The humble olive: how to cure your own

by Adriane on June 21, 2010

OLIVE JAR

Three years ago I went on a boozy winery tour with a busload of artist mates. Somehow along the way I managed not only to buy two small olive trees, but also two magnificent French oak wine barrels to plant them in. Once I had persuaded the bus driver to let me manoeuvre the barrels onboard, I also had to convince the other passengers to help me load them off and back on at every winery so we could exit and re-board the bus. Let’s just say I can do without another rendition of ‘roll out the barrels’.

Three years later, planted in their barrels in inner city Melbourne, my olive trees have fruited madly. Perhaps it’s the West-facing position, combined with the heat-retaining brick wall behind them, but these trees have done their best at an astonishingly early age.

Urban olive tree

So what to do with them? Fortunately during a sobering coffee the next morning, the proprietor of the olive tree shop gave me some simple advice, which I followed.

First I picked my olives as they began to change colour and soften. Not too soft, just a bit of give when you squeeze them. I then made up a salt solution of 100g salt to 1 litre of water. Some recipes suggest making a cut in each olive, pricking them with a fork, or smashing them with the bottom end of a beer bottle to hasten the curing, but I am continually time-poor and am happy to let them be. Over the next few weeks I changed the salt solution roughly every week or ten days, and the olives gradually darkened, while the salt drew out the bitterness. I kept this up until the bitterness disappeared, and left them in clean water for a few more days to remove more salt.

Cat in an olive tree

Once the bitterness is removed it’s time to bottle. I chose to put mine in sterilised glass jars with a fresh salt solution of I part vinegar to 4 parts brine. I threw in a few dried chillies, garlic, peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves before filling the jars almost to the top, and then topped them up to the brim with olive oil to seal them. There are a few expensive stoneware olive-curing pots on the market, which have an inner perforated disc to keep the olives submerged. The important thing is to fill the containers to the top to exclude any air, otherwise bacteria can grow. Stored in a cool dark place the olives will improve with time and should keep for at least a year.

I like to marinate my olives in a small bowl with a few glugs of olive oil, some fresh garlic, rosemary, peppercorns and dried red chillies, and leave them for a few days before eating. And then crack open another bottle with my mates. Just don’t sing that song.

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{ 1 trackback }

Izakaya Den is “quite nice really”. Or is it?
July 9, 2010 at 4:52 pm

{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

Forager June 21, 2010 at 3:35 pm

Ah – you have to continuously change the salt! That’s where I faile with out first attempt. It was so incredibly bitter it tasted poisonous! I’ll follow these tips and give it another crack as home made marinated olives sound great!

Neil Prentice June 21, 2010 at 9:05 pm

I tried this a few years ago without much success – perhaps a symptom of my patience. Do you know much about what trees are best to plant?

another outspoken female June 21, 2010 at 9:31 pm

Nice gratuitous pussy shot!

What type of olive are they?

Daniel @ The Food Addicts June 24, 2010 at 2:29 pm

I just planted an olive tree and I am so glad that I stumbled upon your blog. I hope one day to learn how to expel oil from the olives as well.

Thanks!

Megan June 24, 2010 at 11:19 pm

That’s amazing. You have your very own olive tree! Congratz! I’m just envious of those who can grow their own food :( I wish I could.

steve June 26, 2010 at 2:46 pm

Hiya Ed, Nice to see you blogging again.
When I lived in SA we used to pick on Saturdays & score them on sundays then plop them into the water and basically follow the same method as yours. SA is strewn with wild olives and are considered a noxious weed-try telling that to the many ethnic families who spread their balnkets under all those trees in the parks!

Ed June 27, 2010 at 9:44 pm

Hey Steve,
I am back in thevstained food blogging trousers but check the byline – Adriane is wrote this one. Got some good ones up my sleeve coming soon…

Adriane June 27, 2010 at 10:01 pm

Hi Forager,
Yes you need to change the salted water frequently. Less often will still work, but just take longer. Good luck next time!

Hi Neil,
Yes some patience is required but it’s not that hard. My trees are Manzanillo and Sevillano, it’s the manzanillo in the photos – oddly the Sevillano only produced one olive this year.

Another outspoken female,
The pussy actually belongs to my neighbour, but is always happy to help out! Olive varieties as above.

Daniel,
I think you may need different varieties for oil. I have friends in Italy who have very old trees, most are purely for oil, with a couple of different trees grown for eating.

Megan, if you have a small outdoor space and some sun you can grow one too – even in a pot.

Hi Steve,
I used to spend a lot of time in the McLaren Vale and saw lots of wild olives growing along the roadside. I wish we had a few here!

Cheers,

Adriane

My Restaurants Melbourne July 1, 2010 at 8:36 pm

Great article! you can do so much with olives, I liked the link you put in for the Olive Store, looks great.

cin July 6, 2010 at 5:13 pm

My olive tree never did bear any fruit, but then I am SO not a green thumb. Most of my plants get neglected and die a wiltingly slow death.

My FIL cures his own though and the last bath or two were bitter. I wonder how well he would take some advice about changing the salt…

Thomas August 3, 2010 at 8:58 pm

Thanks for this post, I have been debating trying to can my own food, but have been a little hesitant because of patience, bacteria etc.

Benson July 9, 2010 at 3:30 pm

Simon Denton’s restaurants are overrated and Verge tops that list.

This comment was originally posted on Tomato | The insiders guide to restaurants, food and drink in Melbourne.

Cam July 9, 2010 at 4:47 pm

Hi Ed,

Thanks for your position on kickbacks and your integrity. Yours is one of the few food blogs in Melbourne I trust. There are a couple of others, but this is one of the good ones.

Cheers,

Cam

This comment was originally posted on Tomato | The insiders guide to restaurants, food and drink in Melbourne.

Celeste @ Berrytravels July 9, 2010 at 5:23 pm

Thanks for this. I’ve been reading and wondering at the hype that surrounds Izakaya Den. Many seems to swear by it. And I’m suspicious of anything that everybody seems to swear by.

This comment was originally posted on Tomato | The insiders guide to restaurants, food and drink in Melbourne.

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