Zeit al-Khraij, the boiled-olive oil of the Syrian coast

Khraij is a dark, sharp-smelling olive oil made in the mountains of the Syrian coast as part of the winter store. The olives are boiled first, then fermented and dried on the roof, and only then pressed. The colour is close to black and the taste is hard. Most city people do not like it; in the villages the first taste of each new harvest is made with it.

Where it is made

Mainly in the countryside around Jableh, in villages such as Beit Yashout, Harama, al-Daliyeh, Duwayr Baabda, al-Qutaylibiyah and Besisin. Most villages around Baniyas make it too, Baluza the best known among them. Outside the coast few people have heard of it.

How it is made

The picked olives are washed and boiled over a wood fire in a large pot called a dest. A producer from Baluza told Enab Baladi they stay on the fire for about 20 minutes once they come to the boil. Drained, they are carried up to the roof in baskets woven from myrtle, piled up, covered and left to ferment for 4 to 5 days. Some families cover the pile with carob or terebinth leaves. The olives are then spread out on the roof until they shrivel like raisins.

Pressing comes next. Most olives now go to hydraulic or hand-operated presses. The old way uses the batus, a hollowed stone basin with a round, pierced stone turning inside it. An animal harnessed to a wooden arm drives the stone, and the olives are crushed with their stones. The crushed mass goes into hot water and the oil that rises is skimmed off by hand. The name comes from this act of drawing the oil out.

What it is poured over

Shanklish, labneh, boiled eggs, mujaddara and bulgur with chickpeas. Tannour bread is dipped straight into it. The first taste of new oil is a plate of bulgur with chickpeas. Families who find it too heavy thin it with vegetable oil.

Why it costs more

Boiling and fermenting take days. The producer who spoke to Enab Baladi said khraij sells for half as much again as ordinary olive oil, sometimes double, depending on supply and demand. As modern mills spread, production shrank, and it is now kept up mostly by people who want this taste.

The health dispute

The oil is contested. Abir Jawhar, head of the olive office at the Ministry of Agriculture, called khraij a piece of folk heritage but unfit for human consumption. She said its acidity is high and its peroxide value is above 40. It is also exposed to high heat and fermented several times. Producers call that exaggerated and point to elderly villagers who have eaten it for decades. Enab Baladi and Snack Syrian both reported the two sides.

When to find it

In the olive season, October and November; on the coast the winter store starts in September. In 2024 Enab Baladi reported that theft and the demand for early olives for khraij had pushed the harvest forward in some villages. Its real place is the home table in the villages around Jableh and Baniyas.