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Photo by Hank Shaw
Year after year in my new home here in Northern California, I feel myself sinking down roots and developing new traditions. One of them is curing my own olives, which begins for me in early October.
On some crisp autumn day, I will head out into one of the many public parks near my home that someone wisely planted with olive trees a generation ago. Sometimes I go solo, sometimes with friends. When I return, college football is in full swing, and I watch the games as I sort through my haul and prepare the brine.
And after that first season, I’ve eaten a handful or two of last year’s olives as a snack while the work is progressing. It’s a quiet little tradition, but it’s grown on me: Cool sunny October days mean gathering green olives and watching a Big 10 football game (I am a Wisconsin graduate).
This weekend I went out with Elise from Simply Recipes to a public grove I knew would be loaded: Olives are alternate-bearing crops, with one year’s crop thin, the other flush. This should have been a flush year for a Mission olive tree in the park, but it was either picked clean or failed to set this year. No matter, there were 30 other olive trees to choose from.
Most were rotten with olive fly, whose larvae burrow into olives and leave a beige scar where they entered. Tiny dots on an olive are OK, but that telltale scar means there is a visitor lurking within your olive.
Photo by Hank Shaw
Another hazard are the dry olives. Trees forced to live by their own wits — away from regularly watered grass — are stressed, and their olives shrivel early. Shriveled olives are usable, but they bruise rapidly and don’t make a clean green olive.
Elise and I still found several pounds of good green olives. Back at home, we set to separating them. My Badgers were getting their asses handed to them by Ohio State, so I kept my focus on the olives.
Photo by Hank Shaw
We separated them into small, medium and large olives — we have no idea what variety they are, as I don’t know how to tell the difference. We didn’t have enough large to make its own batch, so I mixed them with the mediums. I now had a choice of cures: water or brine. (You can also cure olives with lye, but I’ve not yet done that.)
Since we plan on going out again for both green and black olives (that will be in December sometime), I decided on giving the water cure another go with the large olives; I’ve had mixed success with this in the past. The water cure is a Greek method in which you open up the olive somehow and then soak it in cool water for up to 14 days a month, changing the water every day, or even twice a day.
I’ve tried smashing the olives with a mallet, which is what many recipes suggest, but don’t like it. Too messy, and I don’t like broken olives. So this year I tried slicing them all once with a paring knife.
Photo by Hank Shaw
Make sure to drop the sliced olives into water immediately or the sliced area will oxidize and turn brown. The whole olive will turn “olive drab” in time, but you don’t want the color to be uneven.
Why change the water so often? Well, if you’ve ever bitten into a fresh olive, you know it makes eating a raw acorn or an unripe persimmon seem fun by comparison. Olives are loaded with a bitter principle called oleuropein that needs to be leached out. Opening the olive allows that stuff to dissolve into the water by osmosis. That’s why you need to change the water daily to maximize the leaching process.
Also, make sure you do this in the fridge: It seems to keep the olives firmer than if you do it all at room temperature. I’ve done both ways, but the fridge method gives me better results.
Most recipes for water-curing olives say to change the water for 10 days. I’ve done this before and they are still mega-bitter. So I am recommending another 4 days three weeks, for a full two weeks month.
While you are curing the olives, you need to keep them submerged to avoid oxidation. I use a small bowl on top of the olives as a weight. You could also use cheesecloth.
After your water-cured olives have gone through 10-14 days a month, move them to a brine. I use 1/4 cup kosher salt to 4 cups cool water. I also add 1/2 cup of white wine vinegar, plus any herbs I want to use for flavoring.
What herbs? Always bay leaves and coriander. Beyond that I improvise: Citrus rind, black pepper, chiles, oregano, rosemary, sage, garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, etc. Go easy though: Water-cured olives should taste like olives — slightly bitter, firm and rich. My advice is to choose just a few seasonings and leave it at that. These olives will last a year in the fridge.
Photo by Hank Shaw
Now the olives you see at the top of this post are cured in brine. This is my preferred method, as it is low-maintenance and results in a super-tangy, salty olive that keeps for more than a year and cries out for beer or ouzo. And I like ouzo. A lot.
I chose to cure all my small olives in brine this year. When they’re finished, they should look like the light-colored olive in the top picture; the darker ones were half-ripe when I picked them in November last year.
