what do you do if I accidentally tossed out the juice from my cured olives ? How do I re-store ? Do I put them in salt water ? Will that make them saltier ?
If jarred in brine, I just make sure the remaining olives are covered in liquid and pop back on the lid.
Olive bar and olives of unknown origin (such as left at your house after a party, in a dish, no original packaging present), I'd put in a clean container and cover with olive oil, a la marinated olives. If you feel crazy, put a little garlic, fennel seed, orange peel, etc in there and gently warm them next time you break em out... but that's not really storing them, is it - that's a recipe.
Be sure to eat them soon if they're covered in oil, though, as the garlic, oil, etc can grow bacteria sooner than a brine would. I'd say within a week or two, but then again, I laugh in the face of danger.. or rather, those who clean out their fridge weekly.
Store them as they came (i.e. brine covered in a jar or salt-cured and dry). If you got them from an olive bar at the supermarket, transfer them to an air-tight container and again, store as supplied. And yes, keepy your grubby fingers out of the container. Refrigerate all of them after opening. I'm not aware of any olives that are shelf-stable once exposed to air.
does depend a bit on the olives. Most are, as Verdigris says, best stored in the fridge in the brine they arrived in. And yes, olives, as with most things, will last longer if you use a clean utensil to fish them out. Your fingers will contaminate the liquid and can turn it into a science experiment.
Some olives, however, are dry-cured in salt (usually they're black, wrinkled and have a stronger flavour). These are best stored dry.
I store them in their brine in an airtight container. It is absolutely essential that you not use your hands to retrieve the olives from a container as the liquid will turn milky and the olives will begin to get soft faster.
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Olive bar and olives of unknown origin (such as left at your house after a party, in a dish, no original packaging present), I'd put in a clean container and cover with olive oil, a la marinated olives. If you feel crazy, put a little garlic, fennel seed, orange peel, etc in there and gently warm them next time you break em out... but that's not really storing them, is it - that's a recipe.
Be sure to eat them soon if they're covered in oil, though, as the garlic, oil, etc can grow bacteria sooner than a brine would. I'd say within a week or two, but then again, I laugh in the face of danger.. or rather, those who clean out their fridge weekly.
Some olives, however, are dry-cured in salt (usually they're black, wrinkled and have a stronger flavour). These are best stored dry.