Last Step in Fresh Olives Home Cure

I put up the last few jars of fresh green olives today.  These have been in a brine “rinse” for 30+ days, washed, and canned in mason jars.  I make a simple “final” brine for the canning of 4 c water, 1/4 c kosher salt, 1/4 c vinegar.  Olives are packed in the jars with the (cooked) brine, a splash of olive oil goes on the top of the jar before processing.

I make various “flavors” as well as plain.  The favorite at our house is “Italian-style”, which means – in the jar goes a sliced clove of garlic, some oregano, parsley, and basil.

I’ve made “Mexican”, and “Indian Curry” ones as well.

This year I also made some salt-cured olives, which involves placing some cheesecloth in a box, putting the olives on the cheesecloth, and sprinkling kosher salt over the fruit every couple days.  Liquids get absorbed and drained by the salt, and after about 2 weeks, they are ready to rinse and eat.   (This process begins AFTER the initial rinse process described earlier, of course).

Although flavors are absorbed quickly, I prefer to let the olives age for about a month before eating. They last about a year.  (Well, considerably less at our house, we love them!).

I’m not an expert, I’ve had success in the manner I’ve described above, although there are those that say you must process in a pressure cooker, I’ve always just used the boiling water method.

There are a lot of recipes and methods described on line, and on Penna’s website .  The fresh green crop is gone for this year, but there is still time to order black olives to cure.

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Penna Fresh Olives



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