Curing Olives can be an extremely fulfilling and rewarding process if your follow the right steps. After all, it is curing that makes olives so pleasing to the taste buds.

It is not possible to eat the bitter olive fruit plucked straight from the tree. To bring out its nutty and tangy taste, you need to cure it first. For a beginner, one of the simplest methods of curing olives is lye curing.

To begin curing olives, pour some water into a container. One gallon of water ought to be adequate to coat 2 gallons of olives. Measure cup of lye for each and every gallon water. Lye is actually an alkaline solution that is made from acidic soda so when handling it, you should use protection gloves.

Pour the lye slowly onto the water. Continue stirring with a long handled spoon while doing this until the lye is dissolved completely in the water. Remember – do not put the lye directly on the olives. The water must be present to cushion the strength of the lye solution. Cover the container and leave it in an area that is 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit. Stir the olives every 2-3 hours. You are not allowed to taste the olives at any point during the process of lye curing olives. After 6 hours, drain the olives carefully and place them in a new container.

In the first container that you used, prepare another lye solution. Using the proportions given above 1 gallon of liquid = 2 gallons of olives, combine the solution with the olives. Let it stand for another 6 hours. To check if the process of curing olives is complete, cut 2 – 3 olives of different sizes. Remember to wear gloves to protect your hands from the lye solution. The cured portion must be dark yellow-green in color. Lighter shades means the lye hasn’t penetrated it yet.

Lye curing may take at least 12 hours to so long as 30 hours, with regards to the sort of olive which you used. Should the treating procedure take on greater than 12 hours, retain modifying the lye solution up until you get the needed results.

If it is the first attempt at curing olives, it might be a smart idea to check in on the olives just about every few hours.

Curing olives may also be done in 3 alternative techniques: salt curing, brine curing and also fresh water curing. On salt curing, the olives are usually stuffed in plain rock salt for around a month. This technique can also be known as dry curing. The end result is a salty and wrinkly olive. Brine curing involves the utilization of both salt and water. The olives are put in the brine solution and left for six weeks to seven months. Fresh water curing requires soaking the olives in a set of baths in which the water is changed on a regular basis.

If you want more advice on curing olives then visit www.growingolivetrees.co.uk to get free info and advice on growing olive trees plus much more.

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