Trigger Warning! This is a feeble attempt at light humor.

Standard recommendation is not to reduce the salt but to rinse them well in gin and vermouth at serving time.

Albert: humor? Your solution sounds good to me.

Digdirt (or anyone else): could I dump the water and pour on some olive oil and herbs? Or, would that quickly become bad too? Or vinegar?

Olive oil only makes the growth of anaerobic bacteria and spores increase rapidly as it provides an ideal anaerobic environment. So that is a big no. Vinegar, added in the presence of anaerobic bacteria and spores only retards their growth. It does not kill them nor does it destroy any toxins that may already exist. Same for alcohol - retards growth but does not kill or nullify any existing toxins.

The real question is why you are seeking to salvage these given you have no way of knowing if they were properly fermented in the first place? And, since they have subsequently been stored for an unknown period of time in an alkaline environment (water) with insufficient salt added bacterial growth and toxicity has already begun. Even when refrigerated, listeria requires only 48-72 hours, salmonella even less, and heaven forbid there were any surviving e.coli or c. botulinum spores in there.

The guidelines would recommend these olives all be disposed off carefully. It is your choice, your risk, but the only way I can think of that these could be used safely would be for all of them to be boiled fully for a minimum of 10 min. in fresh brine. If there resulting texture has any appeal to you, then place in a new, sterilized jar with the fresh boiled salt brine mixed to the proper proportions for the weight of the olives. The standard brine mix per quart of water is a MINIMUM of 2 T of salt but 2.5 T is much safer.

Hope this helps.

Dave

I understand what you are saying and guess I will discard them..... with great sadness.

I fully understand the sadness. With many foods we have a margin of safety that allows for some wiggle room in processing and storage. Unfortunately olives are so high in pH, natural oils, and bacteria potential that they are one of the few foods that have for no margin of error at all.

Dave

I guess I should throw away the homemade gifted olives from last Thanksgiving too. (I found the jar in the back of the fridge a couple of weeks ago.)