How to Cure Green Olives

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Brining olives is the oldest way to cure olives, especially green ones. What follows are instructions and troubleshooting on how to cure olives with a brine. There are other ways I’ll get to below.

This post assumes you have access to fresh, green olives off the tree, which are pretty but inedible — they are impossibly astringent. Olive trees can be found all over California, in many parts of Arizona, as well as Australia and, obviously, the Mediterranean, where they are native.

Green olives on the tree
Photo by Hank Shaw

You can buy fresh olives online, and over the years I have provided links, but these companies seem to come and go quickly, so I don’t do that anymore. Just Google “buy fresh olives” around September here in the United States, and I think March in Australia.

The timing is important because you want fresh green olives. And yes, like peppers, all olives start green and ripen to another color, usually black in the case of olives.

Green, unripe olives are firmer and way more astringent than ripe ones. Brining olives when they are green is a great way to cure them, and green olives are the only olives suitable for what, admittedly, is my favorite cure, which a lye cured olive. That process, believe it or not, has been used for 2000 years, and is not as scary as it sounds.

You can brine ripe, black olives, too, just so you know.

My general rhythm is to cruise my local parks in late September or early October; they are full of olive trees, remnants of pre-suburbia orchards around here. On some crisp autumn Saturday, I go picking. Look for pretty olives, with few or no blemishes, and which are not wrinkled.

Tiny dots on an olive are OK, but many may be rotten with olive fly, whose larvae burrow into olives and leave a beige scar where they entered. that telltale scar means there is a visitor lurking within your olive.

An olive infected with an olive fly larva
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.

When you get home, separate your olives into small, medium and large olives — it doesn’t matter what variety they are, as I don’t know how to tell the difference. If you don’t have enough large ones to make its own batch, mix them with the mediums.

A bowl of green olives
Photo by Hank Shaw

Unless I am doing the lye cure, brining olives 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.

Brine-curing is easy, but takes a long time. You make a brine of 1/4 cup kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal) to 4 cups water, plus 1/2 cup of vinegar: white wine, cider or simple white vinegar. Submerge the olives in this brine and top with cheesecloth or something else to keep them underwater. Do not cut them.

Cover the top of the container loosely (I use large, 1 gallon glass jars) 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. The what? Yeah, oleuropein is the astringent substance in an unripe olive. It needs to go if you are going to eat one. Fermentation is 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.

Green olives after brining olives
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

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, or even later, 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.

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.

If you’re too late for green olives, I really like salt cured black olives, which we all call oil-cured olives since that’s how they are stored. If you want to cure black olives, my method is to oil-cure olives.

cured green olives
4.95 from 20 votes

Brine Cured Green Olives

This is a long-term, brine cure for green olives. It is very traditional and only requires time and a cool place, under 75°F. Know that olives started in fall are not normally ready until spring. Mold is normal. Skim it off.
Course: Appetizer, Snack
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 20 servings
Author: Hank Shaw
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Curing Time: 90 days
Total Time: 90 days 15 minutes

Ingredients 

  • 4 pounds fresh green olives
  • 1 cup kosher salt
  • 1 gallon water
  • 1 cup distilled vinegar

