Olives. I am obsessed with many things, but a good Olive ranks right up there with my Home-brew and Sourdough Bread obsession. We don't think much of the lowly Olive these days and how they make their journey from tree to table, so for the Olive-Curious, please read on.
Olives have been harvested, cured, and consumed for a millenia. Archeological and scientific evidence indicates that the first cultivation of the olive was between the border between Turkey and Syria. From here it spread throughout the mediterranean to Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Greece, Italy, France, and Spain. People in the eastern Mediterranean have been grinding olives for oil the last 6,000-8,000 years.
Olives are inedible when harvested. They contain a substance called oleuropein that is extremely bitter. The bitterness is a protective mechanism that wards off pests and animals. (Humans too). Olives were originally harvested for its oil as a ripe olive contains about 30% olive oil. It wasn't until much later that humans figured out how to cure (leach the oleuropein out of the fruit) which turned the olive into the condiment we know and love today.
There are multiple ways to cure an olive but the most common method dating back to the Roman times is curing by salt. The Romans would take freshly harvested olives and store them in vats filled with seawater. After months of soaking in the seawater, the salt would displace the oleuropein making them edible.
Now that all that history is behind us, lets cure some olives...
Curing ingredients:
4 gallons Green or Black olives freshly harvested
Pickling Salt
Water
Curing instructions:
Sort olives by color (Green and Black cure at different rates)
Remove any stems remaining on the olives, discard any damaged olives
Rinse the olives with fresh water (rinse in batches using a colander)
Mix salt brine using 2 gallons of water and 2 cups of pickling salt
Keep green and black olives in separate containers
Submerge the olives in the salt brine ensuring the water completely covers the olives
Each week, drain the brine, rinse the olives and add fresh brine.
Repeat this process for a minimum of 8 weeks (or until the olives are no longer bitter)
Now that the olives have cured, it's time for a bit of culinary creativity to turn them into something truly special.
Seasoning and storing the olives:
After the bitterness has been leached out of the olives by the salt, drain the brine from the olives and rinse with fresh water. In new (dishwasher sanitized) Ball or Mason jars (with new lids) add the following...
1 Tsp dried minced onions
1 Tsp dried minced garlic
1 clove fresh garlic (cracked)
1 dried chili pepper (optional)
1 Tsp black whole peppercorn
1 Tsp dried oregano
1 Tsp dried basil
1 sprig thyme
1 sprig rosemary
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp fennel seed
Add rosemary, thyme, garlic and chili pepper into empty jar
Fill jar to 1 inch of the top with cured / rinsed olives
In a bowl add the remaining ingredients and mix to create the marinade
Pour the marinade into the jar, it should cover 1/2 of the olives
Put the lid on the jar, shake the jar to coat the olives
Every few days, shake the jar to keep the olives coated
Store in refrigerator up to 2 weeks
Marinade variations by country...
French (Olives marinées): use black niçoise olives, thyme and a little lavender.
Greek: use black Kalamata olives and dried oregano and thyme.
North African (Mslalla): use black olives and substitute lemon juice for the vinegar. Stir in cumin seeds, coriander seeds, lemon and orange zest and crushed red pepper.
Spanish (Aceitunas aliñadas): use paprika, cumin seeds and peppercorns.
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