How to make
Home Cured Olives
Cured olives are some of the most delicious foods from ancient and modern times. Salty and tart, they can be enjoyed in almost any dish. That is, when they are cured. Uncured, olives are extremely bitter and sour tasting, not pleasant at all. While most people simply buy their olives pre-cured, some people still grow their own. With a supply of uncured olives, of course, there is a demand for the ability to cure olives. While it takes quite a long time, curing is actually quite simple. Enjoy!
Water Curing
(Best for Larger Green Olives)
Inspect the olives
Make sure that they are as unbruised as possible, and that nothing has eaten out of them. If you use chemicals on your olive trees, gently wash them before beginning.
Break the fruit
You can do this with a wooden mallet or, more commonly, a rolling pin. Just smack the little things, don't be afraid, but, of course, you want to keep the olives as whole as possible. You want the flesh torn, You don't want it to get mashed or to rip into several different pieces, or for the pit to get damaged.
Place the olives in cold water
Completely cover all of the olives, make sure none are poking out. This can be done in a pan. You may need to weigh them down with something. At least once a day, change out the water with fresh, cold water. Make sure you don't forget, otherwise bacteria could build up in the water.
Wait
This will be the hardest part of the curing process. For about a month, switch out the water daily, and don't touch the olives again. After the first week of the waiting process, you will probably want to taste one. The bitterness could already be gone by this time, but it is unlikely. Just keep waiting until the olives don't taste bitter any longer.
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Brine Curing
(Best for Red or Black Olives)
Cut the olives
Make a vertical cut down the olive using a harp knife (Make sure not to cut the pit)
Place the olives in brine
Brine is made of salt and water. One-fourth of a cup of salt to one quart of water is fine, but it varies depending on who you ask. Make sure the pan they are in is deep enough so that no olives are poking out.
Cover the pan and wait
Once again, this will be the hardest part of the curing process. This time, though, only shake the pan daily. Don't change out the brine that often; once a week is fine. This can take up to six weeks or more depending on what type of olive you are using; somewhere around three weeks is a good time to start tasting the olives for bitterness.
Jar the olives
Once they taste good, remove the olives from the old brine. Make a new batch of brine, and fill jars with it. Put the olives in the jars, and top off the jars with four tablespoons red wine vinegar, and a tablespoon or so of olive oil. They should keep for a very long time if properly stored.
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Dry Curing
(Best for Mission, Kalamata, Ascolano, or Smaller Olives
with Fully-Ripe Fruit)
Use a wooden fruit crate, or a newer
styrofoam grape crate
Make sure if you use the styrofoam grape crates that the crates have drains and air slots These crates should be about six inches deep. The wooden crates are normally with just two slats on each side, with a gap of about an inch between the slats. Whichever type of crate used, line the entire crate with burlap, including the sides, and staple/nail/tack it to the top. Alternately you can line the crate with cheesecloth, old sheets or cloth napkins as long as there is enough fabric to keep the salt contained and to absorb any liquids which may drip from the crate. Place the crate outside, preferably on cement that you don't care much about. Prepare a second crate identical to this one.
Wash the olives
Just a light wash to remove anything that might have stuck to the fruit. Lay them out to dry.
Weigh the olives (optional)
For every two pounds of olives that you have, you will need one pound of salt (make sure the salt is not iodized, and that it is a fine-grain salt - kosher salt is great). Obviously, that will probably be a lot of salt. Mix the two together, and dump the mixture into your fruit crate. Alternately put a layer of salt in the crate followed by a layer of olives and covered with a layer of salt - repeat until all olives are covered.
Wait a week
Dump the contents of the crate into the second crate
Shake well, and pour back into the original box. This should ensure an even coating of salt, and allow you to see any damaged or rotten olives. Remove these, they'll not be good to eat later. Any olives with white circular patches (probably a fungus) should be removed. The fungus often starts at the stem end of the olive. Check the olives to make sure that they are beginning to cure evenly. If an olive has shriveled areas and plump areas, you may want to dampen the olive prior to repacking in salt - this will encourage the plump area to start shriveling.
