This morning as I consumed my daily (over)dose of Reddit, I encountered a gif about "sunflower oil extraction." I don't know how to embed gifs, but you can follow the link. It showed - without explanation - an interesting process in which a stack of "pancakes" several feet tall is crushed with a hydraulic press. As I watched, I wondered if the stacked objects were neatly trimmed sunflower heads, but a pair of helpful comments in the discussion thread led me to the video I've embedded above - about olive oil rather than sunflower oil.
The embedded video is exactly what I enjoy adding to TYWKIWDBI (see the explanation of my acronym at the top of this page). The olive oil video explains concisely and clearly, in excellent English, with relevant visuals and subtle background music, things I didn't know about the subject. There may be other equivalent videos at the source, which I don't have time to explore. But this one was excellent.
I have to say... "Oh yuck". When you grind/ press the olive oil you want to exclude as much of the leaves and twigs as possible since they are quite bitter. And what they are doing there is very rustic.. but doesnt produce high quality olive oil. As a note you can buy US sourced Olive Oil -- about 75 % of which is from California. There are 400 growers/producers of olive oil in California growing over 75 olive varieties resulting in blends that are unique. The California olive oil crop I think was about 2 million gallons this year. For a more modern production video check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU6OuyVpGiE
ReplyDeleteInteresting, going to see if I can find some unfiltered olive oil. I apparently have a lower yuck factor than some.
ReplyDeleteYou can get unfiltered olive oil from a variety or places -- Walmart sells a couple of brands and Amazon sells several as well. I just dont like the taste of this processing -- the twigs and leaves have an acidic harsh taste, that I dont like with a smooth olive oil. And the harsh taste tends to overpower the more subtle notes you get from the different varieties of olives you can get to make up the oil. True unfiltered olive oil in my opinion should be all olive fruit, not with pieces of leaves and twigs. Then you get the full taste of the olive. And its easy enough to process the fruit before its crushed and pressed to remove the leaves and twigs.
ReplyDeleteThe link isn't working for me.
ReplyDeleteOr anyone else, because I mis-pasted the url. Fixed now. Thank you for the heads-up.
DeleteWe just got back from a trip to Portugal (December 2023) that included a visit to a small, family-run olive oil press. To be more accurate, the press and building are no longer used because the production is too manual and therefore no longer practical. A cooperative press has taken over the business. Overall, the (historical) process is the same as in the video, but the equipment was run by a small motor (a few horsepower by Maserati circa 1890, or so I recall). A key point of pride was that each farmer (or family) would get the use of the press for themselves - no mixing of different sources. The overall size of the pressing room was about 30x30 (10m x 10m) and the engine was kept in a separate room. As I say, a larger cooperative facility with more automation has taken over, but the no-mixing rule continues. There are a lot of olive trees in Portugal but I think their product is mainly for domestic use.
ReplyDeleteSome years ago, I read a book called "Extra Virginity" (easy to find) which taught me two important things: that a lot of olive oil sold as Extra Virgin is not. Indeed it may not be olive oil at all (it's easy to fake, but the fake stuff does not have anything like the same nutritional value), and how to tell the difference. Since I live in an olive producing region, I was able to go to source and verify that the book's taste test does work. Take a small teaspoon of oil in your mouth and swill it around, then draw air sharply in through the back of your teeth (grin while doing so), and swallow. If the result is a tickle to the throat, or even a cough, then you have the real thing. The tickle comes from a compound which is similar to Ibuprofen which is mildly irritating to the skin in your throat, also likewise an anti-inflammatory. It is not present in fake olive oil.
ReplyDeleteSince then, when it is in season, it is one of my favorite things to visit a producer and try their freshest product. I'm not sure why the video mentions aged olive oil, I shall have to investigate, but "Extra Virginity" also advises that it's really only good for a year or two.
Wow. Thank you for the insights.
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