1. Make a brine with 4 Tablespoons of pickling salt to 1200ml of water. (Brine made from 3.6L of water and 400g salt was sufficient for the 5.5kg of olives I had. This is a 900g : 100g ratio of water to salt.)
2. Leave to cool if made by boiling in a pan. (Not sure if boiling is necessary.)
3. With a sharp knife slash each olive deeply on one side.
4. Place the olives in a large glazed glass or porcelain container. (I use the 2kg Jalnos Yoghurt tubs, which are plastic. Definately do not use metal.)
5. Cover the olives completely with the brine.
6. The curing process creates a gas which needs to be able to escape. I cut out a plastic plate to fit the top of my tub, and melted air escape holes into it as necessary to let trapped air bubbles and ferment gas to escape because the plate had a rippled surface. I also needed to weigh it down with a glass jar on top as the salty brine is very bouyant.
7. Store in a cool place
8. Change the brine solution once every week or so for three to 5 weeks
9. I use a 10% brine solution, and only change it once every 3 weeks or so as where thye are stored is a rather cool Canberra laundry. After 2 to 3 months I changed to fresh water and started to bottle the olives. Some years I alternate between fresh water daily changes, and leaving in brine for 2 weeks. The brine is faster curing, and changing it every week will also speed up the process. It is difficult to judge the taste of the olives straight out of the brine though.
10. If a pinky-white scum forms on the surface during that time, rejoice. A lactic acid fermentation is taking place - harmless and part of the process. Disregard it until it is time to change the brine. Then rinse the olives with fresh water before covering them with the new brine. The scum will form again until the cure is done.
11. After three weeks taste one of the largest olives. It should be just slightly bitter for the best effect. If not ready cover with brine again for another week. (or more)
12. When ready, pour off the brine and rinse the olives, ready for storage.

If you have used a brine cure, you may want to leave the olives in fresh water for a day or so before final bottling - being sure to change the water every day.

If you want them to darken up - leave out of brine/ water for 24 hours before bottling.

Sterilize the bottles before using. Pack the drained ovives into the jars leaving a small gap at the top.

Make up the bottling brine using 900g water : 60g salt : 55g white wine vinegar.

I boil the water, dissolve the salt, add the vinegar, and pour over the olives while still hot if you want to have them seal (using metal lids for the jars). This probably makes the vinegar a bit less potent.

If they do seal, they keep very well out of the fridge for a couple of years. The longer they are in the bottle, the more they continue to cure. They get soft and unappealing after a few years.

Because the curing is a fermentation process you do not want to put the olives in too cold a place, like in the fridge. Normal room temperature is fine.

We recommend that you do not change the brine too often, you do not want to create too much salt waste and it also affects the flavour of the end product. If you change the brine the process will be faster but the brine you pour off contains fermenting substances that you want the olives to absorb since they add flavours and you will lose those in the process. But experiment - make a few smaller containers and you can leave some untouched whilst you speed up the fermentation in some by changing the brine.

Don't panic when

... your beautiful black Kalamatas lose their colour in the brine and become all shades of brown, maroon, beige... this is natural. If you want your olives darker again you can just expose them to air for up to 24 hours before bottling them. Put the olives in a bottle and wait some hours before pouring the brine.

... there is a white film or mould on the surface of your brine. It is natural. You can remove it or leave it – it is part of the fermentation process and should smell of that as well.

... when you tasted so many olives and its been so many weeks – and they are still bitter. Hang in there. Change the brine and we promise, it will de-bitter sooner or later. The time it takes depends on the size and ripeness of the olive, and of course your personal preference.

To Cut ... or Not to Cut ...

Many people cut or prick their olives before curing. This is to make the bitter oleuropein leak out easier. We prefer not to do this, and it is not only because it is
A LOT OF WORK...

It is our experience that although the cut may serve well to extract the bitterness, it leaves the olive flesh around the cut exposed. It will naturally be able to absorb more liquid (water and later often vinegar used for preservation). Our cut olives have more quickly become soft and kept the flavours for shorter period of time than uncut olives. But again – it is a tradeoff. Maybe if you want your olives debittered quickly and intend to eat them very fast, this is a method that works well for you. This is often the case in home pickling and you will find that many of our recipes cure the olives rather fast. In the end it is up to you, dear Kalamata lover, - to cut or not to cut - that is the question...

Brown Grape Vinegar Olives

• 5 kg Kalamata olives
• Put in cold water and change water every day for 3 weeks. Make sure olives are submerged.
• Make a salt brine - determine strength by putting an egg in the water and add salt until the egg floats (which is about 10 percent).
• Leave olives in this salt brine for 1 week.
• Take olives out and rinse in cold water.
• Prepare a brine of : 4,5 l water, 300 g salt, 250 ml brown grape vinegar.
• Put olives in glas jars (leave olives exposed to air for a few hours if you want them to go darker.)
• Add garlic, chillies and herbs of choice.
• Pour the brine over the olives until they are covered.
• Pour some olive oil on top to cover.
• Seal with tight lid and keep in a cool place.
• Ready to eat after a few weeks!

Mustard Kalamatas

• 11 kg Kalamata olives
• Put olives in buckets of water and change every day for 21 days.
• Make a 10% salt brine and put the olives in the salt solution for 2-3 days.
• Make sure the olives are submerged. Taste the olives often, do not hesitate if you want to add more salt.
• Prepare a brine of 1,5 liter water + 1,5 liter naturally fermented 5% grape vinegar.
• Add: 1 tsp Prepared Pommery, Dijon or Wholegrain Mustard1 tsp ground black pepper (from mill) plus 200 – 300 ml Brown Sugar
• Bring to a boil and let cool, taste and add sugar to your taste.
• Sterilise glass jars in dishwasher and pack the olives in the jars.
• Cover with the hot liquid, seal with olive oil.
• Seal lids tightly.
• Keep in cool, dark place for 5 weeks.
• Then and onward – READY TO EAT!

No effort olives

• Rinse the Kalamata Olives in clean cold water.
• Sit in front of the TV and make a cut in each olive.
• Put the cut olives in a bucket and pour water over and cover with a lid.
• Change the water once a day for a month.
• Make a brine of 4 L water, 1,5 cup fine salt, 4 cups vinegar and pour over the olives.
• Leave for a week in the bucket and taste until you like the taste of your olives. It should take between 4 and 10 days.
• When you decide your olives are perfect to your taste, pour the brine off and put the olives in glass bottles.
• Flavour your olives with herbs or spices that you like such as chillies, basil, rosemary, black pepper corns, thyme, garlic and red wine. Combinations work well too.