How Do You Get Olive Oil From Olives?
For many many years, going back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, people have used presses to extract olive oil from the olive, the press is used to separate the olive oil and vegetation water from the solid body of the olive. Once these two have been separated, a decanter is used to separate the oil from the water. In able to gain a fine olive oil, there is a process that must be used before the olive is pressed.
First of all the olives should be harvested and the bad olives removed from the bunch. The olives are then put under a special stone called millstone or in some areas a ground stone. The olives should stay under the stone for just over a half an hour to turn them into a paste, also to guarantee that the paste collects the right aromas and smell that come from the fruit enzymes and forms into the olive oil drops.
After the necessary time the olive paste is removed from the millstones or ground stones and put onto special disks called fiber disks. The paste must be spread over the disks and completely cover it. They are then placed into the press, piled on top of each other. The machine will then press the paste and begin to compact it so the oils will start to percolate. So the percolation is easier water is poured down the sides of the press.
After the pressing process is over the liquids are removed from the presser and taken to a separate machine called a decanter. The decanter is used to remove the excess water from the olive oil, leaving a pure olive oil. There is another process that can be used to separate the water from the oils, it is called vertical centrifuge and is normally a lot faster than using a decanter.
Every time the process of extracting oil from the olives all of the machines must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. This is because any paste or oils left on the machines can ferment and therefore contaminate any new oils that will be done in the future. After the cleaning is finished, a final inspection will take place to make sure they are fully disinfected.
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.