"Pickled Green Olives" ... from a jar?

[Johntodd]

Hi!  A neighbor bought the wrong kind of olives, green instead of black.  They hate the green ones, so they let me have the jar.  They're just store-brand typical pimento-stuffed brined olives.

 

I am desalinating them right now, and was wondering about a pickling fluid I could cook up to pickle them in.  Here's what I was thinking:

 

Olive Oil, white vinegar, water, garlic, black pepper, 1 small jalapeno, and a pinch of sugar.  Pack the solids in a mason jar, boil the fluids and backfill with them.  Let sit for a few days and sample.

 

Your thoughts?

-John

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by Johntodd (log)

[heidih]

In don't see the benefit or need for olive oil. Otherwise - go for it.

[Johntodd]

OK, I used the above recipe, minus the olive oil.

 

See you in a few days!

 

[MaryIsobel]

I finish a lot of things with some type of briny solution or an acid. It's the finishing touch that a lot of things need in MHO. I just saw a recipe for "Dirty Martini Pasta" which uses olives and their brine.

[Duvel]

I am a bit confused: aren’t thise olives already brined/pickled, when you get them ? And then you desalinated them only to brine them again ? What am I missing ?

[Katie Meadow]

8 hours ago, Duvel said:

I am a bit confused: aren’t thise olives already brined/pickled, when you get them ? And then you desalinated them only to brine them again ? What am I missing ?

I'm equally confused and in the same way.

 

Also what is the real meaning of cured vs brined? My understanding is that curing is the first step, done with lye or some other technique to leach out the bitterness. You can stop there or you can then brine them in a salt solution with herbs or all kinds of things. To my knowledge, all commercially sold olives are brined after curing for longevity and safely's sake.

 

My FIL always picked olives from the trees that used to lead to the Davis Ca airport. They were usually a mix of green turning to black. He would cure t hem with the classic lye solution over a period of days that involved changing the water often. When all the bitterness was leached out he would simply put the them in water. He would do batches with red peppers, batches with garlic, and plain. I love love loved the plain ones. He did not brine them in salt, and so you had to eat them within a couple of weeks or they would go bad. Really delicious. His olives seemed naturally sweet, very different from any brined ones.

 

We did it a couple of times with him and on our own. The olives were ripened on the trees, picked in mid-November in typically unpleasant damp chilly weather, which he considered part of the fun. He was definitely a "no pain no gain" kind of guy. But then, sadly, the city of Davis mysteriously cut down all the trees. By that time my FIL was too old to be climbing shaky ladders anyway. 

[heidih]

@Katie Meadow tree cutting down: People object to the mess Also many people are allergic to the pollen - respiratory allergy. If you dormant spray them you have expense and folks object to wholesale spraying.  As a kid a neighbor did the lye thing. I was not impressed - put me off olives for a long time.

[blue_dolphin]

32 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

We did it a couple of times with him and on our own. The olives were ripened on the trees, picked in mid-November in typically unpleasant damp chilly weather, which he considered part of the fun. He was definitely a "no pain no gain" kind of guy. But then, sadly, the city of Davis mysteriously cut down all the trees. By that time my FIL was too old to be climbing shaky ladders anyway. 

 

I'm also confused by the OP but your olive story reminded me of some good memories.  The building that I worked in at UCLA was slightly apart from the main campus on a hill that was planted with dozens of olive trees.  Most years, we picked buckets full of olives and cured them in the break room.  After curing, we enjoyed some as is and brined the rest, playing around with different flavors, as you've described.  I haven't driven by there in ages so I took a look at Google maps and found the area unrecognizable - the trees, the hill and the whole building are gone and replaced with 8 and 9-story student apartment buildings.  I had no idea!  

[TicTac]

For the confused -

 

I can only hazard a guess that the OG olives were in a plain brine (salt/water) and the OP wants to pickle the olives to impart flavour/tartness.

 

 

[Johntodd]

Yeah, I was only trying to "improve" these low-budget green olives.  Since it was a free jar I figured I'd just try something.

 

So I have taste-tested them, and the result is, uhm, disappointing. 

 

I taste vinegar and garlic.  Perhaps I need to add salt?  I figured the salty brine from the factory would leave some salt still in the olives.

 

They are not bad, just mediocre.  Add salt?

 

Your thoughts?

 

[Duvel]

1 hour ago, Johntodd said:

Yeah, I was only trying to "improve" these low-budget green olives.  Since it was a free jar I figured I'd just try something.

 

So I have taste-tested them, and the result is, uhm, disappointing. 

 

I taste vinegar and garlic.  Perhaps I need to add salt?  I figured the salty brine from the factory would leave some salt still in the olives.

 

They are not bad, just mediocre.  Add salt?

 

Your thoughts?

 

Salt will penetrate the olives. The brine and the olives will equilibrate over the course of time, and having commercial olives in a jar this process has been completed. You can check the salt content of the jar - 2% will be adequate.

 

If you are lacking flavor you can add things to adhere to the olives, like a marinade. Oil & spices will flavor the surface at maximum, but most likely only modify the initial taste, not the olive itself. 

 

What works for me is a mixture of olive oil, smashed dried tomatoes, “some” garlic (if yours aren’t saturated already), some chili, pinch of MSG and a pinch of sugar. 30 min at RT and you are good to serve …

[TdeV]

"RT" @Duvel ??

 

Edit:

Oh, room temperature. Ya?

 

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by TdeV (log)

[Duvel]

2 minutes ago, TdeV said:

"RT" @Duvel ??

Room temperature … sorry, old laboratory lingo 🤭

[Johntodd]

OK, the salt made all the difference!

 

Just a touch of salt has awakened and balanced the flavors into something very nice.  It also seems to have tenderized the olives.

 

The experiment was a success!  If you run across a jar of cheap olives, try this for yourself.  I think this will change the course of human history, eliminate all wars, cure cancer, and end global hunger once and for all.  And if it doesn't, you 'll still have a tasty jar of olives!

 

[Duvel]

8 hours ago, Johntodd said:

OK, the salt made all the difference!

 

Just a touch of salt has awakened and balanced the flavors into something very nice.  It also seems to have tenderized the olives.

Congratulations !

 

I have one question though: were they flavorless in their original state, or after your desalination ? To be honest I have never encountered brined olives lacking salt (as the brine doubles as the conserving agent and needs to come in 2-3% salinity to do the job) …

[Johntodd]

9 hours ago, Duvel said:

Congratulations !

 

I have one question though: were they flavorless in their original state, or after your desalination ? To be honest I have never encountered brined olives lacking salt (as the brine doubles as the conserving agent and needs to come in 2-3% salinity to do the job) …

 

They were flavorless from desalination.  So, yes, originally they were standard brine olives, and I desalinated them.  Truth is I  just went too far with that part; never meant to take all the salt out.