Description
How to Cure Olives- a step by step guide, that turns bitter olives into buttery delicious bites in just 10 days, that the whole family will enjoy.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 4 cups mature green olives – Castlevetrao or Super Colossal Sevillanos
- 3 tablespoons 100 % Pure Lye (food grade sodium hydroxide), divided
- Water
- Salt
- optional additions: herbs, garlic, lemon zest
Instructions
- Use clean, fresh, mature green olives. Do not break the skin.
- Rinse the olives with water and place them in large crock, glass or porcelain jar or bowl.
- Mix 1 tablespoon lye with 1-quart water. Pour over the olives. Soak 12 hours.
- Drain the olives and soak for 12 more hours in a fresh lye solution. (1 tablespoon lye, per quart water) Drain and rinse. Cut into the largest olive to see if the lye has reached the pit, and if so, the lye cure is complete. If one more lye bath is needed, drain, soak in a another fresh lye solution for 12 more hours; then drain and rinse with cold water.
- Soak the olives in fresh, cold water, changing the water three (or more) times a day for the next 4 days. At the end of 4 days, taste an olive to make sure that there is no trace of lye flavor remaining.
- Then soak the olives in a salt brine solution mixed at the ratio of 6 tablespoons salt to 1-gallon water, for 3 days. Feel free to add a sprig of rosemary, lemon zest, and a garlic clove if you like.
- The olives are now ready to eat,but continue storing in the brine, they will get better as they sit.
- Store in a cool, dark place, preferably the refrigerator and use within two months.
Notes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ¼ cup
- Calories: 31
- Sugar: 0.1 g
- Sodium: 336.1 mg
- Fat: 3.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 0.8 g
- Fiber: 0.7 g
- Protein: 0.2 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg