Monday, May 25, 2009

The Basics Of Making Gourmet Olive Oil

By Brandino Z Borgattelli

Extracting oils from olives using a press is one of the oldest ways to make olive oil, dating back over hundreds of years to the ancient Greeks. A simple process that is undergone using an olive press. But before the press is used there are certain processes that must be undergone first. Once pressed the liquid is put into a decanter so that the liquids can be separated. Let us take a closer look at the complete process:

After the olive harvest has taken place, the olives are placed under a millstone or ground stone for thirty to forty minutes to ground them to a paste called olive paste. The olives are left under the stone for this amount of time to achieve the flavor they need and to form large olive oil drops. The aromas that the olive enzymes let out are also need to create a better aroma for the oil.

Once the olives have been grounded the paste is placed on fiber disks. These fiber disks are stacked one on top of another and put into the olive press. Pressure is then placed onto the disks, compacting the olive paste and percolating the olive liquid and vegetation water. To make this process a lot less complicated, water is run down the sides of the press to facilitate the percolating process.

When the pressing process is over the two liquids are placed in a traditional decanter to separate them, although this process can also be done using a vertical centrifuge. This process separates the two liquids a lot faster then when using a traditional decanter thus completing the process of olive oil extraction a lot quicker.

After the olive oil has been made and before restarting the process to make more, the materials used must be cleaned expertly to avoid any contamination to future oils caused by fermented paste from the olives that can get stuck on the disks and ground stones. Once cleaned the disk and ground stones undergo another examination to make sure that all excess pastes and oils have been removed.

The advantages of making olive oil using this traditional pressing method include a better grinding of the olive and easier to pomace as less water is added. But there are also disadvantages that include a difficult clean process, a lot more manual labor and a longer time space between harvesting the olives and pressing them.

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