This is a multipart series of posts to give you the confidence and know-how to cure yummy olives yourself at home. You’ll obviously need fresh olives in order to even get started, and for some people this will be the trickiest part! I know some greengrocers in Australia stock them, for example the Harris Farm stores in NSW, so keep your eyes open. However, if you have the good fortune to be in Tasmania during olive season, then get in touch with me and arrange to come and pick some of ours!

Manzanillo olives
Olives are too bitter to eat straight off the tree, and must be cured in some way to make them palatable. Several methods are described, and include curing in water, brine, salt, and lye, but each has pros and cons. I’ve done some experiments myself, and lots of reading, and this series of posts aims to describe each method so you can pick the best one for you.
Part 1 of this series covers water-curing…
This method has ancient roots, and has been suggested as the reason behind why man realised way back that olives were edible. The basic principle is to keep the olives submerged in water for a period of time, and change that water once or twice daily to gradually leach out the bitter compound, oleuropein. Perhaps early man found some olives that had fallen into a stream, and discovered that they were now quite tasty!
If you’re using this method, each olive should be slit or cracked to expose the flesh to the water. Cracking them is undeniably a brilliant stress reliever (I bashed them with a rolling pin!), but both methods are pretty time consuming! As soon as the olives are cracked or slit they should be placed in a bowl of water, to reduce oxidation which causes a brown discolouration where the skin is broken. Some people suggest acidifying the water at this stage with lemon juice or vinegar, which did seem to reduce the discolouration in my experiments.
The olives need to be kept completely submerged, so can be placed in a large jar or bowl, covered with water, and then something like a plate or ramekin placed on top to weight them down. Some recipes suggest placing them in a net bag, and although I haven’t tried this, I think it’d make changing the water and rinsing the olives easier, and would probably help to keep them submerged. The container can be sealed with a lid if available, or just covered with a cloth or plate.
Most recipes say the olives can be kept at room temperature, but some authors describe a better result if they’re kept refrigerated.
If you have olives of markedly varying sizes, I’d recommend sorting them and for example having a jar for the larger set, and another for the smaller ones. The bigger ones will take a bit longer.
My most comedic suggestion for the least labour intensive way to change the water regularly (unless you have a handy stream or creek), is to place your olives in a net bag, and hang this inside your toilet cistern. Every time the toilet is flushed, your olives will be bathed in clean water! This probably wouldn’t get past health and safety on a commercial scale, but the water in the toilet cistern IS clean, so in principle it should be ok! It just sounds weird!!
After the olives are de-bittered they can then be placed in a brine solution with herbs and vinegar for storage, and to add some other flavours.
This method is generally used for green olives, but black olives can also be cured in this way.
Good bits…
– It’s easy.
– You don’t need any special ingredients to get started.
– It’s relatively quick, and you could have edible olives in as little as a month.
– The texture of the finished olive should be nice and firm.
Bad bits…
– The olives need daily attention for at least 2-4 weeks. It’s a BIG commitment!!
– If you’ve got a large quantity it’s pretty tedious to prepare them.
– I’ve never actually produced olives I wanted to eat using this method, but I know it’s widely used! I’ve had problems with the olives turning brown and smelling a bit off after a few days, but I’ve only tried it using olives bought from a greengrocer, so I don’t know how fresh they were. Another possibility is that the weather was quite warm (I was living in Sydney at the time), and I hadn’t thought to put them in the fridge. I was only changing the water once daily, and perhaps changing it twice daily might have helped too.
So, following is a suggested recipe, amalgamating all the info I’ve come across on the topic. I’d love to know if you’ve tried curing olives this way, and if you’ve got any more tips!
Water-cured Olive Recipe
Time = 4-6 weeks
Difficulty = easy
Description = How to cure olives at home using the water-curing method.
Recipe Ingredients
– Green olives
– Water
– A lemon
– 10% Brine and red wine vinegar solution (100g salt and 1L of water, heat and stir until dissolved. Cool and add 150ml of red wine vinegar. Adjust volumes as needed.)
– Herbs – eg. black pepper, lemon rind, bay leaves, coriander, oregano. [/recipe-ingredients][recipe-directions]
1. Fill a large bowl or jar with water and add some lemon slices or lemon juice.
2. Slit or crack each olive and drop it immediately into the water.
3. When the container is almost full place something on top of the olives to keep them submerged.
4. Put the whole lot in the fridge.
5. Change the water once or twice daily for a month, removing the lemon at the first change. You can start tasting after two weeks, to see if they are palatable. The olives will become a dull green to brown colour during this process.
