※ Preserving Black Olives

A Simple Recipe for Oil Cured Olives

A friend yielded a small crop of black olives and asked me what I could do with them.

Below is the method I used (the flavour combination I used was: garlic, rosemary, chili & lemon. I also used a lemon infused olive oil for that extra lemony flavour)

A tried and tested, traditional Mediterranean recipe for curing ripe olives that uses just three basic ingredients, is quick to do and comes out perfectly every time.

• Olive oil
• Rock Salt
• Black (ripe) olives
• Optional Ingredients for Marinated Olives
• Lemon
• Dried Chillies
• Fresh or dried Thyme
• Garlic Cloves
• Peppercorns
• Bay Leaves
• Fresh or Dried Rosemary

To vary the flavours, experiment with various combinations in different jars. Chillies, garlic and lemon give the olives an unusual tang whereas garlic and thyme give a more traditional Mediterranean flavour.


How to Preserve Black Olives
Loosely pack the ripe black olives in clean jars with course salt (50% salt, 50% olives).
Shake the jars each day and turn them over. (The jars will need to be placed on trays when they are upside down as some water will leak out.)
Repeat for 7 to 10 days or until the salt is completely wet.
Rinse off the salt and leave the olives to drain for 1-2 hours.
Pack the olives in canning jars with lots of olive oil and any of the optional ingredients.
Store jars in a cool dark place.
After one to two months open one jar and taste to see if they are ready.
If not, leave a few weeks longer.

Oil-cured olives can keep for years and the flavour just keeps getting better and better although the olives do tend to get softer as they get older.