[Sca-cooks] Curing olives

[Galefridus Peregrinus]

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a crate (16 lbs) of fresh, uncured green olives from a local Italian grocery. I divided them up among 5 crocks and started a bunch of different cures:

1) al-Warraq (cookbook, 10th century Baghdad)
2 & 3) Abu'l-Khayr (farm manual, 11th century Seville)
4) Geoponika (farm manual, 10th century Byzantium)
5) Ibn Razin (cookbook, 13th century al-Andalus and al-Maghreb)

Each cure is quite different, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they all work out. I will keep the list apprised of my progress.

I'm also trying to get my hands on a few pounds fresh, uncured black olives -- I've spoken to an olive farmer, who gave me the name of his NYC area distributor. Several of the cures in the above sources specifically call for black olives, so I hope I can get some to further my experiments. Again, I'll keep you all informed!

-- Galefridus