6. Once they are no longer bitter, place the olives in the 10% brine solution with red wine vinegar, and a selection of herbs to add whatever flavours you prefer.
7. Refrigerate
8. These are ready to eat in about another week, but can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a year.
The next post in the series will follow in a week or so. In the meantime, I’d love to know if you’ve tried curing your own olives, and what methods work for you. Do let me know in the comments!
And finally, if you’d like to know when we’ve set our “Pick your own olives” dates, so you can try this at home, then sign up to my mailing list. Click here to go to the form, and I’ll make sure you don’t miss out!
Resources:
https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8267.pdf
Then pour some olive oil over the top of the brine solution, to completely cover the olives. Seal the jars, then leave them for 5 weeks. After that, your olives are ready to eat. You can keep your olives stored for up to 6 months in a cool, dark, cupboard. You can leave them stored in the brine. But I lash out on a big 4-litre tin of olive oil, and store my olives in olive oil.
Your olives are lucky!! I don’t use extra virgin olive oil over my brine as my experience is that it becomes rancid and taints the flavour of the olives. I guess a refined oil might be ok, but I prefer not to use them 🙂
While you are curing the olives, you need to keep them submerged to avoid oxidation. I use a small bowl on top of the olives as a weight. You could also use cheesecloth.
Thanks for this tip. Yes, as you say they need to be submerged. I’ve tried lots of different methods for this depending on the size of the vessel. Plastic mesh gutter guard (some specifies that it’s food grade plastic) is great for cutting to shape and then a bowl can be placed on top which gets pressed down by the lid.
Hi! This is my first time curing olives. I am soaking 6kg (way too many!) in water (changing daily) and I’m up to day 11. Many of the olives have developed brown marks, some quite extensive. Some are also softening in parts, particularly around the cut. Is this normal? The flesh underneath the discoloured skin looks fine. I’d appreciate your advice!
Hi, They always go brownish to some extent. It seems to vary a bit with the variety and ripeness. They should still be fine. You may be able to lessen the discolouration by keeping them somewhere cooler. My laundry is cooler at this time of year than the main house. Or try the fridge if you’re in a warm climate. Changing the water twice a day can also help if it’s warmer and there’s more of a risk of mould developing. Hope this helps. Fiona
Thanks so much for putting my mind at ease! I have them in buckets which are in the bathtub – which makes it easy for changing the water. I’m in Gippsland so it’s fairly cool, here (and in the bathroom!). The variety I have are green kalamatas. I’m excited about the process and the outcome. 🙂
Have found olives in a nearby public lane in inner Melbourne.
Beautifully black and in good nick.
Trying the water cure – no problems with browning etc.
Small quantity – so just using bottles.
But very curious about how to work out what type of olive we are using!!! Any tips? Mature tree – quite big. Could photograph if that helps. Fruit seem luscious.
Like your website – thanks for sharing.
How exciting to come across some olives you can use! Fingers crossed the curing goes well. I’ve generally done water with green rather than black so I’m interested to hear how you go. It’s difficult to ID the variety – a lone tree planted could really be anything – either planted by someone on purpose at some point in the past, or a wild olive. This presentation has photos of lots of different olives, but it’ll be hard to pin down I think. http://cesonoma.ucdavis.edu/files/27182.pdf
Noticing nothing like sterilisation at the final brining/oil step.
Curious also about this step as it seems critical to taste and preservation.
My practice for home production and use of water cured olives is that the jars are washed with soap and water so they are physically clean. With a salinity of 6% or higher and a pH of 4 or below, jars filled to the brim, plus storage in the fridge, my experience is that preservation is fine, and growth of other organisms such as mould is rare. Once opened I’d recommend use within a week. Of course if I had any concerns about aroma or appearance I wouldn’t consume them, but I haven’t had any issues so far.
Oooo. Nice surprise to see your reply! Thank you. And with such helpful and practical information. Will look think and experiment. And be in touch if they are OK!!!
Every good wish to you – hope things are OK re impacts from this virus.
can u use tap water to curing olives?
Hi there, Yes tap water is fine, so long as it’s suitable for drinking. If your water is chlorinated some people recommend leaving it in an open container for 24 hours before use to allow the chlorine to evaporate, as it may inhibit the organisms you need for fermentation, but I have not found this to be necessary.