Pickling Olives
This takes a while (a couple of months?) but I'm pretty pleased with the results. I don't know when I'll ever make this again, but I'm recording the recipe because I suspect the recipe source will be missing.
Preparing olives is all about leeching the oleuropein from the skins. The effort this takes is impressive.
Total Preparation Time
Total preparation time is a couple of months
- 2-4 hours preparing olives
- 9 days of water baths
- 4 weeks of brine baths
- 1 week final pickling
Ingredients
- Olives - as many as you can collect. This recipe takes so long you'll want to make it worthwhile
- Salt - lots
- Red wine, Apple cider vinegar, or Balsamic vinegar for final pickle.
Method
- Wash olives, discard any with holes or blemishes (there's an olive worm that makes these holes)
- Slice each lengthwise with a sharp knife 3-4 times
- Put olives into a water bath. They will float so cover them with a plate or something to keep them down. I used a mesh bag and a plate.
- For nine days, change the water every day.
- Drain and cover with a brine made with 3tbsp salt for every 4 cups of water (I know, imperial units, I'm sorry.) until it covers the olives and let it soak for a week.
- Do this a total of 4 times (four weeks, four brine baths)
- Drain and prepare final brine with 1 and 1/2 tbsp salt, 2 cups of water, and 1/4 cup of wine or vinegar
- Bottle and let sit a week before eating.
Prepared
- 241202 - black olives were collected from an overladen tree in a park near Kayla's house in Los Angeles when we visited for thanksgiving and carried back in a nylon bag on the train.