The record-union., 1898-03-19


We're picked when they We're very dark
/ red or just before they took on the
] beautiful velvety black so character
/ istic of the olive-except in the case OF
/ the Columella, which was pink. They
were all firm and sound at the time OF
| picking. The Mission and Columella
were just "a little under-ripe. The ao-
! ject Of the piclxler is to neutralize the
[ intolerable bitterness of the olive,
which can be done in several ways.
| While there are several disagreeable
| acids in the olive the active phlnclple
/ is an acrid substance called OWL
which is soluble in water and can be
neutraliZed by soda and potash. used
| the water and potash processes. The
Mission was the variety I experimented
with by the water process. This pro-
cess from superficial view seems like
simplicity simpEfied, but it is not: 1t
! is concentrated patience multiplied. You
/ only have to change the water twice
day from forty to sixty days the
text books tell US but l found that
from seventy-five to ninety days would
come nearer to the mark; and during
all this time bacteria and other micro
organisms are not far away, waiting
for a soft or bruised olive to develop,
in order to make it their breeding
place. If they find one the entire lot
will be spoiled in an incredibly short
time. / purposely neglected to change
| the water in one crock of olives for
only a few days and the result was
the entire lot took on a peculiar odor
and an intolerable taste. About the
time of this change floating mould
made it's appearance to add its quota of
interest to olive picking. In the course
of a week a visible aquatic organism
! full of activity and danger could be
seen having a glorious time at my ex-
pense. Thus it will be seen that a
weeks neglect (and much less) will re-
suit in filling your tanks of olives with
! bacteria, micro-organisms, visible or
| ganisms, mould scum putrid ferments,
and so on The other crock was filed
with the same variety of olives. Both
| had the same treatment up to the time
l concluded to spoil one lot. l changed
! the water on the other lot twice daily.
The olives were slightly submerged, the
| barrel cleansed every week by remov-
| ing the olives with a wire scoop and
scalding the barrel with hot water. 1t
was in a dark place. and every means
known to the writer was used to pre-
vent the termination and development
of dangerous germs The result of this
| heroic treatment was that after three
months of constant care the olives lost
by diffusion most of their bitterness.
They retained their natural color, and
for richness and delicacy of flavor they
were above lye-treated olives, for none
of the oil had been saponifed l
thought they were the best 1 ever
/ tasted, but it was another case of
Papa picking them"
! The greatest drawback with the wat
er process was the time and patience
required Much of the danger of the
water treatment would be lessened if
sterilized water were used. After /
| had extracted enough of the bitter
ness I rinsed them and put on a brine
as recommended by the University.
That is three ounces of salt to a gal
| Ion of water. This was boiled and
cooled before applying. This weak
| brine was allowed to stand on the
olives two days when it was taken off
and a stronger brine made of eighs
ounces of salt to the gallon put on.
| l left this on for a week It was
drawn off and another still stronger
| brine-fourteen ounces salt to the gall
/ Ion was put on. The reason brines of
different strength are used is because
If the olives are immersed in strong
brine first they will shrivel and wrin-
| kle but by gradually hardening the
tissues of the flesh this can be avoid
ed. / tried the experiment of putting
olives in a brine Of IL pounds of salt
to gallon of water and they were shriv-
eled past recognition
I tried the lye process. I used
crooks with wooden faucets for draw
| ing off the lye water, and one small
! barrel which had been treated with a
sal soda wash. I treated all of the
varieties named at the beginning OF
this with solutions of various degrees
of strength. The lye used was Green
! banks, which l obtained in San Fran
cisco. l used one solution so strong
that every olive was soft on the out
side while the inside layers were not
penetrated. I used another weaker
| solution, six ounces or seven to gal
| lon. and the Manzanillo came out best,
followed closely by the Mission, while
| the Rubra, Pendulina and Uvaria oil
varieties were entirely spoiled.
kept weakening the solution until 1 got
down to l per cent. or less than
pound to ten gallons, and I firmly be-
| lieve that that gave me the best re-
suits. 1t is true I gave the olives an
extra bath or two, but in the end there
was much less loss of color, the olives
were firmer and the disagreeable feat
ure of occasionally finding a soft and
| bad tasting olive was not present I
will briefly describe the most satisfac-
tory experiment 1 tried. After soak
| ing the fresh olives in pure water
few days, which was changed daily, l
| dissolved a little less than a pound OF
lye for ten gallons of water and poured
| it on the olives. This I allowed to
stand four or five hours. I drew it of
and filed the crock up with fresh wat4
er, Which was allowed to stand for two
days. I kept repeating the above un-
| til enough of the bitterness had been
removed. I repeated this two or three
times. By cutting to the pit you will:
see discoloration which is Indicative
| Of the extent to which the lye has
penetrated or neutralized the bitter
| ness.
When the olive is discolored entirely
| to the pit it means that the lye has
neutralized the acid substance II
has neQtralized it but has not re-
moved it which is done by the repeated
| cold water baths. l found that the
weaker the solution the less liable the
olive was to spot on the side where it
came in contact with other olives. The
strong solutions of say half pound of
I've to a gallon of water entirely re-
1