Olives Home-made

[v12spirit]

Re: Olives Home-made

Those green ones look beautiful. If you put them straight in a jar without soaking them first, how long must they be in the jar before they lose enough bitterness to be edible? I've done the knife cut thing, but it does bother me that soaking them with water must also remove flavour while it is leaching out the bitterness. Particularly interested in th egreen ones because I really like olives to be crisp when I bite into them.

Depending on how much you can bear/like bitterness it could be one up to two months. Honestly these have been made 6+ months ago and still have a slight lovely bitterness which is how I like them. But they were edible for sure by anyone after 3 months from jarring. Not being soaked contributes alot to the crisp. Do the smashing gently between two bricks, and jar them maybe after a few days of soaking or better without.
BTW The black ones are as delicious too, and can end up eventually with a sweet deep flavor. They are the best fit for pizza toppings having a concentrated flavor. Just give it a try.

[wotavidone]

Re: Olives Home-made

I have to post on this thread as we grow olives as a family tradition. Two kinds of olives with two idividual primitive ways of provision. The green one is smashed by a stone, rinsed with water to remove the bitterness for up to one month (optional. I skip that), bottled just with what we name "floating-egg water" made by adding salt to fresh water until a fresh egg floats to the top, 2 cm layer of olive oil on top, seal the jar, and done. Some deviced an interesting alternative for sealed jars; PLASTIC bottles namely soda bottles that resist gas pressure, fill it with olives (one by one, boring isn't it?) then the salty water, olive oil at the bottle top, then seal. They are opened by cutting the bottle neck with a knife. Smashing olives gives a completely different flavor from striating it by knife, no need to destroy the olives; just one meld stroke strong enough to open the olives. These olives can last with a fresh green color and a crisp texture for long especially when not rinsed too much with water. What you get is a fresh olive taste without any extra flavorings like lemon, chili, or garlic. Delicious.

Those green ones look beautiful. If you put them straight in a jar without soaking them first, how long must they be in the jar before they lose enough bitterness to be edible? I've done the knife cut thing, but it does bother me that soaking them with water must also remove flavour while it is leaching out the bitterness. Particularly interested in th egreen ones because I really like olives to be crisp when I bite into them.

[v12spirit]

Re: Olives Home-made

I have to post on this thread as we grow olives as a family tradition. Two kinds of olives with two idividual primitive ways of provision. The green one is smashed by a stone, rinsed with water to remove the bitterness for up to one month (optional. I skip that), bottled just with what we name "floating-egg water" made by adding salt to fresh water until a fresh egg floats to the top, 2 cm layer of olive oil on top, seal the jar, and done. Some deviced an interesting alternative for sealed jars; PLASTIC bottles namely soda bottles that resist gas pressure, fill it with olives (one by one, boring isn't it?) then the salty water, olive oil at the bottle top, then seal. They are opened by cutting the bottle neck with a knife. Smashing olives gives a completely different flavor from striating it by knife, no need to destroy the olives; just one meld stroke strong enough to open the olives. These olives can last with a fresh green color and a crisp texture for long especially when not rinsed too much with water. What you get is a fresh olive taste without any extra flavorings like lemon, chili, or garlic. Delicious.

The second is black. Layered dry in a cloth bag with generous salt layers in between, bag closed, a weight (up to twice the weight of the olive bag) on top; I use my millstone. Leave it for a 1-2 months while tossing (and turning) the bag and/or its contents every week or so. Can be jarred soaked in olive oil or less expensively drizzled with olive oil and kept in a bucket in a cool and dry place while tossing them daily so the drained olive oil at the bottom can reclad the whole olives so to prevent pacteria build up. It does last for a year provided a daily tossing is maintained. This olive is named 'retted olive' and has a deep earthy flavor and an attractive curly skin. Not the thing appreciated by youngs and children. I like it fresh and use it for pizza topping.

I have it daily on breakfast. Unfortunately the retted olives have been consumed so I could only show the green ones. The best mate with olives is Labneh; yogurt condensed in a cloth bag with the aid of a weight on top so the liquid is drained until stiff enough to be shaped into balls salted and garnished with black seeds.

[wotavidone]

Re: Olives Home-made

Tasted another olive while I was changing the water today. Texture is right - sorta crisp. Much less bitter. Reckon I'll be jarring these next weekend.
Reckon it'll be two parts brine, i part vinegar, clove of garlic and a fresh chili.

Based on this recipe here which seems much like my old mate Socrates used.
Olive pickling | Greek recipes | SBS Food

Went out to the tree to check out the ones I was planning to pick this weekend. To my horror they were all a bit shriveled. Obviously, I should have watered the tree more often. It hasn't rained here for a couple months, and we only get about 12 inches a year anyway, I should have paid more attention.
I let the hose trickle on the tree all day. Hopefully they'll be nicely plump again tomorrow. They did seem better when I checked the tree in the late afternoon.

[Greenman]

Re: Olives Home-made

I preserve quite a few things and make chutney, jam and relish from the local produce in season. I have always been a lover of olives but there are none around here. I have just got a new book on preserving - Preserving The Italian Way - by Pietro Demaio. It is loaded with great advice and I saw it had a number or recipes for olives using both fresh water and brine culminating in preserving in either brine or oil.