Instructions 

  • Assuming you've already checked your olives for worm scars (see headnotes), discard any with too many blemishes. Place the olives in a stoneware crock or large glass jar with a lid carefully. Fresh olives actually do bruise easily.
  • Mix the vinegar, salt and water together. No need to boil, as it will dissolve at room temperature. Pour this over the olives, making sure they are submerged by at least 2 inches. Add more brine in the same ratio if need be.
  • Chances are the olives will float. You need to keep them away from air, so I put a plate over them that is just about the size of the jar or crock. You can also use a plastic bag filled with water to keep the olives away from air. Once the olives are submerged, cover the jar or lid (lightly screw on the top if there is one) and place the container in a cool, dark place. A basement is ideal. You don't want them to ever get beyond 75°F if you can help it, because at higher temperatures the olives can go soft. Since this is a wintertime cure, it should not be a problem. Low temperatures are fine, just don't let them freeze. Let them sit for several months.
  • As time passes, you will see a scum of mold and weirdness form on the top. This is normal. Skim it off once a week and you'll be fine. At some point the brine itself will get pretty icky. I like to change the brine every month or so, but this is not strictly needed. The olives are done when they are no longer bitter, anywhere from 2 to 4 months.
  • Only now do you add other seasonings, like chile peppers, black peppercorns, herbs or citrus peel. Do this in a fresh brine, and let this new, flavorful brine sit 2 weeks before serving. Store the olives in this brine, in a cool place or refrigerator, for up to 2 years. I keep them in quart Mason jars.

Notes

Flavor Additions

  • dried chiles
  • bay leaves or similar aromatic leaves like citrus leaves
  • thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary 
  • allspice, black peppercorns, juniper berries
  • smashed garlic cloves

Nutrition

Calories: 132kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 1412mg | Potassium: 38mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 357IU | Calcium: 47mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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388 Comments

  1. 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

  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.

  3. Hank, My water cured olives been soaking for 24 days and all have darkend ..My question is when you water cure olives are they acually ripening?..because i have no green ones left..yet i see ones on the web that are multiple shades including green.. maybee its just the batch i got but i kinda wanted some green and purple just for appearence …. was wondering if i brine cured some of my green olives would they not ripen (turn black)? then I could mix them with my water cured ones at the end

  4. Steve: That’s normal.

    Trevor: They will typically need to be brined about 2-3 weeks before they taste good. They will, however, be staring at you in the fridge for a year — unless you eat them all first…

  5. have done the “plain” water cure for 1 month and now ready to brine.

    how long until the are ready to eat? i am tired of these things staring at me every time i open the fridge…..

  6. Steve, I put a cup of salt in my olives each day when I change the water out. The salt keeps bateria from growing. That might be the problem.

  7. Thanks for this good information! I just got done curing my olives. Its been a month since I started them. I am canning them tonight. I ordered them from California!

  8. Anybody have experience with olive fly traps?

    I live by an orchard that is not maintained and is infested. I usually get 50% yield from the trees.

    There seems to be many different types of traps out there. Which are the most effective/least expensive?

    Thanks!

  9. HELP, My batch of water cured olives have been soaking for 10 days now and the slit I cut in them are turning brown!! Is this normal? Is anyone else having this experience..

  10. Ken F: Nope, I get the dark spots all the time. It just happens. If they are too bad, I toss the olive.

    Double G: I pick olives in late September through October. By now (November) they are turning black. Incidentally, I also do a lye cure on olives. But that is another post…

  11. I learned from my Grandpa from Yugoslavia. Lye the olives from 12 to 18 hours depending on size. When putting the lye in he always put 2 big handfuls of ice in the water to keep the heat down which helps keep the green color on the olives. Rinse and stir daily and lightly salt the water each day to complete the curing. I would start trying them about a week after the lye. Keep rinsing and tasting until good to your liking. Less “lye time” makes firmer skin on the olives. I hate mushy olives, i like a slight snap when you bite into them. I use 3/4 cup of lye to one 5 gal bucket. I salt between rinse and put a cup or so in each time. After 2 weeks of rinse and salting I add spice or herbs (GARLIC is best) and jar them up. The final salt brine is to taste and i add a little vinegar.
    My best advise to all is to experiment to get the taste you like. Olives are a family legacy of love and the individual taste you create will make your olives unique to your family. I am proud to keep a family tradition going with a method that my family has always used. My great uncle said any kind of olives are good to use. I perfer Manzanillo as they have a good meat to pit ratio and work well with the lye curing method.
    My question to all is – when do you pick the green olives? How can you tell the green olives are ready? I waited this year until I started to see some start to turn purple then picked all the green ones I wanted. Any advise on timing for picking?
    Great site and great advise!

