Have you ever had a raw olive? The taste is likened to that of turpentine (not that I truly know what turpentine taste like as I have only smelled it) but the taste is so bitter it's enough to make one sick.
I have a deep deep love for olives from black to green, from the salty to the tangy Greek Kalamata olive. I like to stuff them with cheeses, eat them strait from the jar, even sip the olive brine. (I know, sounds sick but I also do this with pickle juice).
In any event, I got this great (I thought great) idea of home curing My own olives. I spend a great deal of money on gourmet olives and thought...there has to be a better way that is more cost efficient. Besides, I can control the quality and flavor of the olives if I do them Myself right? Right.
I bought some olives online during their peak season. I purchased ten plus pounds with the intent of curing them. The problem is, there were not a lot of helpful websites or related information on what process was best. You have your water cured olives, your cracked olives which you hammer with a rubber mallet along with puncturing a small hole in the olive to leach or is it leech out the bitter taste? I think it's leech. More on that later.
I bought enough salt to preserve several large bodies and a big plastic drum from the hardware store to cure My newly delivered olives in.
I washed them with cold water, rinsed them and placed a great deal of rock salt, ice cream salt and Kosher salt into the drum. At first I did not bother cracking them but after a period of a week or so with no change in taste (still very bitter) I got toothpicks and punctured holes in a vast majority of the olives. I weighted them down with a plastic bag filled with cool water and make sure to stir them up every day.
So far, no BIG change but I have noticed that I can now chew a piece of the olive without immediately spitting it out and gagging. They are starting to cure. I found a recipe online just tonight that I am going to try which is quite simplistic and sometimes simplicity is key.
I am going to buy large Mason jars and sterilize them and make up a brine which consist of pure lemon juice, wine vinegar, whole garlic cloves, hot peppers, black peppercorns, celery and large pieces of lemon. For good measure I will add a few bay leaves to each jar along with a bit of olive oil to float on top. I am told, to leave these jars in a cool dark place for at least six months before consuming and giving them away to loved ones.
I will let everyone know how this process is coming along. Wish Me luck. I am quite tired of spending big bucks on olives when I can make them Myself. Well, to be quite honest, these olives weren't cheap and were sort of costly but certainly not as costly as buying them by the pound at a local gourmet shop. Besides, I can change up the flavor on some of the jars and add bell peppers to some, as well as different herbs and spices. Oregano will certainly be in some of these jars as well as Basil and hot pepper flakes. I am even thinking of adding red wine vinegar to some and white wine vinegar to others and a bit of sweet grape juice to the red wine vinegar brine. Again, wish Me luck dear reader. I will report back to you on either My success or failure in this venture.
Project olive is a go.
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Success!
ReplyDeleteOh dear readers, after constant curing, skimming and checking for ill borne bad un's We have success!
The cost? Costly, the end cost via price you would spend per jar? Next to nothing!
Yee haw! Yeah and...all that jazz. I won't break out into song and dance as if I were in a Broadway show but...
After all the work, the skimming, the watching, the waiting? I ended up with a product that was far better than most olives I have purchased for a very costly fee.
Remember, you can make your own olives to your OWN PERSONAL taste. Like them hot? Like them sour? Like them in red or white wine vinegar? The choice you see, is yours and yours alone.
Remember that all good things take what? Yes, time!
Leave them be (watch them closely of course) but aside from that? Leave them be. Time is needed.
Oh wow! I want to sell these for 199.00 a jar but.......I will hog them for Myself! HOG HOG HOG! (I don't care if you call Me a pig) OINK I say to you. These are so very good, briney and awesome!)
Don't look at Me! (This is what I said once to My husband when I was eating all you can eat ribs at a local establishment). I ordered like oh.......you don't NEED to know how many orders of ribs). I was purple/brown with sauce, I had fingers full of goo and muck, so what danged you all! All you can eat.
Back to the olives...want some? Pish pa. Beg Me? ;)
Kidding. I am going to hoard them all for Myself but if YOU want to know how to make your own? Comment.
I'll give a couple of pointers as I did make a few mistakes with a batch or two. Don't make the same mistake. Money is short in this economy and We foodies cannot afford to make mistakes.
As always,
The Gothic Gourmet'.