghetti in a slippy sauce, a whole trout or peeling lychees with the teeth.

If we took all the battle texture and table work out of food we would all be eating slops with a spoon. I like my food to argue back.

Yeah I know that now Bunbaker at he time I'd never had a smoked almond.