topic Re: Pickling olives, advice please. in Community Spirit

Pickling olives, advice please.

tulip*place — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:07:15 GMT

Hi, bought a bag of green olives at the fruit shop yesterday. Never tried pickling before and have had

a look on the net to see how to do it. I know it's a long process, eg 6 month before they are edible. Has anyone pickled olives and could offer advice.

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

j*oono — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 01:28:51 GMT

I would like advice too if anyone has any. I have a kalamata olive tree and I'm not sure whether to try soaking and marinating them.

My dog bites the lower ones right off the tree and eats them! Stone and all.

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

catsnknots — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 01:57:24 GMT

I would like to know if anyone hae pickled onions... those small ones...

sits back and waits...

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

i-need-a-martini — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 06:54:55 GMT

My mum does them (italian style) every year.

She just squashes them a little to open them up and seals them in a jar of water and rock salt. She puts a lemon on the top to stop them reaching the air pocket at the top.

We've eaten them like this a week later. They taste bitter as all hell but are still edible. Not everyone would appreciate the taste tho lol but we are used to it in our family cause we can't wait to get stuck in lol!

The longer they stay in the less bitter they get. About 3 months is good. I have a jar she did a year ago that I forgot about and the olives were still good all that time later.

You can eat them out straight out of the jar or 'dress' them with olive oil, a touch of vinegar and a tiny bit of chilli.

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

j*oono — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 07:47:40 GMT

Martini if you are still around. Do you have to change the water every day? I was worried about that because I would probably forget to do it. Also, how salty is the water? The lemon on the top sounds like a good idea. I'm going to give this a go.

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

i-need-a-martini — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:12:17 GMT

No need to change the water, joono.

My mum usually bottles them the same day we pick them and then she hands me a couple of jars same day. I open them when I remember. Although I do vaguely recall seeing olives soaking in a bowls for a few hours. Not sure if this is before bottling or if she is using them for something else. I'll ask her tomorrow or the day after and come back to the thread.

I don't know how salty. If I say brine salty does this makes sense? Saltier than sea water at any rate. The salt is the thing that makes them less bitter.

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

the_bob_delusion — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:16:00 GMT

YUM, sorry, that's my only contribution.

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

j*oono — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:23:18 GMT

Thanks Martini. Yes, brine makes sense. I've been meaning to give it a go for a few years now but mostly it hasn't had a whole load of fruit and it gets blown away by the rotten easterlies. This year there are quite a lot. and plenty of them are ripe. The tree is probably five or six years old now but it used to be in a big pot. It has done much better in the ground.

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

j*oono — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:18:13 GMT

Here we go. Bottled on 29th. I tried squashing them a bit but I was squishing juice all over myself.

Martini, mine are quite green and mushy inside. Is that normal? I decided to do a slice with a sharp knife from top down.

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

**meep** — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:31:23 GMT

this is how i would do them

http://www.homelife.com.au/recipe/how+to+preserve+fresh+olives,5363

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

j*oono — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:37:03 GMT

Good one Meep. That does give me an idea of how much salt is needed too.

I am worried about how mushy they are on the inside. they are firm on the outside when you squeeze them.

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

**meep** — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:46:32 GMT

hmmm...I'm not really sure Joono. I thought they're supposed to be hard. Martini would probably know best.

this is another good website

http://www.oliveaustralia.com.au/Pickling_your_Olives/pickling_your_olives.html

btw, I like your pic 🙂

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

tulip*place — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:43:54 GMT

Found the following clip on youtube. Shows how to get the right amount of salt by using an egg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1O20Jpf8Kk&feature=player_detailpage

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

j*oono — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:10:20 GMT

Great video Tulip!

I'm even more worried about my mushy olives now though. Maybe it is because the are Kalamata or maybe they are over ripe.

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

tulip*place — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:38:55 GMT

j*oono, the olives I got from the shop were quite hard not sure of the variety but they were a nice green colour and quite large. I followed the directions in the clip from milkwood and didn't sqash them. We'll have to do a taste test in a couple of months. I

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

purple.cow — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 03:31:18 GMT

the olives I got from the shop were quite hard not sure of the variety

All green olives are hard because they are the unripe fruit of every variety of olive.

Ok, back to work again for me now 😞

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

i-need-a-martini — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:29:42 GMT

Still haven't managed to catch my mum.

But when she does the olives they are generally as hard as a rock.And they stay hard for weeks. So perhaps your are too ripe...

But on saying that she collects them all - even the ones ripe enough to fall to the ground - so perhaps they simply need pickling for different lengths of time. Interestingly, that dark colouring of the water is exactly what my mums look like after a few weeks in the jar.

Anyway, you'll know once you open the jar and taste them whether it has worked or not.

Re: Pickling olives, advice please.

j*oono — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:46:07 GMT

Thanks Martini. I checked some still on the tree this morning that are less than ripe. Still plenty of green on them. When I slice some off with a sharp knife they look ok but if I squash them with my thumb they just go to complete mush too so I don't know what is wrong.

I will check them in a couple of weeks and find out whether they are at all edible :^O