Olives From Scratch

jiggerjams · December 19, 2010, 11:55:50 PM

About six weeks ago I came home from work to this:

Olives are you kidding? I have never played with olives before but let's give it a shot. First off I bit into an olive to taste it. Absolutely horrible tasting. How did anyone figure out these things are edible? Totally bitter!!

I searched online for a recipe and this is the one I decided on
http://winewriter.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/how-to-make-greek-olives-at-home/

Following the recipe I exchanged water daily. This is called water brining. After two weeks of water brining the olives looked like this.

I tried a taste again at the earliest stage to pull (3 weeks) and I felt it was better but could use to go the recipe distance and brined them for another week. Four weeks in total. Then olive sit in a salt brine as per the recipe. I went four days though.

The taste is still not favorable but when brined I think the olives have a solid chance of being a success. At this time the olives looked like this.

Time to start the party. I checked the following for proper ID and all were legit to enter. How could I say no?

Following the recipe I added olive oil and oregano and stirred to mix

Started jars with garlic, jalapeno, and lemon

Create layers of garlic lemon, jalapeno, olives and repeat. Added 1/2 jar of apple cider and topped up with a salt brine. Leave room to add 1/4 inch of olive oil. I think the primary purpose of this is to create a barrier so the air does not contact the olives...and add taste.

Next time I would deviate away from the recipe and when adding the olive oil and oregano, I would keep a closer tab on the oregano added by stirring and observing then add more if needed

I can not comment on the taste as it is recommended to sit in jars for a month to develop flavor....but I will in January!!

JJ

3rensho · December 20, 2010, 12:00:57 AM

Those look delicious! I make a big batch every year but usually lye cure them. Let us know how these taste. Maybe I'll give 'em a try next year.

squirtthecat · December 20, 2010, 04:45:22 AM

Very nice!

Caneyscud · December 20, 2010, 05:43:36 AM

Can I come over in about a month. I would love to try those. I have not gotten to play with fresh olives yet.

jiggerjams · December 20, 2010, 07:11:32 AM

Sure. The doors open.

KevinG · December 20, 2010, 08:34:37 AM

Interesting, I don't like olives myself, but always thought you needed to put them in lactic acid and then lye to remove the taste.

Tenpoint5 · December 20, 2010, 09:57:42 AM

Interesting for sure.

Caneyscud · December 20, 2010, 11:36:44 AM

Quote from: KevinG on December 20, 2010, 08:34:37 AM
Interesting, I don't like olives myself, but always thought you needed to put them in lactic acid and then lye to remove the taste.

Yes and no! From what I remember, there is the "Lye" cure, the water cure, and the salt cure (sometimes called oil cure). I don't remember if all cures are for all olives. I think only ripe olives are used with the salt cure.

classicrockgriller · December 20, 2010, 04:07:08 PM

I am a Olive Freak!

Can't wait for the taste test.

TestRocket · December 20, 2010, 06:02:24 PM

I think you can get that already done and it's called...if I can remember Rachael Ray correctly EVOO? My kids have always enjoyed putting olives on their fingers and eating them. Yuck! I'll take a pass on this one! ???

jiggerjams · December 20, 2010, 06:43:49 PM

I can remember around the two week period I started thinking the olives were going bad because they (only a small few at this time)were changing color and an odor was developing. I thought I did something wrong until later on when I recognized the color as being more like a cured olive and more olives started looking like that. Whew!!.

rdevous · December 21, 2010, 04:52:36 AM

Alton Brown cured olives in one of the episodes of his show Good Eats. Rather labor intensive process involved in curing them!!!

Ray

jiggerjams · December 21, 2010, 08:19:00 AM

Yes it was. Hopefully the labor of love thing works out for me. Alton Brown is interesting. Much respect to him!.

JJ

ArnieM · December 21, 2010, 08:55:41 AM

Looks like an interesting experiment JJ. I like olives but don't recall ever seeing a 'fresh' one. As you indicated, I've heard they're inedible.

I'll also be looking forward to the finished product.

carnie1 · December 23, 2010, 07:40:31 PM

I did olives a few years ago, did a bunch of different kinds, last few years I keep missing the season to purchase raw olives, I'll do them again if I can catch them in season, check this out http://beadcreation.tripod.com/homemade_olives_raw_olive_curing_curing_olives_olive_recipies_curring_recipies.htm

Olives From Scratch

squirtthecat