Brine for olives | All Things Sicilian and more

I never have any doubts about the success of the olives I pickle. They always seem to work and they taste different from year to year.

This is a photo of the jars of olives in my pantry.

There are last year’s olives (2020) and they are ready to eat having spent one year in the pickling solution.

There are two batches of this year’s olives: those in the small jar and red lid are from my small tree on my balcony. This year there were not many olives on my tree. The two large jars of dark coloured olives I collected from a wild tree on Hindmarsh Island in South Australia.

I often experiment when I preserve my olives. The standard procedure is to soak them in fresh water for 8-10 days and changing the water daily, then placing the drained olives in a sterilised jar and covering them in brine. Making sure that the olives are submerged and topping them with a little olive oil to help prevent mould is essential.

As you can see on the red lid, this year’s olives (collected in April from my small tree on my balcony) are in a solution of extra virgin olive oil and brine drained from a jar of preserved lemons that I made earlier in the year and are ready to use. I have used some of the lemons and some of that brine has gone into the olives, together with a 1/2 tablespoon of salt, just to make sure that they do not go off.

Last year’s olives – 2020 – were only soaked in fresh water for 3 days. I was going away and the olives needed to be collected and treated so I used a greater amount of brine , ie 3/4 amount of brine and 1/4 mixture of extra virgin olive oil and vinegar. For brine = 2 tablespoons of salt in boiling water, fully dissolved and allowed to cool. On this occasion I also added some dry fennel seeds.

In the latest pickling I used ripe but firm olives collected in the wild on Hindmarsh Island in South Australia. I usually do not pickle ripe olives and dry them instead. These olives however were very firm and so I went through the pickling process of soaking them in fresh water for 10 days and changing the water daily . I then pickled them with roughly equal amounts of extra virgin olive oil, wine vinegar (red or white) and brine – 2 tablespoons of salt in boiling water, fully dissolved and allowed to cool. Salt is cheap so don’t skimp on brine. Add as much oil and vinegar first and then top up with Brine.

Ensure that there is sufficient salt in the brine. Extra virgin olive oil and vinegar are also preservatives and will add flavour as well.

It is important to keep the olives submerged so those little plastic circular gadgets are very handy. My collection are from jars of Italian preserves I have bought over the years. Depending on the size of your jar , you can add a small saucer on top, or some other sort of mesh, to keep the olives submerged underneath the brine.

I never use fresh herbs or garlic as these can cause the pickling solution to go off.

I do add different ingredients to dress the pickled olives I am about to eat. Any fresh herbs – thyme, rosemary, fresh bay leaves are favourites, and /or garlic, grated orange or lemon peel, preserved lemon and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil.

As the mood takes me I also like to keep pickled olives with flavours steeped in oil to keep on the fridge. I add whole peppercorns, fennel seeds, dry oregano , chilli flakes, even whole star anise to the drained pickled olives.

Any of the above can also be added to commercially pickled olives and adding fresh good extra virgin olive oil will make a difference and your version is bound to taste better than some of the commercially dressed olives.

Some of the most popular posts on my blog are about pickling olives or how to dress them once they are pickled.

And I have also had many conversations with people about how to pickle olives so it is time to reveal another pickling method that has worked for my olives for the last couple of years.

I have to say that my olives are small in size and if your olives are larger, this pickling process may take a much longer time. What you could do, is put a split on the side of each olive – this will assist the pickling process.

My tree is in a large pot on my balcony and I bought is from a plant nursery where it was labelled as a Paragon olive tree – it would be called a Frantoio olive tree in Tuscany. Frantoio (Paragon) olives are small and oval in shape and they are mainly used for extracting oil. In the photo below the Paragon olives are on the left and Kalamata olives are on the right.

A ‘Frantoio’ is also the hydraulic press used to extract oil and the processing plant or factory is also called a ‘Frantoio’.

The color of an olive is an indication of its ripeness. Green olives ripen and go from green to light brown and purple, to black. If I am using brine (salt and water) I pick the olives when they begin to turn from green to violet and I go through the usual process of keeping them submerged in a bucket of water and changing the water every day before I place them into brine. Because olives do not all ripen at once I may need to pick the olives in stages and follow through to the pickling process in batches – I cannot say that it is one of my favourite occupations.

However for the last couple of years olive ripening time has coincided with travelling and not wanting to waste the olives I have collected them all at once – green, purple and black – I eliminated the process of the changing of water and all the olives went straight into pickling using water, salt, wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

And this process has worked (for the past two years). The olives are probably more bitter than previous years but I do not mind that at all. I usually leave them about 5-6 months before I eat them.

Every two years the tree produces a large crop and I may collect about 2 kilos of olives. I pickle my olives in a crockpot which I leave on my balcony (there is no room for a crockpot inside my small apartment).

When they are ready I transfer them to jars and add fennel seeds and dry oregano to them. Notice that there is always oil on top and that the olives are submerged.

There are various other ingredients that I add to olives when I dress them (See my other posts about olives).

2 kg olives
1 ½ litres water
5 tbsp heaped salt (I use sea salt for everything)
600 ml wine vinegar
600 ml extra virgin olive oil
Wash and drain the olives and place them in a clean glass jar; I use a crockpot.

Boil the water and add the salt – make sure that it is dissolved. The way to test if the water is salty enough is to float an egg in the water and if the egg’s surface remains above the water, there is enough salt in the water. If it sinks add more salt. Wait till it is cool.
Add the vinegar and cover the olives in the jars finishing with a good layer of olive oil to seal. Use some mesh to keep them submerged – they must be covered.
Set aside until the olives are ready.

Tag: Brine for olives

VARIOUS WAYS TO PICKLE OLIVES

Like this:

PICKLING OLIVES- More About

Like this: