How Do You Cure Green Olives Without Using Salt?
Did you know that green olives right off the tree are impossible to eat thanks to their naturally-occurring bitter tannins? A curing process is necessary to leach the tannins from the olives and render them palatable. Follow this salt-free curing process to get green olives ready for brine storage and seasoning. Pick olives while they’re still green. It is the right time to harvest olives when they take on a slightly reddish tint. Wash the olives carefully, looking for debris and rotten or bruised olives. Compost the waste material. Purchase 100 percent lye from a hardware store and rubber gloves to protect your hands from the lye. Keep vinegar handy to neutralize lye in case it does splash onto your skin or other surfaces. Have glass or porcelain jars ready and fill them halfway with olives. Measure 1 tbs. of lye per qt. of water in a separate glass container. Carefully pour the solution over green olives in the jars until they are completely covered. Adding more solution to top off t
