what to do with fresh olives off the tree

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Curing olives is an ancient process that turns the naturally bitter fruit into a deliciously salty, tart snack. Choose a curing method that works best for the blazon of olive you take. Water curing, brining, dry curing and lye curing each yield distinctly different flavors and textures. Curing olives takes a long fourth dimension, simply doing it yourself allows yous to make olives catered to your exact gustation.

• Prep time (in water): 7-x days

1. 1

   Obtain fresh dark-green olives. Water curing gently removes oleuropein, a component in olives that gives them a abrupt, bitter taste. Green olives are actually just immature olives (merely like light-green tomatoes are immature tomatoes) and they are naturally pretty balmy, and then using water lonely is sufficient to cure them.

   • Light-green olives left on the vine to fully ripen will turn royal or blackness. One time they're fully ripe, h2o lone won't remove the bitter taste; you'll demand to choose a unlike curing method.

2. ii

   Inspect the olives. Make certain that they are as unbruised equally possible. Expect for holes left by insects or birds. If the olives were treated with chemicals, rinse them off before you begin the brining procedure.

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3. 3

   Break the olives. In order for the water to be able to reach the insides of the olives, you'll need to break or slit the olives to let the moisture in. You tin do this with a wooden mallet or, more than unremarkably, a rolling pin. Requite the olives a lite smack, keeping them as intact as possible. You want the flesh to tear, but don't completely mash it or rip it into several different pieces. You should besides take care not to damage the pit.

   • If you're concerned about the appearance of the olives, you can slit them with a knife instead. Take a sharp paring knife and make iii slits in the olives to let the h2o to penetrate.

4. 4

   Identify the olives in a plastic bin and cover with cold h2o. Utilize a nutrient-grade plastic bin with a chapeau. Completely cover all of the olives with h2o, making sure none are poking out. You lot may need to weigh them down with something like a plate to keep them from floating higher up the surface of the water. Place the bin's cover loosely over the olives and put the container in a cool, dark identify.

   • Brand sure you use a nutrient-grade container that won't leach chemicals into the brine. A glass container too works well, simply yous'll demand to make certain it isn't exposed to sunlight.

5. 5

   Modify out the water. At to the lowest degree once a solar day, change out the water with fresh, cold water. Make sure you don't forget, since otherwise bacteria could build up in the water and taint the olives. To modify the h2o, but strain the olives through a colander, wash the pot, supplant the olives and make full it back up with cold water.

6. 6

   Continue the procedure for about a calendar week. Later one calendar week of changing the water daily, taste an olive to see if the bitterness is at a level you similar. If it is, the olives are ready; if you want the olives to exist less bitter, await a few more days (changing the water daily) before moving on.^[1]

7. vii

   Make a finish brine. This is the solution that the olives will be stored in. It's a mixture of pickling common salt, water and vinegar that will both preserve the olives and give them a delicious pickled sense of taste. To brand the brine, mix the following (makes plenty for 10 pounds of olives):

   • 1 gallon (3.8 L) absurd water
   • ane ane/two cups pickling salt
   • ii cups white wine vinegar

8. eight

   Drain the olives and place them in a storage container. Use a large glass jar with a lid or another storage container of your choice. Wash and dry the storage container thoroughly before placing the olives inside. Leave 1 inch of infinite at the top of the container.

9. 9

   Encompass the olives with the brine. Pour information technology into the container to completely embrace the olives. Place the lid on the container and store the olives in the refrigerator.

   • Yous may add together lemon skin, rosemary sprigs, roasted garlic, or black pepper to flavor the brine if you'd like.
   • The olives will go on in their brine for up to a year in the refrigerator.^[2]

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1. 1

   Obtain fresh olives. Both green and black olives may exist cured in brine, a mixture of common salt and water that preserves the olives and gives them a salty taste. This method takes longer than water brining, simply it's the best method to use for ripe olives. Manzanillo, mission, and kalamata olives are commonly cured in brine.

   • Audit the olives to make sure that they are as unbruised as possible. Look for holes left by insects or birds. If the olives were treated with chemicals, rinse them off before yous begin the brining procedure.
   • Y'all may want to sort the olives by size. A batch of olives will cure more evenly if all the olives are a like size.

