Can You Freeze Olives? And How to Do It

Your Mediterranian dish seems to be missing something? A flavor? A spice? That’s right. It’s olives. Olives are known for being an essential spice in Mediterranian dishes.

Nowadays, it’s been popularized all over the world. But not everyone knows the answer for this question “can you freeze olives”. You wanna know how to keep olives fresh and long-lasting? Keep reading to find out!

Can you freeze olives?

Olives are an indispensable spice in Mediterranian cuisine. Olives add a fulfilling and delicious flavor to the food you eat. Whether with cheesy pizza, salmon salad or just eating them alone, we all can’t deny the yumminess when it comes to fresh salted olives.

And you’re wondering: Can you freeze olives? The answer is yes, you can. There are several ways you can freeze your olives to get the best taste out of it. Today we’re going to show you how to retain the flavor while storing those tasty olives properly.

A step-by-step guide on how to freeze olives

Step 1: Impurification

First, wash your raw olives to remove impurities and then let them dry for a while.

Next, use a meat tenderizer (or a pounding tool) to crack them. After that, put the cracked olives in cold water. Since unprocessed olives are bitter, you need to soak them to get rid of the bitterness.

Repeat the procedure twice a day for about 3 days. This way, you can get rid of the bitterness completely.

Step 2: Brine preparation (for freezing brined olives)

After the olives are less bitter and you can taste the sweetness, let’s start canning them.

Prepare the brine with ¼ cup of water and ½ cup of salt (canning salt of course). Mix the water and salt well. This step of brine soaking is going to reduce the olives’ softening from freezing.

When the mixture has dissolved, drain the olives and put them in a jar with lemon juice. Then you pour the brine into the jar.

You can add any flavors to the olives. If you like them spicy, you can add jalapeno or some sugar for sweetness. Top them with olive oil so that they’ll stay fresh longer.

Lastly, seal the lid tightly. You wouldn’t want any loophole because it will affect the quality and taste of the olives.

Step 3: Freeze olives

Get a rigid freezer-safe container for storing your olives. Don’t stuff the container. Leave about ⅕ inch between the olives and the lid. Make sure you remember to label and date the olives before putting them in the freezer.

Normally, olives can be kept in the freezer for about 6 months. But we all know, our crave for olives won’t let it be that long.

Note: If you don’t want salted olives, you can move to step 3 and freeze them right away after cleaning them. But brining makes your olives last longer and tastier.

How do you defrost frozen olives?

To prevent a fruit like the olive from becoming sticky, you shouldn’t take the frozen olives from your freezer to put it at room temperature right away. The most proper way to defrost olives is slowly transfer your jar of frozen olives to the cool refrigerator compartment.

In this way, the olives will have time to get used to temperature rise and thaw overnight. If your olives show any signs of spoilage, throw them away. But if they have some freezer burns, they can still be used for making sauces and purees.

To avoid losing flavors of the olives, a three-week period is the maximum amount of time for consumption. After 3 weeks, the olives are likely to lose all the flavors and nutrients.

Conclusion

Freezing fresh or brined olives is a simple process, and it’s really fun when you’re doing it with your friends or family. Moreover, it doesn’t require any special tools or a whole manual book. So it’s basically everything you need to know about“can you freeze olives”.

I hope this article has been helpful to you. What are you waiting for? Get into the kitchen and start freezing olives today!

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