Home-Cured Olives (Brine Method)

Raw olives are inedibly bitter off the tree; a patient salt-water cure — no lye, just time and weekly brine changes — turns them into proper table olives over a few months.

40 min Involved Makes about 2 quarts of table olivesVegetarianVeganGluten-freeDairy-free

Ingredients

one batch

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

Steps

tap a step to dim it as you go

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.