  12. Thanks for this great post.

    I’m trying this for the first time, I bought a couple pounds of green olives and have been soaking them in water for about a week now.

    some of my olives are turning brown in spots, half the olive is brown, the other half still green. or large spots of brown.

    is this an issue? they’re not soft. when the olive turns from the bright green to the darker olive green of your last picture, do they turn consistently across the olive or does it happen in spots?

  13. Its called cracking the olive. This is usually done with a rock. You can’t hit it to hard or it will be a mess. This helps the water to get deep into the olive and if done correctly will give a better product in the end. If you cut them you would need to soak much longer than the 14 days it takes. You can always taste the olives and see if they need more curing. I do the small black olives and the calamatas and they work just find. Hitting them with wood is a little more difficult in getting it right. THe olives are best if they are not to ripe. They need to be on the green side still but not under ripe either. There is a difference in color, the unripe has the lime green or spring green color to it. Good luck with your curing.

  14. Just like to tell you that I am living in Greece and just happen to be picking olives today. Every year I cure olives with sea water. And old Aunt of my husband taught me this. So if you are fortune enough to live close by the sea, you can use water from the sea and change it every day just like it says above. You will get a much better olive in the end. Sweet water isn’t as good as salty. I find the olives stay a lot better. Several years back, I had put my olives after curing in a 5 gallon crock. Then we started working on our home. So out into the sun it went. I left them their for three years and to my surprise they were still in great condition. I couldn’t believe my eyes . I didn’t even get that scum on top with this method. So if you don’t feel like putting them up in jars, you can leave them in a old heavy crock and they stay wonderful for years. Hope this helps someone.

  15. Great blog, Hank. You HAVE to try lye-curing so you can talk about it for us all.
    I am midway through first try at lye-cured olives. An older Italian friend of my sister’s gave us a jar every year. He passed suddenly, and I want to have those buttery olives again. Mmmmmm.
    I was scared of the lye, but followed the directions, used chemical tolerant rubber gloves, and it wasn’t a big deal at all. To my surprise, lye is labeled “drain-cleaner” in hardware stores. Just be sure it’s pure lye.
    After 5 to 8 days of leaching the lye in cold water (changed 2x or 3x a day) I will be ready to brine. UC Davis says you can only keep the olives for two months! It’s hard to believe people go to this much work and must eat all the olives that fast! I see you claim to keep yours up to a year. Think I can do that without refrigeration if kept in a cool place?
    Though my olives are lye cured, adding a little white wine vinegar sounds tasty. Can lye-cured olives be seasoned?

  16. two questions about process:
    with the small olives, and i mean small, do they also need to be bruised, or cut before they go into water? do they even go into water for a month or is it straight into the brine?

    and most importantly, i wonder about the larger olives i already have in water: is there any wriggle room about how many days they can sit in this soak, before being changed? what would you recommend, if i find they are still bitter, and i am leaving on holiday, for a week?
    HELP and thanks 🙂

  17. Hello!
    Just wanted to thank you for the very detailed information on curing olives. I am just back from a trip to Italy and brought 2 kilos of fresh green olives… I am so excited to prepare them following your method and hope they will taste as good as they look!

  18. just started looking into curing olives. Have gone thru a few websites and found yours the most informative and detailed. Thank you for sharing your info

  19. Hello. I was very glad to read your website as I was beginning to wonder if my olives will ever be ready to eat.I live in Sydney, Australia and back in our autumn I bought 5 kilos of large green olives. I have used the brine method because I have previously found that slitting the olives in our climate can have disasterous results. It is now spring and my neighbour who is originally from Sri Lanka, says she likes them, but my family does not. They are fairly firm and still somewhat bitter. I haven’t added any herbs or spices or vinegar yet and they are sitting in just water now. At least I now know it can take this long.