How to Extract Oil From Olives

Olive oil is a staple of Mediterranean cuisine. The thick, green, aromatic liquid can be used to cook, as well as flavor, a wide variety of dishes. The process of extracting oil from olives, called milling, is instantly gratifying; when you are done, you can celebrate by making delicious food with your home-pressed olive oil.

Things You'll Need

• Olive press
• Jars or containers

Instructions

1. Pick olives. Harvest olives when they reach their peak weight and are ripe; the time of their ripeness depends on the region in which they grow. Use an automated picker or hand-pick them yourself.

2. Clean the olives. Remove twigs, stems and other items from the collection of olives. Rinse the olives with water to remove dirt or chemicals.

3. Crush the olives. Use a stone mill to smash the olives into a thick olive paste and help release some of the olives' oil from inside their cells.

4. Press the olive paste to extract the oil. While major producers use centrifugation to separate the oil from the pieces of olives, using a special olive press and collecting the oil is the old-fashioned, home-friendly way.

5. Rack the resulting oil, or let gravity filter it a final time. Let the olive oil rest in a barrel or other container, where it will naturally separate. Place the barrel in a dark room with a temperature of about 65 degrees.

Tips & Warnings

• If you can't afford a home-version press, look for a communal mill that rents out its facilities.

References

• Sunset: How To Make Olive Oil
• Filippo Berio: How We Make Olive Oil
• The Olive Oil Source: How We Make Olive Oil
• Sunset Mallee Olive: How Is Olive Oil Extracted From Olives?

Resources

• Olive Oil Source