GREEN OLIVES CURING RECIPE: QUICK HOMEMADE METHOD

FULL RECIPE FOR GREEN OLIVES CURING RECIPE
Ingredients:
1 kg fresh green olives*
1 lemon
2-3 oak or grape vine leaves

For the Brine:
1 Lt water
3 tbsp pickling salt
1 tsp lemon salt (optional)
1 tbsp sugar (optional)

(*) Note: Please adjust all the ingredients based on the fresh olive that you will use. Recipe gives the ratio of all other ingredients for 1 kg of fresh olive.

Directions

Pick green olives by hand to avoid bruising their skin.This is important to achieve firm and crunchy cured olives
Wash the olives and thoroughly drain the water
I recommend classifying the green olives into two categories:
1. Cure for immediate use
2. Cure for long-term use
For immediate use, you should choose green but ripe (slightly yellow) olives. They have less oleuropein in their skin. Thus, they are less bitter in taste and can be cured in a short time. Crushing or slitting the skin of olives also quickens the curing process.
So, using this method, you can prepare homemade cured green olives in 8-10 days.
To make green olives that'll last a whole year, please keep an eye out for the next video: "Long-Term Curing and Preservation method"

THE FIRST BRINE
Prepare a lightly salted First Brine (Ratio: 1.5 tbsp of pickling salt per liter of water). I recommend, preparing twice as much First Brine as you need for later use
Boil the salt water for 2-3 minutes, and let it cool down to room temperature
Fill the curing jars halfway with the cooled First Brine before slitting the olives

Pour some of the First Brine into a bowl. When you slit the olives, immediately soak them in the First Brine to prevent browning
Discard the brine in the bowl and place the olives into clean jars that are half-full of the First Brine. This makes for greener olives and cleaner brine during the curing
Fill the jars with the rest of the First Brine up to the HPS. Make sure olives are completely submerged in the liquid.
Weight-down the olives in each jar with a stone or a smaller jar lid to prevent oxygen contamination. Otherwise oxidation will turn the colour of the top olives brown
Loosely close the lids and place the jars in a dark and cool place
Now, keep an eye on them!
2 days later, drain the First Brine and store it in the fridge for later use.
Fill the olive jars with plain water and change the water twice a day

REMOVING THE BITTERNESS
Repeat the draining and refilling process with water for 7-8 days (twice a day) until the bitterness of the olives is gone (or when their taste is to your liking)

FLAVOURING AGENTS
Wash and slice a lemon, discard the seeds to avoid bitterness
Then, layer the lemon slices with pickling salt and keep them in a sealed container in the fridge until they are needed.

FINAL BRINE & PRESERVING
Once the olives reach their best flavour, drain their water and soak them in the Final Brine
I recommend using small jars for Final Brine. It provides longer freshness and prevent browning as the content of each jar is finished in a couple of days.

To prepare the Final Brine, take out the remaining First Brine we stored earlier, and add 1.5 tbsp per litter of that First Brine (Final Brine has about 2x more salt than First Brine)
If the First Brine is not enough to refill the jars, prepare more brine with the ratio of 3 tbsp of pickling salt per 1 L of water.
If you prefer a sweet-sour taste, you can add 1 tsp of lemon salt (citric acid) and 1 tbsp of sugar for each litter of brine
Cover the top of the olives with dry oak leaves (or grape vine leaves) to prevent browning and mold growth. It gives a wonderful aroma as well!
Fill the jars with the Final Brine until all the ingredients are completely submerged.
Place a slice of salted lemon on top of the jar for taste and extra protection from microbes

Cover the lids tightly and store the jars in a dark and cool pantry.
After 2-3 days of resting in the brine the freshly cured green olives are ready to serve on your breakfast table!

SERVING
Enhance the taste of firm and meaty slitted olives by adding drops of lemon juice and a generous amount of good quality olive oil
This immediate taste, simplicity, and freshness always amazes me
In Turkish Cuisine, cured olives and olive oil are breakfast staples. Therefore, olives should not be overly acidic.

Thanks to the simplicity of this traditional curing process, fresh olives keep their original aroma and present their health benefits to us!!
Enjoy the fruit of the Gods!
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