Family Encyclopedia >> Food

Here's How To Keep Olives Fresh For Months!

Here s How To Keep Olives Fresh For Months!

Olives fresh from the tree don't keep for long!

After a few days (5 maximum), they turn and become wrinkled...

Fortunately, there is an effective trick to preserve green and black olives for months!

Just soak them in vinegar water, before putting them in brine. Thanks to this trick, you can keep them for 1 year!

Here is how to keep olives fresh for months . Watch:

Here s How To Keep Olives Fresh For Months!

Contents
  • What you need
  • How to
  • Result
  • Additional tips
  • Why does it work?
  • How to store olives bought at the market?
  • Preservation in olive oil
  • More Info

What you need

- 100 g of salt for 1 liter of water

- fresh olives

- white vinegar

- herbs (bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, coriander...) according to your taste

- a hammer

- a salad bowl

- a pan

- jars

- a tea towel

- parchment paper

How to

1. Cover a flat surface with parchment paper.

2. Spread the olives on top and cover them with a clean cloth.

3. With the hammer, hit the olives to break them.

4. Pour a mixture of water and vinegar (half and half) into the salad bowl.

5. Put the olives in it and let them soak for one to two weeks.

6. Every two days, empty the vinegar water and renew it.

7. After 2 weeks, rinse the olives thoroughly and dry them with a cloth.

8. In a saucepan, pour 1 liter of water.

9. Add 100 g of salt.

10. Boil and add the herbs.

11. Let the mixture cool.

12. Meanwhile, distribute the olives among the jars.

13. Pour the salt-saturated water mixture up to 1 cm from the edge.

14. Close the jars carefully and leave for three months.

15. Your fresh olives are ready to enjoy!

Result

Here s How To Keep Olives Fresh For Months!

There you go, now you know how to keep olives fresh for months :-)

Thanks to this preservation method, you will be able to keep your beautiful olives without waste!

Once you've opened your jar of olives, eat them within a month of opening and store the open jar in the fridge.

All that remains is to taste your olives as an aperitif, after rinsing them with cold water.

You can also use them to make a pizza, a tapenade, a tagine, an olive cake, a salad or a chicken with olives.

With this recipe, you know exactly what's in your olives. What good things!

Not like those bought in supermarkets... which are sometimes fake black olives!

Additional advice

- Don't forget to soak your olives in vinegar water and change the water every 2 days. Make sure they are well covered with the water and vinegar mixture. It is this step that removes the bitterness of green olives. This trick can debitter green olives without soda, they are far too bitter to eat.

- You can also just soak them in water and renew the water every day for 2 weeks.

- If you have a lot of olives, you may need 2 or 3 liters of water to make the brine. In this case, it is also necessary to multiply the quantity of salt by 2 or 3.

- You can customize your recipe by adding garlic in the brine to make garlic olives, fennel seeds to make Provencal green olives, chilli to make spicy Spanish marinated olives, or Moroccan style with lemon.

- Do not throw away the olive preservation liquid! Take just the number of olives you need for your recipe and carefully save the liquid until the jar is empty. It is thanks to this liquid that you can preserve your olives with all their flavors.

- When you take olives from the jar, remember to use a clean spoon that has not been used before so as not to contaminate the liquid in the jar. Otherwise your olives will not keep for as long!

Why does it work?

Brine is an ancient technique for preserving food longer.

What is brine? It's just water mixed with lots and lots of salt.

Salt helps to dehydrate the olives, to keep them longer.

Because it is the water contained in food that promotes the development of mold and rot and damages it.

And we have known for hundreds of years that salt ensures the preservation of foods, whatever they are, by limiting the development of bacteria and yeasts.

How to store olives bought at the market?

Here s How To Keep Olives Fresh For Months!

Of course, not everyone has olive trees in their garden!

And fortunately, you can buy delicious olives in the market.

The problem is that it's so appetizing that we tend to buy too much of it!

But no problem ! Just put them in the fridge to keep them for a month.

Preservation in olive oil

You can replace the brine with olive oil.

As with the brine, you must start by soaking the olives for 2 weeks in vinegar water that is renewed every 2 days.

Afterwards, we rinse, drain and dry the olives.

Then, we put them in a jar with the herbs and cover them with a good olive oil.

After having carefully closed the jar, it is stored for 2 to 3 months away from light before tasting the olives.

This recipe is perfect for making Greek black olives.

Additional info

Green olives or black olives? Wondering what the difference is?

It's just the harvest time that differs. Depending on the variety, the olive harvest takes place from September to January.

The olives are first green, but if they are not harvested immediately, they turn black. This is veraison.