Title: Home Pickling of Olives - Part 6
Categories: Pickle Info
Yield: 4 Servings

None

3. Prepare the salt solution described for Spanish-style green olives. To each 10 pints of solution add 1 pint of vinegar, and fill the jar or barrel with this brine. Store the container of olives at about 70-de- grees F.

4. Do not seal. Place the lid on, but not tightly. Replace any lost brine as directed for green olives.

5. When all gas formation ceases (usually 2 or 3 months) seal and store until the olives are of the desired flavor. The total period from the time of filling the jar or barrel to completion of process in usually 4 to 6 months. The olives will remain somewhat bitter and will acquire a flavor somewhat like that of Spanish-style green olives, yet will be pleasingly different if spiced.

CAUTION: Do not taste any olives that develop a rancid or foul odor. Discard them.

DISPOSAL OF SPOILED AND SUSPECTED OLIVES [Local laws may dictate different disposal procedures.]

Botulism is a food poisoning that results in a large percentage of fatal cases. It is caused by ingestion of poison produced by botulinus bacter- ia growing in low-acid foods in the absence of air. Low-acid foods include vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, figs, and pickled ripe olives. All low-acid food, including pickled ripe olives, require special precau- tions after home canning. These precautions are as follows:

1. Boil all suspected home-canned ripe-olives before tasting or feeding to others. [Better yet, play it save and dispose as described in items 3 and 4 below.] The poison produced by the botulinus bacteria is destroyed by boiling. To boil, empty the olives into a pan and place directly over the source of head. Stir the olives frequently. Boil steadly for at least 15 minutes, counting time after boiling begins. Add more liquid during boiling if necessary, but boil longer if the liquid ceases to boil when more liquid is added. At altitudes above 3,000 feet, boil the olives for at lease 25 minutes. Smell the olives while boiling them. Any sour, rancid (stale-butter smell), or putrid off-order is made more noticeable by boiling.

2. Never taste any home-canned olives that are moldy, have an off-order, show gas pressure in the cans or jars, or show corrosion of the cans or jar lids. Olives in bulging or rusted cans, jars with bulging or rusted lids, or jars with liquid oozing from under the lid, must be destroyed.

3. Spoiled or suspected olives in opened home-canned tin or glass containers can also be rendered save for disposal by processing in the pressure canner. The can or jar, if bulging, must be opened carefully to prevent discharge by gas pressure of brine that may be taken into the mouth [or into cuts, or into the eyes]. To do this, wrap the top of the container with a cloth or towel to prevent spurting. Open the lid by puncturing the top with an ice pick or other sharp instrument. Burn the towel or cloth. The containers of olives thus relieved of gas pressure are safe for processing in the pressure cooker. Process the spoiled or suspected olives at 10 pounds of pressure (240-degrees F.) for 15 minutes. (Follow the directions already given for operation of the pressure canner.)

After processing, dispose of the liquid contents as sewage and discard container and contents as garbage, or the glass jar may be used again.

Scrupulous care must be taken to prevent drops of spoiled or suspected olive brine from comming in contact with open cuts, broken skin areas, and mucous surfaces (mouth and eyes). A small drop of poisonous liquid is extremely dangerous to human beings or animals. 4. Alternative procedures for disposal are to burn the food and its container in a furnace, boil in soapsuds or in a lye solution, or add lye and bury [if these alternatives are allowed where you live]. Keep it out of reach of children and animals, and handle it with care (see precautions).

The poison may be destroyed by placing the opened jar, together with its lid, screw band, etc., or can of olives on its side in an old pail or pan, not of aluminum, and boiling it in a strong soap or detergent solution or lye.

a. To boil in soap solution, make a strong solution of soap or deter- gent. Keep the jar and its contents covered with soap solution during the entire boiling period. Boil for 1 half hour, counting time after boiling starts.

b. To boil in a lye solution, use 2 level tablespoons of flake lye per quart of water. Keep the jar completely covered with the lye solution. Boil for 10 minutes, counting time after boiling commences. After boiling in either soap solution or lye, pour the liquid down the drain, flushing it with plenty of water, and discard the olives in the garbage. The jar may be used again or discarded. From: Michael Sierchio

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