Home-Cured Olives (Brine Method)

From the garden

• 2 lb fresh olives, green or purple-black, picked over; bruised or wormy fruit discarded
• 2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed (optional) · for the finishing jar
• 2 sprigs thyme, rosemary, or oregano sprigs (optional) · for the finishing jar

From the pantry

• 1½ cups canning or pickling salt · for the repeated brine changes over the whole cure
• ½ cup red wine vinegar · for the finishing brine

1. Slit each olive lengthwise to the pit with a paring knife (or tap it lightly with a mallet to crack the flesh). The cut lets the bitter oleuropein leach out; unslit olives take twice as long.
2. Dissolve 3/4 cup of the salt in 16 cups (1 gallon) of cool water. Submerge the olives in a food-safe glass or plastic container and hold them under the surface with a small plate or a zip-top bag filled with the same brine. Exposed olives soften and spoil.
3. Keep the container somewhere cool and dark. Once a week, pour off the old brine and replace it with fresh brine at the same strength (3 tablespoons salt per 4 cups water). Skim off any harmless white film that forms on the surface between changes.
4. Start tasting at 6 weeks: a cured olive still tastes pleasantly bitter but no longer makes your mouth pucker shut. Green olives typically need 2–4 months; riper black fruit cures faster.
5. When they taste right, make a finishing brine of 1/4 cup salt dissolved in 8 cups water plus the vinegar. Pack the olives into clean jars with the garlic and herb sprigs if using, cover completely with finishing brine, lid, and refrigerate. Give them a week in the new brine before serving.