Tips for Picking the Best Olives

Tips for Picking the Best Olives will help you select fresh green olives perfect for pickling. When choosing olives, it’s best to pick them by hand to avoid damage. Also, ensure the olives feel firm to the touch, as only firm olives are ideal. Additionally, make sure your green olives are still green before pickling—darker colors indicate ripeness, and overripe olives are not suitable.

Selecting a Cure Solution

Olives have a bitter, firm flavor. This is primarily due to the presence of oleuropein in olives. To get rid of the bitter taste, they must be cured.

Curing methods include oil-cured, water-cured, brine-cured, salt-dry-cured, and lye-cured.

Water Curing

Tips for Picking the Best Olives recommend this method especially for big green olives. First, after washing the olives, carefully crack the olive meat with a stone or hammer without bruising the pit. Then, soak the olives in cold water for a week, changing the water twice a day until the bitterness fades. After that, fill the pan halfway with brine (about 1 part sea salt to 10 parts water) and lemon juice (about 1 part lemon juice to 10 parts water). Finally, you can transfer the olives to jars if preferred, then chill them for several hours before serving.

Brine Curing

This method is appropriate for black olives.

Wash the olives first, then make a cut in the olive (top to bottom) without breaking the pit. Put the olives in brine (1 part sea salt to 10 parts water) in a pan. Ensure that the olives are completely submerged and covered.

Cure the olives for three weeks, stirring the pan daily and replacing the brine weekly. Depending on the olives, this process could take 5 to 6 weeks.

When they have reached the desired flavor, put them in jars with brine (1 part sea salt to 10 parts water), 4 tablespoons vinegar, and a layer of olive oil on top.