Brine-curing is stupid easy, but takes FOREVER. Use the same brine as in the end of the water-cure: 1/4 cup kosher salt to 4 cups water, plus 1/2 cup of white wine, cider or simple white vinegar. Submerge the olives in this brine and top with cheesecloth or something else to keep them underwater.
Cover the top of the container loosely (I use those massive jars from the Costco marinated artichoke hearts) and put the jar in a dark, cool place. That’s it. Check it from time to time — meaning every week or so at first. The brine should darken, and you might get a scum on the top. That’s OK.
What’s going on is that your olives are fermenting; it is the fermentation that breaks down the oleuropein over time. That’s why I never wash my olives before curing — I want those natural yeasts on the outside of the olive to do their magic. I change my brine every month or two, when it begins to look extra nasty. I don’t re-rinse the olives, during changes, either, because I want the residue to act as a “starter” to get the next batch of brine going.
Keep in mind you will be in for the long haul: Olives picked in October are typically ready to eat in May or June. It’s a lot like making wine.
Add seasonings after the New Year, otherwise you risk too much spice and not enough olive flavor; this is especially true of chiles. If you find you’ve gone too far, change the brine and don’t add new seasonings, and let it steep for a few weeks. That should calm things down a bit.
For those of you living in olive country, there’s no reason not to forage for your own olives. In most places, they are free for the taking. And once the olives are finished, there is a certain show-off factor when you pull out a plate of olives you cured yourself. “These are your olives? Wow.” Plus, you can flavor them any way you like, which is a bonus.
For the vast majority of you who don’t live in olive country, you can order fresh olives online, but I can’t personally recommend any companies because I have never used them. If any of you have ordered fresh olives online and can vouch for a company, please let me know.
Photo by Hank Shaw
MORE ON CURING OLIVES AT HOME
- Making Cretan Olives with Seville Oranges
- Taking the Cure, from Kevin Weeks’ Seriously Good
- Curing Green Olives, from Cake and Commerce
- Excellent further reading on home-curing olives from UC Davis.
[...] How to Cure Green Olives [...]
[...] curing it out. And brining is by far the easiest. Well, brining it is! I followed a recipe from the “Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook” blog that involves brining the olives in a solution of 1/4 kosher salt to 4 cups water, plus 1/2 [...]
Hank,
This is a bit of an embarrassed question: how long between changes on brine cured olives can one go? My wife and I lost track of a gallon of olives back in a corner of our canning cupboard after the second change, probably a year ago? Toast? Salvageable? Invitation to botulism?
They still look OK but we haven’t tried them.
Thanks.
Thanks for the post, I have to try this. I just moved to California from Illinois and have 4 olive trees outside my office. I was wondering if you think pitting the olives prior to the water bath would work?
Dan
Daniel: No, that will not work. They will oxidize too much and look nasty.
Hank,
Thanks for saving me from that mistake.
I have been trying your Brine-curing. I started in October of 2011. It’s now August of 20012 and they are still bitter and hard. I have been changing the brine every month. I keep them in a cool dark place. During this past month I got this horrible looking scum on top of the jar. Blue with white and black streaks, horrible looking stuff. What am I doing wrong.
ED
Ed: Only thing I can think of is that you picked the olives too early last year. They should have been ready by May. The olives will always be a little more bitter and hard than store-bought, but that’s part of this cure. As for the scum, it happens. Just pick it off.
I’m married to an old time Italian who grew up curing olives. We just cleaned a friends olive tree this morning and are curing them today. Green. And black. Once he puts them in the brine they stay that way til we open them. Some are 3 years old and are fine. We rinse them ..through away the scum. If they are to salty we rinse again. And again. To taste The black olives we dry on racks and freeze. When company comes we thaw, add olive olive. Fresh basil. Serve with a baguette. yummmmm
[...] Avoid picking the olives with large scars as this might be an indication of larvae having burrowed into the fruit. Small marks or spots are fine. You can see an example here. [...]
I purchase fresh from greatolives.com (PENNA) in N Cal every year. Available now, they go fast. Their website has tips for curing. I do brine for a month and then can them with various herbs/spices.
Hank, I have a question about olives I was hoping you would be kind enought to answer. I have been waiting for the fruit on the trees outside my work to grow largeenough to pick, now some are turning purple, will water curing work on the green/purple ones or should I brine them instead?
Dan
The Impracticalfishermen
Daniel: I bet if you look at the ones turning purple they will have olive fly holes. Our olives are just now getting to their full green stage. The early purpling is usually a sign of disease in the olive.