2. 2

   Cut the olives. In order for the brine to exist able to accomplish the insides of the olives, you lot'll demand to slit the olives to let the wet in. Make a vertical cut down the olive using a precipitous knife; brand certain not to cutting the pit.

3. iii

   Identify the olives into glass jars with lids. They need to be stored in containers that can be sealed against the air, and drinking glass is best for this purpose. Pack the olives into jars, leaving an inch of space at the top.

4. four

   Cover the olives with a medium brine. Mix 3/4 cup of pickling salt with a gallon of common cold water. Pour the brine into the jars and so that it completely covers the olives. Seal the jars and store them in a cool, dark place, such as the pantry or cellar.

5. 5

   Look i week. During this time the olives volition brainstorm to alkali. Exit the jars undisturbed to allow the salt and h2o to seep into the olives.

6. 6

   Drain the olives. Afterward ane week, drain the olives and discard the medium alkali, which volition be full of bitter flavour. Continue the olives in the aforementioned drinking glass containers.

7. 7

   Cover the olives with a strong brine. Mix 1 i/2 cups of pickling common salt with ane gallon of water. Cascade the strong alkali over the olives to completely cover them. Seal the containers.

8. 8

   Store the olives for two months. Keep them in a cool identify out of sunlight. At the finish of two months, taste an olive to decide whether the bitterness level suits your sense of taste. If not, modify the brine again and store the olives for another month or ii. This process can be repeated until y'all're happy with the way the olives gustatory modality.

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1. i

   Obtain fully ripe olives. Black, oily olives may be dry-cured using salt. Manzanillo, mission, and kalamata olives are commonly cured this style. Make sure the olives are completely ripe and night in color. Inspect the olives to make certain that they are every bit unbruised as possible. Look for holes left past insects or birds.^[three]

2. two

   Wash the olives. If the olives were treated with chemicals, rinse them off earlier you begin the brining procedure. Lay them out to dry completely.

3. iii

   Weigh the olives. Utilise a kitchen scale to figure out exactly how much they counterbalance. Y'all'll need a pound of pickling salt (i 1/2 cups) for every two pounds of olives.

4. 4

   Prepare a curing crate. You may use a wooden fruit crate about six inches deep with two slats on each side. Line the entire crate with burlap, including the sides, and staple or nail information technology to the summit. Gear up a second crate identical to this one.

   • Alternately, yous can line the crate with cheesecloth, old sheets or fabric napkins as long as there is plenty fabric to go on the common salt contained and to blot any liquids which may drip from the crate.

5. 5

   Mix the olives and common salt. Mix 1 1/two cups of pickling or Kosher salt for every ii pounds of olives in a large bowl. Make sure to mix thoroughly, so that every olive gets covered in salt.

   • Do not use iodized table salt; this will affect the flavour of the olives. You demand pickling salt or Kosher salt.
   • Don't skimp on the salt, since it prevents mold from growing.

6. 6

   Pour the mixture into a fruit crate. Pour all of the olives and salt into i crate, then cover it with a layer of pickling salt. Cover the crate with cheesecloth to go on bugs out of the mixture.

7. 7

   Identify the crate in a covered outdoor expanse. Y'all may desire to lay out a tarp, since the juices from the olives will seep out and stain the surface. Rather than setting the crate directly on the ground, raise information technology up on blocks to promote air circulation.^[4]

8. 8

   Mix the olives after 1 calendar week. Dump the contents of the crate into the second, make clean crate. Shake the crate well to mix the olives, then carefully pour them back into the original box. This ensures every olive gets an even coating of salt and allows yous to see any damaged or rotten olives. Remove these, they'll not be skilful to consume after.

   • Any olives with white circular patches (probably a fungus) should exist removed. The fungus often starts at the stem end of the olive.
   • Check the olives to make sure that they are beginning to cure evenly. If an olive has shriveled areas and plump areas, yous may desire to dampen the olive prior to repacking in salt; this will encourage the plump area to outset shriveling.

9. 9

   Repeat in one case a week for a month. Later on this time, taste an olive to determine if y'all like the flavour. If the olive is still quite bitter, continue the dry out-curing process for another couple of weeks. The olives should take about a month to half-dozen weeks to go cured depending on the size of the olive. When cured, they volition be shriveled and soft.

10. 10

    Strain the mixture. Either sift out the salt by pouring the olives over a screen, or pick the olives out of the salt and milkshake them out one by one.

