Easy dry salt-cured olives and olive salt

My favourite olives both to make and to eat are dry-cured. These are so easy to prepare that it's generous to say that I "made" them. They have other advantages aside from the ease of preparation. Dry-cured olives last considerably longer than brine-cured, and the salt used in curing the olives becomes deliciously infused with the olive essence.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Servings:

Ingredients

10 lbs Black Olives
9 lbs Kosher Salt

Instructions

Wash the olives by soaking them for 15 minutes in water that has had vinegar added to it
Pick through the olives, removing any that show signs of decay
Pour a layer of salt into a jar or plastic container
Cover this layer with a layer of olives
Cover that layer with salt and repeat until all ingredients are used
Put the lid on, leave it at the back of a dark shelf, and leave them for a month.
They will look a bit soupy at this point
Use a slotted spoon to transfer the olives to a new container with fresh kosher salt, reserving the original salt for later use
At this point, if you want the olives to be pitted, they will be soft, making it easy to press the seeds out. I prefer to do this for myself as the olives are needed,
When they are sufficiently dry, remove them from the salt and store them in vaccum-sealed bags or in jars with olive oil and kept in the refrigerator

Video

Notes

When fully cured, the olives will lose about 50% of their weight, as the moisture is drawn out into the salt.

We use the delicious salt that is produced from this in cooking, to cure meat, and to season baguettes.

Over time, the juices from the olives will settle to the bottom of the jar. We then top the jar up with more salt as needed, mixing it in to distribute the juices.

It has been three years since we made the last batch of olives, but we are still using the olive scented salt, to which we have added at least 5lbs of fresh kosher salt. It's also much prized as a gift by our foodie friends.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!