When it actually *is* time for the olives to be green-purple, I always brine them. If you see them in the market, this kind of olive is a pale yellow-green when its cured.
I have been watching them since they were small little buds in March, a majority are larger than a quarter. Not a lot are purple but more seem to be turning every day. There are ones with the holes on them that are rotted and within the last 2 weeks most have shrunk up like little raisins. But there are still a lot of very nice looking ones are purple already and blemish free. I work on the Naval base in Lemoore and I think our hot climate and frequent watering speeds up the olives out here.
Thanks for all the help, there is not as much on the internet about the subject of olive curing as I thought there would be.
Dan
Hank,
After the first month of changing the water daily, do the olives in the brine have to be kept in the fridge, or will a cool, dark closet do the trick?
Thanks! Just sliced, submerged, and refrigerated 3 gallons last night!
Megan
Megan: I keep the water-cured ones in the fridge, but I don’t see why they would not be good in a cool closet. I would split the batch and do a test.
ANYBODY KNOW THE QUANTITY OF OLIVES (WEIGHT) AND THE DOSE OF WATER AND SALT
4CUPS OF WATER TO HOW MANY OLIVES????1KILO-2KILOS??
THANK YOU DENNIS
Dennis: It’s not an exact science, but a quart of brine will be enough for 1-3 pounds of olives.
Hi, I LOVE your blog and your suggestions and my lye-cured olives!! My question is how to store them after the second brining? In olive oil? I would like to avoid this as I love the freshness of the olives without the oil…Do I hot-water bath can them in glass jars? Can I store them in their brine in a crock in the basement? Do they need to be refrigerated? Thank you, Rhonda
Hey there!
I live in Jerusalem, Israel and have an olive tree in my yard. The olives are nice and big (an inch or so) and are green… then turn black (with purple juice) towards the end of the season and then fall off the tree by the hundreds. This year, I’d like to harvest them. When do you recommend I pick them? Also, these olives, if I pick them when still green, should I use the water-cure method above? And if so, when moving them to brine after the month of water-curing in the fridge, should I put them in the jars I plan to give them away in? Is this the end stage, or do I need to wait with them in brine for some amount of time before eating?
Thanks so much,
Naomi
While I am at it, I have another question…I have cured 13# of olives. They are so yummy already, I now am ready for the final brining. Your article says now is the time to have fun with the spices…think Mediterranean…can you give me a rough guide of how much to use…for example whole garlic cloves? A cup? two? For 13 pounds of olives….how many peppercorns, a 1/4 cup? Half cup? Bay leaves? 25, 30?, 50? I plan to put a one foot long branch of rosemary, garlic, peppercorns, chili flakes, bay leaves in the brine….any suggestions? I have two gallons of brine for my beautiful olives…
Hank: Thank you for the detailed info on curing olives. Quick question: do you make a small cut in the olives when you brine cure them they way you do for water curing them?
Hank: Just read your post from 11/30/09 where you answered my question above and recommend not slicing the olives for brine curing. Many thanks.
Hi, We are in the middle of attempting the water cure for a month. The directions say to start brining when the month is up. How long do we brine before the olives should be edible?
Mark: Until they taste good. Could be a couple days, could be a month. It depends on how ripe the olives were, how large they are, what they’re stored in, etc.
Watch it on the freash Rosemary, my olives taste like Christmas.
[...] This post at honest-food.com doesn’t give a recipe, but does give a lot of helpful information and tips. I have already [...]
I put about 10lbs Servillano olives, bright green and all larger/medium, into Lye in a 2 gal ginger jar at 6 tbl spoons and a gallon of cold water. Tested them after 18 hours, and they were cured to the pit, but not too soft. I leeched out the Lye by dumping, rinsing, and re-soaking in cold water every morning for 4 more days. On the fifth day, the Lye seemed to be gone, and the leech water was clear for 24 hours. The olives tasted very bland., but they were still firm enough and were a pretty/even green color, somewhat darker than when raw. This turned out to be much easier than I anticipated.
This morning, I mixed 1 cup of pickling salt and 2 cups white vinegar in one gallon cold water, and returned the whole batch to the ginger jar. I put it on a cool dark shelf in my pantry and will take another look-taste in a week.
Wish me luck!
[...] look at water curing olives (at the end of the article), with a good descriptive history of olives. Honest Food How to Cure Green Olives Author and general superstar Hank Shaw’s blog on foraging and curing green [...]