Worth a look if you have a lot of olives available it would be a pity not to get the best from them. The book was $40 but the local library probably has it or can get it. It featured on a current affairs program a year or so ago and it has taken me that long to get a copy. It is now in paperback and a little cheaper.

I hope you get joy from your olive preserving. It is really the best when home preserving works well. My kids love the basket of preserved produce I give them for Christmas, the only thing they can not buy anywhere.

The forno is great for cooking capsicum etc for antipasto and drying tomato as it gets to the bottom of the cooling cycle.

[wotavidone]

Re: Olives Home-made

G'day Dave.
I started them soaking 8 days ago. I've seen plenty of recipes that say that they need 10 to 20 days for green olives to lose the bitterness, so just out of interest I bit into one last night when I was changing the water.
I shoulda listened to Socrates when he told me that these particular olives need a month of soaking. My goodness, it was very bitter.
I reckon I'll be doing the full month of soaking.
Come to think of it, Angus the rooster only used to eat the black ones - one smart rooster. I still miss having him run across the lawn to greet me of a morning.
I'm using one of my home brew fermenters for the soaking. It works well, just sit the thing on the sink and turn on the tap and it drains nicely.
Couldn't make up my mind whether to use water or brine. So I'm using rain water with a couple of spoonfuls of salt to inhibit growth of any nasty bacteria.
Planning to do a 'big' harvest in the next couple of weeks. By which I mean I hope to get as much as 5 more kilos off the tree.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Olives Home-made

G'day
I was wondering how the olives were going?
Regards dave

[wotavidone]

Re: Olives Home-made

Dammit! I'm supposed to be washing the ute and clearing out the garage and putting a new belt on the grey water pump.
Instead, I've read this thread and promptly walked down the back yard and picked 2 and a half kilos of green olives to experiment with. It's a public holiday Monday here in sunny South Oz, and the olives on the north side of the tree are just starting to turn red. Since I'm a green olive man, I decided it's time to get going.
I had a small crop last year, then I pruned the tree. The very first crop was consumed by my pet rooster Angus, may he RIP. No, the olives didn't kill him, in fact I think they contributed to his extraordinarily long life. He used to dig himself a dust bath under the tree then sit there all day pecking off the low hanging fruit. I weighed him at 5 kg once.
My Greek Australian neighbour, gave me this cutting from his best tree several years ago. It's just over my head now, and it's loaded this year.
I'm fast running out of his pickled olives, and there will be no more. He had a stroke and he and his wife moved to the city to be closer to the kids and the big hospitals. There's a tenant in his house now, and no one looking after the olive trees as far as I can see. Sigh.........
So, I have to carry the torch going forward.
Wish Annie M was around, I'd like to see what she thinks of using seawater for pickling.

[CoyoteVB]

Re: Olives Home-made

If you are interested in brining your own olives, here is a great resource. Fresh Gourmet Olives for Sale | Penna Olives- GreatOlives.com. There is also a good UC Davis site that discusses olives.

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Olives Home-made

I also saw one recipe on-line that started the initial soaking in a brine solution and immediately thought that was wrong. I know there are different ways to do things but I thought it would be too salty by the time you leached out the bitterness (initially).

Soaking in water sounds like a good idea, might as well make it a water/vinegar 50-50 mix and throw out the mix and refresh it once a week for a month. Inexpensive white or cider or red vinegar should be fine.

PS asiminia: I've transferred a small jar of my olives to oil only. So far they're still delicious.

[C5dad]

Re: Olives Home-made

I tried 1 week in fresh water to no avail. I was thinking to let it sit for another week - why not it was over a month at that point, but I needed the SS vessel for sauce making - gotta keep the chillins happy.

[roobqn]

Re: Olives Home-made

Would you be able to soak the olives in fresh water to help remove the saltiness?

When we make pastrami, we soak a store bought corned beef for several hours to overnight to help remove the saltiness. Just don't know if that is an option with olives. Maybe wouldn't hurt to try it on a handfull.

[C5dad]

Re: Olives Home-made

My olive experiment did not go too well - Kalamata style. Following the recipe on line, they came out wayyyyyyy to salty. Next time fresh water every couple of days for the first week or so, then salt solution.

[Lburou]

Re: Olives Home-made

I look forward to hearing how it goes, Dino. I have three olive trees and this year I have my first (and I do mean first for I have ONLY ONE) olive and it is just about ready to pick. Next year all three trees should bear and I will FINALLY be able to make olives.

Alas, one olive is sort of unusable!
Jay

One olive, but the promise of a tree full in a year or two.

We had three year old peach and apple trees with their first crop this year. One apple and a couple dozen good peaches from three different peach trees.....I am excited about the future years for these wonderful fruits. I share your anticipation for the coming year's crop

Mediteranian/Greek olives add a lot to the taste of a pizza! All olives are not equal though...godspeed Dino_Pizza!

[asimenia]

Re: Olives Home-made

We keep our olives in olive oil in Greece - not brine.