Olive loaf

The bread variety

The term Olive loaf can refer to two different food products, either a type of meatloaf embedded with pimento-stuffed green olives, or a type of bread where the loaf is laced with whole olives.

The luncheon meat often also contains garlic, basil or sweet peppers for additional flavor. Olive loaf is a loaf-type luncheon meat, traditionally cooked in a loaf pan as opposed to a sausage cooked in a casing. Higher quality olive loaf is primarily beef and pork while less expensive olive loaf contains mostly chicken or turkey. Since most less expensive bologna is made from similar meats, and since many companies now cook olive loaf in sleeves to give it a round appearance, it is a common misconception that olive loaf is a sausage like bologna.

Olive loaf is very closely related to pimento loaf, the primary difference being the addition of pickles in place of olives.