So its been 2 weeks, so far, on my green olive experiment .
I followed the directions of my old Italian friend on curing raw green olives. A way that he has been doing it for decades.
For Phase one, he told me to crush each olive ( He used to be a mason, so he uses some old marble pieces to crush the olives). Not to completely flatten, but to expose the inside so the bitterness could be released over the first phase in the salty brine. Ive read many other techniques ( Online) before trying this one. Most suggest just to make a slit or two ( with a knife) on the olive. This allows the olive to be more intact / whole. The crushing method creates more of an 'olive pieces' presentation, but exposes more of the inside of the olive, allowing the bitterness to release quicker.
Anyway, His next suggestion was to then soak the crushed olives in a salty brine ( 1 cup of salt / gallon of cool ( room temp) water ( completely dissolved). Store at room temperature ( out of direct sunlight) for 2 weeks. Other techniques Ive seen recommend changing the salty water each day. I only changed it once ( after the first week). I did taste it at this point, and there was still enough bitterness to make them unpleasant.
Today was two weeks, so I tasted one ( even though the process is not complete), and I would say about %95 of the bitterness is gone. Definitely edible. Has that olive-like taste and olive-like consistency. So now on to Phase 2
Phase 2 is to draine the olives from their salty brine. Let them soak a few days in %100 room temp water. This will help remove some of the salt. If the olives salt content is ok initially after removing from the brine, then this step could be skipped. Mine are slightly too salty, so I will let them soak a few days ( checking every day so I dont remove too much salt). Other techniques ive seen suggest to change the water each day,
Ill report back in a few days on the 3rd and final phase.
PS: I actually ran to the store and bought a bunch more raw green olives. After tasting them and realizing that this process works. And Knowing that the raw olives are seasonal, and rarely available except a few weeks out of the year, I decided to get another batch going.
Larry