Repeat every three days to a week
The olives should take about a month to six weeks to become cured depending on the size of the olive. When cured, they will be shriveled and smaller, not much like the jarred olives you buy at the grocery store.
Strain the mixture
You can just pick the olives out of the salt, wiping it off before you eat them. Otherwise, get a colander to sift out the salt.
Boil some water
Dunk the strained olives into the water for just
a few seconds
(up to 30 seconds - this melts the natural waxy covering on the olives and seals the fruit.)
Dry the olives overnight
(on paper towels or cloth napkins)
Put them out of reach of animals or little children, though; a month's work can go to waste if an idle bump sends them scattering.
Add salt
(optional step)
About a pound of salt for every ten pounds of olives should be fine. This is the last step; now all you have to do is store the olives in a cool, dry place. They should last for about a month this way- put them in the refrigerator if you want them for longer than that. You can also mix the olives with extra-virgin olive oil and spice to taste. Refrigerate the olives. Dry (salt) cured olives are great for tapenades!
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General
Olive Tree Information
Olive trees are very hardy, drought-, disease- and fire-resistant, and can live for a very long time. Its root system is very robust and capable of regenerating the tree even if the above-ground structure is destroyed. The older an olive tree is, the broader and more gnarled its trunk appears. Many olive trees in the groves around the Mediterranean are said to be several centuries old, and in some cases this has been verified scientifically.
The olive is an evergreen tree growing to 25 to 30 ft in height with a spread of about 25 ft. The tree can be kept to about 20 ft. with regular pruning. The graceful, billowing appearance of the olive tree can be rather attractive. In an all-green garden its grayish foliage serves as an interesting accent. The attractive, gnarled branching pattern is also quite distinctive. Olives are long-lived with a life expectancy of 500 years. The trees are also tenacious, easily sprouting back even when chopped to the ground.
The olive's feather-shaped leaves grow opposite one another. Their skin is rich in tannin, giving the mature leaf its gray-green appearance. The leaves are replaced every two or three years, leaf-fall usually occurring at the same time new growth appears in the spring.
Manzanillo Olives
"Manzanillo" or "Manzanilla", a medium-large, rounded-oval fruit, with purple-green skin that changes to deep blue-black when mature, originated in Dos Hermanas, Seville, in southern Spain. "Manzanillas" means little apples in Spanish. Known for a rich taste and thick pulp, it is a prolific bearer, grown around the world.
The pulp parts readily with its bitterness and is exceedingly rich when pickled. Excellent for oil and pickles.
Pruning
Olives withstand heavy pruning. Thinning each year shows off branch pattern and eliminates some flowering and fruiting wood, reducing the fruit crop; which can be nuisance in decorative landscaping.
Proper pruning is important for the olive. Pruning both regulates production and shapes the tree for easier harvest. The trees can withstand radical pruning, so it is relatively easy to keep them at a desired height. The problem of alternate bearing can also be avoided with careful pruning every year. It should be kept in mind that the olive never bears fruit in the same place twice, and usually bears on the previous year's growth. For a single trunk, prune suckers and any branches growing below the point where branching is desired. For the gnarled effect of several trunks, stake out basal suckers and lower branches at the desired angle.
Soil and Growth
Olive trees show a marked preference for calcareous soils, flourishing best on limestone slopes and crags, and coastal climate conditions. They grow in any light soil, even on clay if well drained, but in rich soils they are predisposed to disease and produce poorer oil than in poorer soil.
Olives like hot weather, and temperatures below −10 °C (14.0 °F) may injure even a mature tree. They tolerate drought well, thanks to their sturdy and extensive root system. Olive trees can live exceptionally long, up to several centuries, and can remain productive for as long, if they are pruned correctly and regularly.
Olives grow very slowly, and over many years the trunk can attain a considerable diameter. A. P. de Candolle recorded one exceeding 10 metres (33 ft) in girth. The trees rarely exceed 15 metres (49 ft) in height, and are generally confined to much more limited dimensions by frequent pruning. The yellow or light greenish-brown wood is often finely veined with a darker tint; being very hard and close-grained, it is valued by woodworkers.