How To Make Olives in Brine

Although olives are considered as breakfast food in Turkey, we love to snack on them between meals too. Just like the Greek do. 

That’s why we were so excited when we saw the first products of the year at our local market last week. We bought about 10 pounds (about 4.5 kilos) and started brining them. We can’t wait to taste the brined olives once their bitterness goes away! 

Curing green olives is one of our preparations for winter, just like making tomato paste or pickling.

If you don't know how to preserve olives, you might feel intimidated. Don't worry! It is not as hard as you think. In this post, we will share our simple olive brine recipe and you will see how easy it is. You just need some patience because you need to wait more than 10 days. We promise, it’s worth every single day.

Olives in Turkish Culture

Have you ever heard about Turkish breakfast? Olives are a staple for us in the morning in addition to lots of other foods like cheese, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, eggs, pastries, jam, honey, butter and several other foods.

In Turkey, especially in the south and west, olive harvest is a big deal. You see huge fields of olive trees in these regions of the country. When fall comes (especially in October and November), families gather to pick olives from trees. 

Once the olives are harvested, they're sorted. Some olives are sent to factories to transform into olive oil. The others are prepared for preservation (curing or brining) to enrich the breakfast table all year round.

The preparation for brining olives is laborious. Olives are either cracked or slit individually, a process demanding many hands. It's a task where everyone, from grandparents to young kids, is involved.

Methods of Olive Curing:

1. Dry Salt Curing: It is a traditional technique primarily used for ripe black olives in Mediterranean countries. By applying coarse salt directly to the olives, moisture and bitterness are drawn out over several weeks. This natural process gives the olives a rich, concentrated flavor and a unique chewy texture. 
2. Lye Curing: A strong alkaline solution is used to soak the olives, reducing the bitterness in a much faster way compared to water curing. They're then rinsed thoroughly and soaked in water to remove the lye. The store-bought olives are mostly lye-cured.
3. Water Curing: Olives are soaked in plain water, which is changed daily. This process helps draw out the bitterness.
4. Salt Brining: This method involves soaking olives in a salt water solution.

There are several ways to cure olives, but in this post, we're going to talk about the salt brining method. It's an easy and popular way to make olives taste great. Let's learn more about it!

What is Olive Brining?

Brining is a curing technique where green olives are soaked in a solution made of salt and water. The method we use has two steps:

1. Water Curing: Olives are first soaked in plain water, which is changed daily. This process helps draw out the bitterness. It might take up to 10 days.
2. Brine Curing: This method involves soaking olives in a salt and water solution. Olives absorb some of the water and salt. The salt goes into the olive and helps break down its tissues. This makes the olive softer and changes its flavor.

After this process, olives turn from bitter raw fruits into delicious savory snacks. Also, the salt in the water also stops bad bacteria from growing, so it makes a perfect preservation for the olives.

How To Choose The Best Olives

When buying fresh olives for brining, keep these in mind:

• They shouldn’t be damaged. It’s perfect if the olives are picked by hand.
• They should look firm enough. Don’t use any mushy olives.
• They shouldn’t be overripe. If you are planning to brine olives, make sure they are green. You can find the best green olives in late September and October. The darker color shows that olives are riper.

Ingredients

Creating the perfect brine for olives begins with the right ingredients. Here's a guide to what you'll need:

1. Olives: Depending on the region and preference, several olive types can be used for brining, including Mission, Manzanilla and Picholine. We think fresh green olives are the best to brine. Ensure they're fresh, firm, and brightly colored. The black ones are ripe, so they have a soft texture, which makes them more suitable for dry salt-curing.
2. Water: Always use clean, cold water. If you're unsure about your tap water, consider bottled or filtered water as an alternative.
3. Salt: Use sea salt, kosher salt or pickling salt. These are the best types of salt when making olive brine. Regular table salt is not recommended because it often contains non-caking agents, which don't dissolve well in water and can make the brine look cloudy.
4. Optional Add-ins: For a flavor twist, you can use ingredients like lemon slices, garlic cloves, or herbs such as rosemary or thyme.