Hi Hank- for the water-cure method, once you start the brine, do you put them in the fridge? How many months would you say they should sit in the brine? Also, instead of cutting each olive at first, I poked a fork in each one. They have been changing color rapidly, starting where the pokes were and moving out. They don’t look all that pretty, but maybe they eventually turn a dark/purple brown all over? Is that how they are supposed to look?
thanks so much for this info!
Rebecca: Yes, I put them in the fridge. They can keep in the fridge for several months. I don’t recommend the fork method, as it bruises the meat around the holes and does not open up the olive enough to the fresh water.
Hi. I have some green olives harvested in Italy that I have been soaking in water, but not regularly rinsing and changing. They have been weighted down with a bit of cheesecloth which is now looking rather disgusting around the edges. I am worried about warnings of botulism. The olives themselves look fine so is this normal and are they likely to be alright?
Please help I left the olives in the refrigerator for 6 weeks. I also forgot to change the water every day, but did change it a lot. Then I rinsed them after and just put in the salt,water, vinegar, garlic, coriander water. Is it ok that I rinsed them or will I need a starter? Thank you so much!!!
Fiona: Happens to me all the time. Change the brine.
Janet: You should be fine. It might take a while for the olives to de-bitter, but give it time and you will be OK.
I bought some home cured olives cured using Lye and they are soft. What was the problem.
Junelle: Could be any number of things, ranging from how old the olives were when cured to how long they were in the lye solution.
Living in Colorado, we don’t have the luxury of picking olives. This year we ordered from Chaffin Family Orchards for fresh green olives, they also offer black olives for salt curing. They shipped in great shape, I highly recommend them if you need to order olives.
One Question about the water curing method. After water curing for a month, then adding brine, when are they ready to eat?
Thanks for posting the recipes.
Dhasa Bishop: Yep. They will be ready to eat.
Great Post your so lucky to have them FREE and local.
Have you tried a cherry pitter? I find it works great on the brined olives i buy to remove the stones.
Why remove the stones, because i add the olives to a mix of olive oil, garlic, chilli and spices for a few weeks before serving. It takes the edge off the brine.
great site
I’ve got some olives that have been brine curing since fall using your instructions(changing salt brine every 1-2 months).
I’m finally getting ready to flavor them.
When you flavor them, I assume you continue to change the brine every 1-2 months until they are to your liking? and if so do you add fresh seasoning each time you change the brine?
And how do you store the brine cured ones? Once the flavor is how you like it, can you put them in a tightly closed mason jar in the pantry? Or do they need refrigeration as the water cured ones do? (I’m also wondering if I can mail them in a tightly sealed jar to out of town family/friends – or if once I tighten the jar – do I really need to refrigerate straight away?)
In case any one else reads through comments and wonders about what I asked March 7, I pulled up the UC Davis info again and these questions are largely answered there.
I’m an avid mushroom hunter and forager (member of http://comafungi.org), and I love your stuff.
I live in the NYC suburbs. My local produce market carries fresh olives for a short time each year, but I’ve never bough them because I didn’t know what to do with them. Next time I see them I’m going to try the brine method – I even have an almost-empty huge jar of marinated artichoke hearts that I’ll keep for this project once I finish the contents.
My large black olives are ready to pick now and I’m going on holidays for two weeks. SO disappointing. If I picked them now, would they be ok to wait in the fridge, unbrined, untouched, until I get back? I brined olives last year and ended up having to get them babysat while I holidayed (slightly embarrassing to do that again). Any advice regarding the shelf life of raw / fresh olives? Much appreciated!
Brenda in Perth, Western Australia
Brenda: Leave the olives on the tree. They will be fine.
You reckon? That is GREAT – thank you for your prompt reply!
Hi Hank,
Just discovered your Blog.
I planted about 20 olive trees down the driveway at my property at Dawesley, South Aust. about 5 years ago. Can’t remember whether they were oil or eating variety or both. Just let them go, with an occasional prune, very little watering. Just got back from overseas and noticed that all the trees are full of fruit for the first time. Tasted one and extremely bitter.
Any suggestions??
I tried this method a couple of years ago after picking a couple of buckets from wild olives in Hunter Valley, Australia. The olives turned out BEAUTIFULLY! Thought I had lost this page but rediscovered it.
I finished off with the brine mix + some malted vinegar. Olives are still good after three years.
My brine-cured black olives are nearly ready after 4 weeks in brine, changed once at two weeks.