Title: TWO METHODS TO CURE OLIVES
Categories: Can/cure
Yield: 1 Info
Olives
Salt
To salt cure ripe olives: Use small unbruised black
or purplish-black olives. Cover bottom of clean
slatted wooden box (such as a fruit lug or a flat
rectangular basket with a double layer of cheesecloth.
Rinse olives in cold water and put a layer on bottom
of box. Cover damp olives with a layer of uniodized or
pickling salt. (For each pound of olives, you'll need
at least a pound of salt for the monthlong process.)
Repeat layering olives and salt, then cover the entire
batch with a final layer of salt and another piece of
cloth. Set box into a tray or cardboard box so that
the liquid that seeps out will not stain the
countertop or floor; store in cool basement or garge
and let stand one week. After a week, uncover and
transfer olives and salt to another container.
Re-layer olives with additional salt in the same
cloth-lined box for about three to four days. Repeat
layering and salting olives every four days for one
month, using new salt each time, until olives are
wrinkled and lose enough bitterness to be edible. (If
any mold appears on the olives, rinse mold off with
cold water and soak olives in bowl of distilled white
vinegar for one hour, then return to salt. Otherwise,
there is no need to rinse the olives in water before
returning them to the salt cure.) In batches, remove
cured olives from salt; place them in a large strainer
or a colander. Dip strainer or colander into saucepan
of boiling water for a few seconds. Drain blanched
olives and rinse with cold tap water. (Repeat this
step with remaining olives, changing boiling water
whenever it gets too salty-after about every 12th
dip.) Spread olives out on paper towels to dry for a
few hours or overnight. Place olives in jars and
cover with olive oil. If desired, mix in herbs, hot
peppers, garlic, vinegar, or grated orange or lemon
rind. Store sealed jars in the refrigerator. The
olives will keep for at least one month. Dry-cured
olives may also stored in new salt in airtight
containers for up to six months in the refrigerator.
Before using salt-stored olives, rinse and dry the
fruits.
To brine cure green or ripe olives: Use mature fully
colored green or dark-red to purplish-black olives.
The ripe olives may fade in color during curing but
they will darken again when exposed to air. With small
knife, slash each olive to its pit three times. Rinse
in water. Place rinsed and drained olives in one-quart
glass jars, filling them 3/4 full. Cover the olives
with a brine containing 3/4 cup uniodized or pickling
salt dissolved in a gallon of water. Insert a small,
sealed food-storage bag filled with 1/4 cup water into
each jar to keep olives immersed in brine. Screw on
the lid loosely and refrigerate. After one week,
replace the brine with a mixture of 1 2/3 cups salt
per gallon of water. After 15 days replace the brine
with another mixture of 1 2/3 cups salt per gallon of
water. Replace the brine at 1-month intervals for
additional two to three months. If you keep the olives
airtight in brine, you can store them for at least one
year. You can eat these olives within two months if
you like fairly-bitter olives. Use them for cooking or
season them for appetizers. To reduce their saltiness,
soak the olives in fresh water three days. Store any
uneaten desalted olives in the refrigerator in a
solution of one part red or white wine vinegar to two
parts water and float a layer of olive oil on top to
preserve them.
