Schiacciate means cracked in Italian 🇮🇹 it is early autumn here in Perth🇦🇺or “Djeran” in the indigenous Nyoongar language. Either way the time is right to cure olives. 🕰
Pick the large, firm green olives from an old tree - plenty around thanks to the Mediterranean immigration wave 100 years ago. 🚢
Crack them between two wooden boards - kneeling on them does the trick. Put in a pillow case and soak for 5 days, changing the water daily. 🚿 This step reduces the levels of oleuropein, the bitter oily fluid in fresh olives. 👩🏻🔬
Boil up a brine with 7 parts water, 1 part salt, 1 part vinegar and half part sugar and some herbs - rosemary and bay. 🌿🌱 Take off the heat and add to n the cracked, stone less olives.
This brine has a pH of 3.7 but the homeostatic reading while be higher, hopefully below 4.2 👩🏻🔬
Sterilise jars, fill and cover with a thin layer of olive oil.
👩🏻🔬 Food safety and quality hurdles are pH, salt and sugar to reduce water activity levels in the fruit, sterilised containers and an oxygen barrier from the oil.
I’ll let you know if they worked in three months🌈
#greenolives #italianfood #pickling
Susanna Morley-Wong
Principal Consultant
0439 692933
08 6110 8158
https://growconsultancy.com.au/
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