This method is called the Spanish Method and first involves the harsh chemical Sodium Hydroxide (which is very dangerous), however this cuts down on the time it takes if you did the traditional method of brine soaking for 6 months.
I bought my olives at the market, you may have picked your own.
1 kg green olives
Pure water
Salt
caustic soda
Fennel heads (flowers)
Wash the olives in clean water, use only healthy looking fruits. Put the olives in a glass or plastic container (NOT METAL) and cover with a solution of caustic soda (this is a very dangerous chemical, beware !) & salt.
The solution:
Flaked caustic soda (15g / litre of water) - common salt (15g / litre of water).
Use pure water. The salt is added to the solution to prevent the softening of the more mature olives. Once the solution is added keep the olives submerged and away from light. Exposure to air will cause the olives to darken.
Leave the olives in the solution for 24 hours then rinse the olives twice with clean water and leave submerged in cold, fresh water. Change the water after 2 hours, keep them submerged. Excess washing should be avoided as it leads to darkening of the fruit and loss of flavour and texture.
After the washing is completed, the olives need to be pickled in a series of brines of increasing concentration.
Add fennel flowers (3 or 4) to the solution, it helps flavour and preserve the olives.
step 1 25g / litre of salt / water 2 days
step 2 40g / litre of salt / water 4 days
step 3 60g / litre of salt / water 2 weeks
step 4 80g / litre of salt / water 3 weeks
step 5 80g / litre of salt / water storage
If you have over salted the water you can soak the olives overnight in clean water at then end to 'refresh' them.
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