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Curing olives


monkeymay

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So, I have two batches of olives that are jarred and about ready to go. The first pic is using chefcrashes method mentioned upthread, and the second is from The Feast of The Olive-recipe here-http://homecooking.about.com/od/fruitrecipes/r/blfruit37.htm

Chefcrash's olives have been jarred one month tomorrow, and I think they need another week or two as they are still bitter. The second pic is from the other recipe, and the water was changed everyday for 2 weeks, then jarred in brine for two weeks. These are closer along, but still need a bit more time, and aren't as "pretty" as the others.

Olives 005.jpg

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  • 3 years later...

I'm due to recieve 10 pounds of fresh olives any day now in the mail. I've been curing my own now for about 4 years, but am curious if anyone else does this and what your technique is?

My general technique is to slit each olive, and then soak in fresh water until they taste about right (if you can bite it without making a face its done). You should change the water daily and remove any scum that accumulates. Once they are tasty, put the olives in a brine solution with a little added vinegar if you wish.

Hal

That's a water cure which we have just tried- for us the cracked green olives needed 6 days with daily changes of water to become palatable. Then they go in brine + vinegar (seasonings to taste) for up to a year in the fridge. Tasty result thus far. We did 5lbs that way a couple of weeks ago and also 5lbs in a brine cure uncracked which will take 4 months or so to ferment and mature.

Well worth trying and as a side note 'tis the harvest season.

We may do some ripe ones next month. Some salt cured some brined.

J.

Jon

--formerly known as 6ppc--

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This is interesting reading. I love, love, love olives and want to try out some of these methods. Unfortunately I'm the only one in this household who even likes olives, so at present I find it more practical to concentrate on sauerkraut and search the grocery stores for different varieties and cures of olives. To those of you who are curing your own olives, or posted here in the past, thanks for the vicarious experience! Please keep going on this!

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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Well... The water cured ones are happy and palatable after just over a week in their brine post rinse & repeat. The brine cured ones are sitting in their cambro on the counter and... Becoming.

We received another 10 lbs of olives today- We'll do 5lbs water cured and 5lbs brine cured. Ya don't wanna run out you know... Harvest is only once a year after all.

Jon

--formerly known as 6ppc--

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A further note- a few cloves of peeled (sliced) Garlic and a couple of bay leaves are more than sufficient to flavour 5lbs water cured olives in their brine.

This has been a fun experiment. We have 2X 5lbs both in water and brine cure so that should hopefully meet our olive needs for the year.

I'm particularly excited by the brine cure- should take months but the fermentation has started and that cambro smells lovely.

Jon

--formerly known as 6ppc--

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OK weird. The first batch of brine cured olives now exactly smells like bubble gum.

Does that batch have any vinegar in it (and what is container made of)?

I've noticed a distinct bubblegum note in one brand of pickled herring, and have wondered whether it was due to some interaction between the vinegar and the flavour compounds in the spices used (or possibly between the vinegar and the plastic of the jar this is packed in).

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

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OK weird. The first batch of brine cured olives now exactly smells like bubble gum.

Does that batch have any vinegar in it (and what is container made of)?

I've noticed a distinct bubblegum note in one brand of pickled herring, and have wondered whether it was due to some interaction between the vinegar and the flavour compounds in the spices used (or possibly between the vinegar and the plastic of the jar this is packed in).

There is vinegar in the brine- the container is a food grade cambro. It smells different now; more like the fruity esters one gets when fermenting Weissbier.

It is fun to observe/taste/smell foods as they are made and the olives appear to be no exception.

Jon

--formerly known as 6ppc--

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was very excited when i got my house, five years ago... put in three olive trees. Infested every year, trying all the remedies. But i still see larvae. Same for my picked olives from the park. I am finally ordering some. Cant wait

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I was very excited when i got my house, five years ago... put in three olive trees. Infested every year, trying all the remedies. But i still see larvae. Same for my picked olives from the park. I am finally ordering some. Cant wait

Infested? In Palm Springs?! What pest, do you know? There should be an ag extension advisor to help, even if you have to reach across the pass to UC Riverside. Have you tried them for advice? You should be able to find someone who can give solid guidance, given your location.

At any rate, good luck with the ordered olives!

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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OK a brief update-

The water cured olives from the first batch are mostly eaten. The first batch of brine cured are happily fermenting on the counter & already becoming pretty damn tasty. 2n'd batches of each are in process. That's pretty much all for this year so we will have to make 20 lbs olives stretch until next Autumn.

We wanted to do some black olives too but they did not ship well per our purveyor so we got none.

Stay tuned... I'll post as our olives become over time.

Jon

--formerly known as 6ppc--

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  • 2 years later...

The problem with curing olives is that it takes months, or weeks if you're lucky, to know whether your method works or not.

 

I follow recipes but they never work out right. Usually the olives are too bitter, and if they're not too bitter then they're too mushy and watery. I do use my cured olives in cooking, but haven't managed to make any worthy of table olives.

 

Presently I've got some sitting in a 10% brine solution (1 part salt to 10 parts water by WEIGHT not volume) and some in a 7% brine solution. If it works I might write a post on it.

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