House Cured Olives
Curing your own olives is a labour of love, but this book is inspired by an olive farm so I have noted my early attempts and hope this is not too long and scientific.
100g sea salt and 1 Ltr cold water
Approx 1 kg freshly picked olives
Sherry or cider apple vinegar
Dried herbs: bay leaves, a sprig of thyme,
Sprigs of Rosemary
Dried red chili
Whole garlic cloves
4 thick slices lemon peel with no pith.
Olive oil to cover the top
You can increase the quantity of brine to suit the amount of olives you have picked. The herbs and spices that you add are up to you and fun to experiment with. You will need a big plastic container with a lid or a bucket or ideally an earthenware olive vat or jar
Preparing the olives:
Pick your olives, choosing the plumpest, ripest ones you can. Once picked, if you have a real difference in colours, sort the green ones from the black ones. The green ones are less mature and will need a little longer to brine.
Rinse gently and remove any really blemished, rotten or shrivelled olives. Don’t bruise them. You can now choose whether to slit your olives, or leave them whole. Slitting them allows the brine to penetrate faster. If you leave them whole, they'll need to sit in brine a bit longer.
To slit the olives, make a cut from top to bottom of each olive. Alternatively, you can bash each olive with a heavy object such as a meat tenderiser to just break the skin but not squash them.
Preparing the brine:
Make the brine using a ratio of 1 part salt to 10 parts water, measured in weight. It helps to boil a little water to dissolve the salt then add the rest cold. Put your olives in your chosen container and pour over the brine. Make sure the olives are submerged. Pour a little olive oil on top to stop any moulds forming on the surface. Loosely seal the jar or container with a lid. You will need to open it every couple of days to release some of the gases if the lid is on tightly.
If you have slit or crushed your olives, they will only need to sit in brine for 3-6 weeks depending on taste. If you have left them whole they can sit in brine for up to 6 months or longer. How often you change the brine is dependant on your olives. I usually taste mine every two weeks to see if they are less bitter and change the brine at that time.
Once the bitterness has gone and you are happy with the taste it is time to bottle your olives in sterilised jars. I use a vinegar brine, at a ratio of 2:5:20 salt, vinegar, water. For example, 40g salt, 100g vinegar and 400g water makes about half a litre of vinegar/salt brine. Add herbs and spices you have chosen to the jars as you start to fill them with olives (i.e. Lemon zest, Rosemary, Chili, Garlic cloves etc). Pour over the vinegar brine making sure the olives are submerged. Finally add a layer of olive oil to stop oxygen touching the olives. Seal the lids and leave to marinate for a week or two. Taste to see if they are ready to eat. Once open keep in the fridge.