11. eleven

    Dry the olives overnight. Spread them out on paper towels or cloth napkins to thoroughly dry out.

12. 12

    Shop the olives.Mix the olives with a pound of salt for every x pounds of olives to help preserve the olives in storage, so pour them into glass jars and seal them. Store them in the refrigerator for several months or more.

    • You can also mix the olives with actress-virgin olive oil and spice to taste.

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1. ane

   Take precautions when working with lye. Lye tin can cause burns. Wear chemical-resistant gloves and safety glasses whenever you're working with lye, and don't employ an olive vat made of plastic or annihilation made out of metallic (even lids, since the lye dissolves metal).^[5]

   • Practise not utilise the lye curing method if children might come anywhere nigh the olives or the solution.
   • Complete the process in a well-ventilated room. Open the windows and turn on a fan to increase the airflow.

2. 2

   Clean the olives. This method works best for big olives, such as Seville olives. It may be used for either green or ripe olives. Selection out the damaged or bruised olives and sort the olives by size, if desired.

3. 3

   Place the olives in a lye-resistant container. Again, do not use a metal container; a large glass or ceramic. container is best.

4. iv

   Brand a lye solution. Pour one gallon of water into a lye-resistant container. To the water, add ii ounces of lye. The solution will immediately heat up. Cool it to 65 to 70 °F (eighteen to 21 °C) earlier you add it to the olives.

   • E'er add lye to h2o; never add water to lye. It volition cause an explosive reaction.
   • Use verbal measurements. Using likewise much lye volition be detrimental to the olives; as well little and they won't cure properly.

5. 5

   Cascade the lye over the olives. Embrace the olives completely with the lye solution. Utilize a plate to weigh the olives down so they don't go exposed to air, which would crusade them to darken in color. Cover the container with cheesecloth.

6. half dozen

   Stir the mixture every ii hours until the lye reaches the pits. For the get-go eight hours, only stir the mixture and recover it when you're finished. After eight hours, start checking the olives to run across whether the lye has penetrated to the pits. While wearing chemical-resistant gloves, pick a few of the largest olives. If they are easy to cutting to the pit, with soft, yellowish dark-green flesh all the way through, the olives are ready. If the flesh is even so pale at the eye, submerge them and try once again in a few hours.

   • Brand sure yous never handle the olives with your bare easily. If y'all don't have chemic-resistant gloves, use a spoon to remove the olives and run them nether cold h2o for several minutes before checking lye penetration.

7. vii

   Switch out the lye solution if necessary. If the olives are very light-green, the lye may not penetrate to the pits after 12 hours. If this is the case, drain the olives and cover them with a fresh lye solution. After another 12 hours, do the same if the lye still hasn't penetrated to the pits.

8. 8

   Soak the olives in water for two days. Change the water at least 2 times a day. This process washes the olives and gives the lye time to seep dorsum out. Each time yous change the water, it will look lighter color.

9. ix

   Taste exam an olive on the fourth twenty-four hour period. If it's sweet and fat, with no bitterness or soapy flavor, proceed to the next step. If it nevertheless tastes of lye, continue the soaking and rinsing process until the olives taste mild and the water rinses clear.

10. x

    Cure the olives in a light brine. Place the olives in a glass storage container. Mix half-dozen tablespoons pickling salt in a gallon of h2o and pour information technology over the olives to cover them. Let the olives cure for a week, at which point they're ready to eat. Store the olives in the refrigerator in their alkali for upward to a few weeks.

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Add New Question

• Question

  How are the olives stored or prepared for eating? What if they terminate up being too salty?

  

  At least 1 solar day before consuming, rinse the olives out of the alkali. If they are too salty, soak them in fresh water overnight, then marinate them in olive oil and whatever spices and herbs you prefer. For long term storage, put your olives in a glass jar, add herbs and spices, so add one tertiary fresh brine (saturated solution), one third white vinegar and a third olive oil. Put on the chapeau and shop somewhere nighttime and cool for at least a few months to develop a skillful flavour. The olives should concluding for years when preserved properly.

• Question

  What is the best way to store harvested olives until I have enough to cure a batch?

  

  Store them covered with fresh water, changing it daily if possible. This will likewise help leach the tannins from the olives.

• Question

  I have purchased black olives produced and packed in Spain. Is at that place whatsoever risk related with health? The blackness olives have an ingredient containing ferrous gluconate every bit a color stabilizer.

