Recipe no. 664 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 281.
Ingredients
- olive
- ash
- salt
- coriander
- bay leaf
- fennel
- orange
Preparation
- Prepare the ash lyeFor five litres of fine, sound, still-green olives, take an equal measure of oven ashes or household ashes. Put it all in a crock and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula to form a paste that is not too thick.
- Let stand and stirLet it stand for 24 hours and during that time stir 5 or 6 times to mix the olives and bring down those on top.
- Check readinessRecognize that the lye is ready by taking an olive between the fingers and pressing the thumbnail into it. If the flesh comes away easily from the pit, they may be removed. Otherwise leave until this result is achieved.
- Remove the ash tasteRemove the olives and wash in several changes of water to remove all trace and all smell of the ashes. Soak for 8 or 9 days in fresh water, changed every twenty-four hours.
- Prepare the brinePut into a pot enough water to cover the olives, salt, a little coriander, a few bay leaves, a few sprigs of fennel and a piece of orange peel.
- Boil and coolBoil for a quarter of an hour and let cool. Put this brine with the olives.
- FinishThree or four days later, the olives will be good to eat.
Reboul's text
For five litres of olives, chosen fine, sound and still green, take an equal measure of oven ashes or household ashes. Put it all in a crock and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula, so as to form, with the water and ash, a paste that is not, however, too thick. Let it stand for 24 hours and, during that time, stir 5 or 6 times to mix the olives and bring down those on top.
You will know this lye is ready by taking an olive between your fingers and pressing your thumbnail into it. If the flesh comes away easily from the pit, you may remove them. Otherwise leave them until you achieve this result, which depends mainly on the quality of the ashes.
Once you have achieved it, remove your olives, wash them in several changes of water to remove all trace and all smell of the ashes. Let them soak for 8 or 9 days in fresh water, which you change every twenty-four hours. They will then have lost their bitterness and can be put into a preparation, the recipe for which follows:
Put into a pot enough water to cover your olives, salt, a little coriander, a few bay leaves, a few sprigs of fennel and a piece of orange peel. Boil for a quarter of an hour, let cool and put this brine with your olives. Three or four days later, they will be good to eat.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| óulivo | olives |
| cuié | spoon |
| espatulo | spatula |
| aigo | water |
| past | paste |
| bugado | lye |
| meseioun | pit |
| grano-de-boudin | coriander |
| laurié | bay laurel |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 664, page 281. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.