Nîmes olive

Olive de Nîmes

What it is

Hand-picked from 1 September at the earliest, before its green begins to yellow, the Picholine is soaked in a potash or soda solution only until it is partly debittered, then kept at least 36 hours in water before a sea-salt brine. Stopping the lye early is the point: the specification credits the method with the crunch it scores above 3 on the International Olive Council scale, and with the butter and hazelnut it calls typical.

In the kitchen

Once opened, keep them in their brine in the fridge and serve them cold and whole, as sold: the appellation allows them neither cracked nor slashed. If they go into a dish, add them at the end; long cooking softens exactly what you paid for.

Goes with

Anchovy Garlic Lemon Almond Thyme Salt cod Olive oil Fennel

Same species

Agrumato lemon oil Aix-en-Provence olive oil Corsican olive oil (Oliu di Corsica) Haute-Provence olive oil Languedoc olive oil Nice olive oil

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