Olives are among the generous and delicious fruits, and they are at their best in autumn. How do we pickle olives in a way that keeps them for 3 years? The answer is simple: just follow the steps in the recipe.

Ingredients:

Green olives:

Green olives

Red or green hot pepper pods

Sliced lemon

Fresh thyme or other aromatic herbs

1 tablespoon coarse salt for each cup of water

1/2 tablespoon lemon salt or 1/4 cup lemon juice for the large jar

1 teaspoon or 1 tablespoon turmeric for the jar, as desired, to preserve the green color of the olives

1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil for the top of the jar

Black olives:

Black olives

Coarse salt (3 tablespoons per kilo for soaking on the first day)

Lemon slices

Hot pepper pods

Oil (mixed equally, vegetable oil and olive oil, or as desired and available)

Preparation method:

Green olives:

The first step after picking and washing the olives is to bruise them, which means lightly cutting each olive on one side by making a small slit with a knife or hitting the olive once with a wooden pestle.

Note: If you want to keep the olives for a long time and do not plan to open the jar in the same year, you can skip the bruising step.

After bruising the olives, cover them with clean water for a period ranging from one full night (if you want them bitter) to 3 days, according to your preference. The longer you leave the olives in water, the more bitterness they lose. Therefore, they should be soaked for 2 to 3 days to get sweet olives, with the water changed three times a day.

Drain the olives and divide them into sterilized jars with airtight lids, adding lemon slices, hot peppers (to taste), and a few sprigs of fresh thyme.

Dissolve the coarse salt, lemon salt, and turmeric in water and pour the liquid over the olives in the jars until the olives are completely covered.

Add 1/4 cup of olive oil (or vegetable oil) on top of the jar and close it tightly.

Store the jars in a cool place away from sunlight and do not open them for at least 20 days.

Black olives:

Wash the black olives and drain them.

Soak each kilo of black olives with 3 tablespoons coarse salt, placing the salted olives in a colander, covering them with a clean cloth, and putting a weight on top to remove all the water. Every day, discard the water that comes out, add a little coarse salt to the olives, toss them in the colander, then place the weight on top again.

Repeat the process for a period ranging from three days to a week. The longer you leave it, the better the olives will taste.

After 3 days to a week, distribute the olives into jars, add the hot pepper and lemon pieces, cover with oil, and close the jars tightly.

Leave them in a cool place away from sunlight for at least 3 weeks before opening.

Note:

Do not add too many lemon slices because they speed up the ripening of the olives.

This is the guaranteed way to pickle olives from a friend and cook at the Shou Tabkhin el Youm site:

Dalida Zaiter

Click on Dalida's name to visit her profile page on our site and see all her delicious recipes

To make pickled turnips from Dalida, click the link How to Make Pickled Turnips

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Pickled Green and Black Olives

Prep checklist

Cooking notes