What is a Fruit Press?

If there ever was a phrase that describes an item, "fruit press" is that phrase. It presses fruit. The why and how is a bit more detailed.

The Fruit Press

A fruit press is a mechanism that is used to separate the juice from the fruit. In the process, the fruit is pulverized, reducing it to a mash of peeling, pulp and seeds, with the juice draining off into a container.

Home & Commercial

Fruit presses come in a variety of sizes. The smallest presses are for individual use in the home kitchen and are generally hand cranked. Making apple juice or cider, or more recently the pressing of grapes to make homemade wine. have become popular press usage activities. The typical press has a "ram," a piston or plunger that is forced down onto the fruit to press the juice out.

On a commercial scale, a whole mill is utilized as a fruit press. This factory setup is run with electrical or gasoline engines. A community mill serves all the fruit growers in an area, pressing their fruit in exchange for a share of the finished product, or collecting money based on the quantity. Receiving some of the juice in exchange for the pressing services is not always a good idea. Often fruit of poor quality (wormy, bruised windfall) is brought into the mill. To avoid this possibility, large orchards will often have their own mill for their exclusive use.

A press used to make apple cider (cider mill) often has an attachment to chop the apples up before pressing.

Why use a fruit press?

By pressing the fruit you are able to extract all the nutrition the fruit has to offer: Vitamins, potassium, antioxidants. When there is an surplus of fruit, it's an efficient way to use up the fruit before spoilage sets in. This is can be accomplished with a minimum of effort. The quality and flavor of homemade fruit juice is superior to store bought.

Can you make a fruit press?

With a bit of carpentry skills, a press is not too difficult to make. In its simplest form, there are only four main parts to a press.

1) You need a sturdy frame, preferably nailed and bolted together.
2) There has to be a basket of sorts, with drain holes in the bottom, to place the fruit where it will be crushed.
3) In addition something to do the actually squeezing (crushing) of the fruit. This is generally a screw type mechanism.
4) Finally, you need a container to collect the juice.

Complete directions can be found at http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1976-09-01/How-To-Build-A-Cider-Press.aspx

History

As far back as 1898 there has been mention of fruit presses in newspapers. It wasn't until 1916 that Madeline M. Turner of Oakland, California, received a patent for a fruit press. She had created a complicated machine that could do several functions at once. Almost like an assembly line, her invention pushed the fruit along to be cut in half before moving on to the presser where it was squeezed with the resulting pulp passing out one way and the juice draining through another opening. Her invention was the forerunner of the machines used in our modern day food industry.