How To Brine Olives At Home

Brining olives is a simple process, similar to pickling. There are basically 4 steps: Preparing the olives, removing their bitterness, making a brine and then curing the olives in this brine. Here's a step-by-step guide: 

Prepare the Olives

Washing and Sorting: Rinse the olives thoroughly under running water. As you wash, inspect each olive and discard any that are damaged or have holes. 

Cracking: Using a mallet, the base of a jar, or even a stone, gently tap each olive once or twice to crack the skin, ensuring the flesh slightly tears but the pit remains undamaged. Avoid using devices that might mash them. It's more reliable to crack them manually, one at a time.

Alternative method to cracking: You can also slit the olives with a sharp knife like a paring knife. It is not our favorite method though because olives remain firmer when cracked.

A personal anecdote about cracking the olives: We came across a device at the local market that promised to speed up the olive-cracking process, handling multiple olives simultaneously. While it certainly was quicker than doing them individually by hand, the results were disappointing. Many of the olives ended up mashed and their flesh was damaged. Based on our experience, we advise against relying on such devices that claim rapid olive-cracking capabilities.

Pro Tip: When brining olives, it's crucial to leave the pits intact. Not only do they help maintain the olive's firm texture, but they also play a significant role in preserving their rich olive flavor. Olives that are pitted before brining can often end up lacking in taste. So for the best results, always keep those pits in! 

Cure the Olives in Water (to Remove Bitterness)

This is the step before brining.

• Place the prepared olives in a large glass jar.
• Fill the jar with cold water, ensuring all olives are submerged. To keep them underwater, you can weigh them down with something like a small plate or even grape leaves (a technique often used by local people in our homeland).
• Store the olives for about 10 days, changing the water daily. To refresh, drain the old water, then refill with new cold water.
• Taste-test after 7 or 10 days. If the olives retain a bitter taste, continue the water-changing process for another few days or until there is no bitterness left. Drain for the last time and continue with the following steps.

Prepare the Brine

Making a brine for olives is similar to making a basic pickling brine, but it's even simpler and doesn't contain vinegar. The brine consists of just water and salt. 

Mix water and salt well in a container so that salt dissolves completely.

Pro Tip: To ensure the correct salt and water ratio, we learnt an old-school technique from the local people:

1. Fill a large pot or container with water.
2. Stir in some salt.
3. Drop an unbroken raw egg into the pot. If it floats, your salt concentration is just right. If it sinks, add more salt and try again.

Cure the Olives in the Brine

Once the brine is ready, pour it over the water-cured olives in the jar (after draining the water inside). Make sure that the olives are fully submerged.

To minimize air exposure, place a piece of cheesecloth over the olives, then seal the jar with its lid.

Allow the olive jar to sit for about a week. Their bright green color will change a bit, it is normal. And after that, your olives will be perfectly brined and ready to savor!

Pro Tip: Before pouring the brine over your olives, you have the perfect opportunity to add some extra flavorings. Here are some suggestions: Rosemary, thyme, oregano, chillies, bay leaf, fennel seeds, lemon peel and peppercorns.

Storage

You can keep them for more than a year in a cool place away from sunlight. They don't go bad in a short time. Thanks to salt, they can stay fresh and firm for a long time.

They can be kept either in the refrigerator or at room temperature. However, once you've opened a jar, it's best to store it in the fridge to maintain its freshness.

How to Prepare them Before Eating

Now that we have learnt how to pickle olives, let's learn what to do before eating them.

It is not a good idea to eat the olives straight from the jar after the brining process, either. You will probably find them too salty. 

The best solution to remove the excessive salt is to soak the olives in water before eating. Here is what to do before serving homemade pickled olives:

• Take as many olives as you need from the jar using a slotted spoon. 
• Put them in a bowl and pour cold water over them. Rinse and repeat for a few times. 
• Finally let the olives sit in water for 15 minutes and drain. 
• Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over them. Garnish them with fresh thyme, lemon slices and / or chili flakes if you want and then serve. 

Tip: The rest of the pickled olives in the opened jar can remain for several weeks. You can take olives from there whenever you need.