[Imminent dinner filter] Can I quickly make these olives less salty?

May 30, 2017 9:21 AM

I bought a jar of olives "salted á la Grecque" to put into a cous cous salad, but I just tried one and they are way too salty for me (and I really like salty things!). Is there a quick way for me to de-saltify these puppies? I'm going to be using them for dinner in about 3 hours - if I leave them to soak in some water until then, will it make any difference? Rinsing several times? Help!
posted by catch as catch can to Food & Drink (6 answers total)

Best answer: Yeah just soak them in water. Unless they are in a jar of oil, then soak them in oil.

NB - soak, don't rinse. You're going to need to do this by osmosis and it will take a while. Rinsing will only affect the outside.
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:25 AM on May 30, 2017 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Right. Soak in water and change the water every hour. Start asap.

If they still taste salty after soaking, chop them up into small pieces so that they blend better into lettuce or couscous or other blander things.
posted by the webmistress at 9:28 AM on May 30, 2017 [7 favorites]

Best answer: I grew up with these. We'd boil water, submerge the olives in the water, drain after a 45 minute soak, and repeat several times. You can recoat the olives in virgin olive oil after of you prefer an oiled olive. A squeeze of lemon can also foil some of the salt of they're still too salty by the time you need to use them.
posted by quince at 9:52 AM on May 30, 2017 [7 favorites]

This might be too obvious but can't you just use fewer olives? Chop them up smaller to distribute the saltiness within the salad better.
posted by yeahlikethat at 10:39 AM on May 30, 2017 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Came in to say the same as quince. Bring water to a boil, pour over olives, soak for half an hour to an hour, drain, repeat. If prepping ahead of time we would soak them in the fridge overnight, sometimes for a couple days, changing the water when we remember. Obviously that isn't relevant to you today but if you have leftovers you have a less labor intensive option.

Also chop them up small and let them sit in lemon juice or another acid as you prep the rest of the ingredients.
posted by Mizu at 12:41 PM on May 30, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks, y'all. I only had time for a couple of soaks but it did the trick.
posted by catch as catch can at 1:22 PM on May 30, 2017 [2 favorites]