  

  Damir Steber

  Customs Answer

  That is a difficult question as it is probably impossible to know just how much of the substance is in your jar. Ferrous gluconate is a source of iron, often prescribed to treat iron deficiency anemia (not plenty iron in the trunk to brand oxygen-carrying hemoglobin). As such an developed can exist prescribed up to one gram a day, and it's hard to believe they would exist adding much more than fe so that. As with all such things, effort one! I'thou sure many others have already. If you don't take a problem accept a few more. Enjoy. There are many sights that will tell you of side effects and things to look for.

• Question

  Can the lye process be used for ripe olives?

  

  Yeah; however, the lye causes the ripe olives to loose their color. They volition look less vibrant and will taste more like a green olive than a black (brine). If they are very ripe and then may be a flake softer, which is not in keeping with the normal style of olives.

• Question

  How can I know if olives have gone bad?

  

  Fresh olives should taste succulent, but sometimes bitter, which is normal. Taste a fresh olive so that you will be able to brand a comparison equally you process them. If the olives start to taste bad, moldy, or are fizzy, then they take gone bad, and you should throw them out. The salt and vinegar used during processing volition create an environment that will keep bad microbes at bay, so do not skimp on them in an attempt to cutting down on sodium.

• Question

  I have a #10 can of sliced black olives. Tin can I can them in glass bricklayer jars with a h2o-bath canner?

  

  No. Olives are not acidic enough for a h2o-bath canner.

• Question

  Where do I cascade the spent lye h2o?

  

  Pour it down your kitchen sink. It will act like weak Drano and assistance keep your pipes make clean. Run the cold water tap afterwards to rinse the lye solution out of your plumbing. (Please wear condom gloves, and don't permit the lye solution splash on y'all. If it does, jump in the shower, fast, and rub-scrub earlier it eats through your peel. Besides, protect your eyes. Stiff lye can blind you lot in 1 second.)

• Question

  Once in brine, must the olives exist refrigerated?

  

  No. When processing, you want to keep them in a absurd (non cold) dark place. The biting acrid needs to jiggle its fashion out of the olive and refrigeration volition tiresome that down. In some processes, fermentation is a function of the process, which refrigeration will also irksome downwards.

• Question

  Where can I purchase the lye needed to cure olives?

  

  Amazon sells food-grade lye.

• Question

  Do salt crystals affair when curing olives?

  

  The type of common salt crystal you use volition thing if you're using cups rather than weight to measure the ratio of table salt to olives. Pocket-sized, dumbo rock table salt will pack more into a cup than flaky sea or kosher common salt, and so the ratios will be off.

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• Shriveled olives will regain some plumpness if marinated in olive oil for a few days.

• Lye burns should be treated past running them under fresh tap water for fifteen minutes and then consulting a physician. Never try to neutralized a lye burn down with lemon juice or vinegar; mixing acids and bases tin can exist dangerous.

• For alkali, the mixture should be about right when yous can place a raw egg in the vanquish into the alkali and information technology will bladder.

• Exist sure to utilise just food-grade lye to cure olives. Never use drain openers or oven cleaners to cure olives (as a source of lye, that is).

• The brine solution tin can be saturated by boiling the water and salt mixture and letting information technology cool before calculation the olives.

Thanks for submitting a tip for review!

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• Do not taste the olives while they are soaking in lye, wait until the 3 day period with water is upwardly earlier testing.

• Scum may form at the surface of the brine. It isn't harmful as long as the olives are fully submerged, but information technology should be removed when it forms.

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Things Y'all'll Demand

• Chemic-resistant gloves
• Prophylactic glasses
• Two wooden crates
• Untorn burlap, cheesecloth, sheets, or material napkins

About This Article

Article Summary X

To cure olives in brine, identify the olives into air tight drinking glass jars with lids, leaving i inch of infinite at the meridian. Next, mix 3/4 cup of pickling salt with 1 gallon of water and pour the alkali into the jars. Store the jars in a cool, dark place for ane week, then drain the olives and discard the brine. Then, mix one i/ii cups of pickling salt with one gallon of h2o and pour the stronger alkali into the jars. Shop the olives for 2 months in a cool, dark identify to finish curing them! To acquire how to cure your olives in water, read on!

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