The Simplest and Best Way to Cure Olives

By Gerald Smith
If you are lucky enough to have your own olive trees, you will know how bitter raw olives taste straight from the tree. The bitterness is left behind with the pulp when olives are pressed to make oil, but if you want to prepare them for eating - and spare the expense of a press - the fruit must first must be processed, or 'cured'. Although there are several ways to do this, this article will outline the simplest - and in my experience the best - method, which uses only salt. It's the way olives have been cured in Greece for at least three thousand years.
Ripe olives generally include a mixture of black and green fruit. The black olives are the riper ones, but don't wait to harvest them until all of them are black. When the majority of the olives on the tree are black, all of them are ready for picking. Don't wait for the olives to fall from the tree, because by that time many of them will be spoiled. The following cure works equally well on both black and green olives.
Remove any stems and leaves, and wash the fruit in a bucket using fresh water. Pour away the dirty water and spread the olives across a clean table or floor.
Using a sharp knife or fork, make three or four cuts in the skin of each olive. These incisions will enable the salt water to draw the bitterness out of the fruit - the treatment won't work without them.
Dissolve 120 grams of salt into each liter of a bucket of clean water. Throw the the pricked olives into this solution, using an upturned plate to ensure that every olive is submerged. Note that this is about three times the concentration of salt in seawater, so don't use seawater as a substitute.
After 24 hours, pour the liquid away and replace with clean saline water of the same concentration. Repeat this step daily for about 12 days. After 10 days, taste an olive or two each day: continue this washing cycle until every trace of bitterness has gone.
When the washing process is completed and the olives are edible, they are ready to be stored. Pour away the last of the saline solution and dry the olives. Place them into sealable storage jars, topping up the jars with olive oil. If you want, you can add flavorings to the oil: garlic, basil and lemon juice are particular favorites. Ensure that every olive is submerged in the oil, then seal the jar. Store the olives in a cool, dark place.
Although this method is both cheap and simple, it is also quite labor-intensive, and therefore unsuitable for commercial quantities of fruit. The finished product, however, is delicious: those chemically-treated, mass-produced olives that you can buy for a fortune at the local delicatessen will never taste the same again.
Gerald Smith is a technical consultant at [http://www.smithgcb.demon.co.uk/]Piedmont Properties, a real estate agency specializing in Italian vineyards.
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Deep Fry Turkey Instructions - How To Deep Fry A Turkey Safely

By Jackie Lee

Deep frying a turkey can be fun and delicious. It can also be dangerous. Here are some deep fry turkey instructions to make sure you deep fry experience stays fun and safe.
Make sure your burner is level.
Making sure your burner is level and operating properly is key to safely deep fry a turkey. If the burner is not level and stable you can easily overflow the pot when you put the turkey in causing overflow and fire.
You also want to make sure you have set up your burner according to the instructions. All the fittings are connected correctly and the connection to the propane is done per your burner's instructions. Again, this is a must in safety measures.
Defrost Your Turkey Completely
You must make sure your turkey is completely defrosted. When ice hits hot oil it causes a violent reaction ~ bubbling, popping overflowing and combustion. Yes, ice hitting hot oil can cause fire.
Make sure you turkey has plenty of time to defrost, including the insides. The oil will reach the inside of your turkey through the cavity, so your turkey must be thawed completely.
Don't overfill your pot with oil.
I think this is the biggest mistake people make. They fill the pot up with oil and forget to take into consideration the oil displacement when you put the turkey in. When you put the turkey in the oil level will rise. If you have filled the oil too full it will overflow. If the pot overflows while you are deep frying a turkey it will cause a huge fire. Not only will the overflow oil catch on fire, but the entire pot will catch fire.
Make sure you measure how much oil you will need.
Make sure you turn off the burner when you put the turkey in. Add the turkey to the oil slowly and carefully.
Be careful with cooling Oil.
Just because you are done deep frying a turkey doesn't mean the danger is over. The hot oil is still very dangerous until it is completely cooled. Make sure all animals and children do not have access to the hot oil.
This is a dangerous time because you are probably off enjoying your deep fried turkey and not watching the pot of oil. This allows time and opportunity for animals and children to interact with the pot of hot oil. Make sure you oil is in a place where animals and children can not touch it and accidentally tip it over and spill it on themselves.
Have fun and stay safe while deep frying your turkey. Find [http://www.squidoo.com/deep-fry-turkey-instructions]deep fry turkey instructions and everything you need for a successful turkey fry here.
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