CURED OLIVES STEP BY STEP

LYE CURED OLIVES

First thing you need to know about lye cured olives is that you must use fresh green olives. Not black ones, not half-ripe ones. The lye process softens the meat of the olive, so you want it as firm as possible

buy food grade lye here

be careful at that one moment you are moving raw, pure lye from the container to the crock you are curing into

Follow these instructions and you will be fine:

Wear glasses if you have them. Wear long sleeves and pants and closed shoes. You will probably not get lye on you, but better to be safe.

Pour 1 gallon of cold — not tepid, not hot, but cold — water into a stoneware crock , a glass container, a stainless steel pot, or a food-grade plastic pail. Under no circumstances should you use aluminum, which will react with the lye and make your olives poisonous.

Using a measuring device that is not aluminum, add 3 tablespoons of lye to the water. Always add lye to water, not water to lye. A splash of unmixed lye can burn you. Stir well with a wooden spoon.

use cold water because the reaction between lye and water generates heat, and the hotter the lye-water solution, the softer the olives will become. Now that it is mixed, the lye solution can’t hurt you, so go ahead and add your olives.

Stir them in with that wooden spoon and put something over all the olives so they do not float. This is vital. Olives exposed to air while curing turn black. Don’t worry, they will absorb the water and sink in a few hours, but to start you need to submerge them.

Let this sit at room temperature for 12 hours. The alkaline solution will be seeping into the olives, breaking the bonds of the bitter oleuropein molecules, which then exit the olive and go into the water. After 12 hours, pour off the solution into the sink. It should be pretty dark in color.

You can sumerge the olives on salt water for 3-5 days if not ready yet or add more lye for another 12 hour round.

Quickly resubmerge your olives in cold water. You want to minimize the exposure to air. You now have cured olives.

A lot of recipes say to repeat the lye process another time — sometimes three more times — but that will destroy a lot of flavor; there are a ton of water-soluble flavor compounds in an olive that the lye solution washes away. Your olives, unless they are gigantic, will not be overly bitter even after just a light, 12-hour lye soak.

Now you need to cleanse your lye cured olives. They will have a fair bit of lye solution within them now. Keep changing the water 2 to 4 times a day for 3 to 6 days, depending on the size of the olives. After 2 days, taste one: It should be a little soapy, but not too bitter. It’ll be bland, and a little soft. Once the water runs clear you should lose that soapy taste.

Time to brine. If you have large olives, make a brine of 3/4 cup salt to 1 gallon of water. And use good salt if you can. You will taste the difference. Kosher salt is OK, but ideally use a quality salt like Trapani , which is from Sicily. It’s not that expensive, but it is worlds better than regular salt.

Let the olives brine in this for 1 week. Keep them submerged, or you will get darkening. After a while they will sink. After 1 week, pour off the brine and make a new one, only this time, use 1 cup of salt per gallon.

Now you can play. The traditional Spanish cure would add some vinegar to the mix, as well as bay leaf and other spices. I’ve played with adding a touch of smoked salt , chiles, black pepper, coriander, mustard seed, garlic — think Mediterranean flavors.

Simplified

3 tables spoon of lye to one gallon of water and add the olives covering with something to submerge them.

In a half a barrels with 15 gallons of water, you will use 2 cups of lie for 15 gallons of water in a bottle halfway with water

Keep at room temperature for 12 hours

Quickly rinse out the dark solution and add more cold water right away

Keep changing the water 2 to 4 times a day for 3 to 6 days, depending on the size of the olives. After 2 days, taste one: It should be a little soapy, but not too bitter. It’ll be bland, and a little soft. Once the water runs clear you should lose that soapy taste.

Time to brine. If you have large olives, make a brine of 3/4 cup salt to 1 gallon of water. Let the olives brine in this for 1 week

After 1 week, pour off the brine and make a new one, only this time, use 1 cup of salt per gallon.

And now your can marinate at your taste. for more marinated recipes stay tuned and sign up to receive our email newletters and discount codes