The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

To rinse the olives or not to rinse?

Yeast_Mode's picture
Yeast_Mode

To rinse the olives or not to rinse?

I'm going to make Maurizio's green olive and herb sourdough soon. In his recipe, he rinses the olives before adding them to the dough. I was somewhat surprised by this. I have put olives in bread before, but have never rinsed them. I do usually reduce the salt by 1/2% to compensate for the brine. I was actually thinking of adding a couple of mL of brine to the water for extra flavor. Call it a "dirty" sourdough. :D

What are folks thoughts on this issue? (Not looking to dunk on Maurizio. I think he has some great recipes and has provided a lot of good information for the home baker.)

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

I suppose I would rinse if there was a scum on the brine.  ???  Oily olives might slip out of the dough more often. Maybe a rinse and pat dry helps them stick to the raw dough.   It does give one time to inspect and taste the olives.

That reminds me...better go check for skum on my olive jars.  :)    Garlic stuffed look fine...  better taste one.  Rinse and taste another...

Benito's picture
Benito

I’ve never rinsed my olives before using them in recipes and never thought to for bread either.  In fact, that brine is tasty stuff and can add a lot of flavour to foods that we prepare so I will often keep the brine for cooking even when the olives are gone.  I might consider using some brine in my next olive bread that is a good idea YM.

Benny

Kistida's picture
Kistida

Even the liquids from kimchi. They’re so tasty in any other bakes or cookings. 😉

- Christi 

Yeast_Mode's picture
Yeast_Mode

Interesting! How does the kimchi liquid affect fermentation?

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

pickle juice, vinegar, lemon juice,...  salt content varies and so does the acid.

Kimchee juice is packed full of vitamins and flavour and is a "yeast water" like raw sauerkraut juice.

By the way, had a spill over of cured kimchee in the fridge the other day.  What a mess! Lost some good juice. :(  But the best radish kimchee ever!  So yummy prickling effervescent!  Ate some immediately so the flatulent smells didn't overpower while cleaning.  Kimchee is still burping away in the fridge. After a blast of "aroma" (fetching milk for morning coffee)  decided to put a dish, a healthy portion of baking soda into the fridge. Whew!  I think that was more an eye opener than coffee.  MIL keeps asking what we feed the dog.  

Yeast_Mode's picture
Yeast_Mode

There's quite a bit of raw sauerkraut available in my area. I'll have to experiment and see if I can get dough to rise with it.