Pressing your own oil

[grahamhobbs]

Does anyone press their own oil, sunflower, walnut or whatever?
My friend in France gets his walnuts pressed for walnut oil by a guy in the village. I have also seen a small wooden hand press, about 20 x 20cm, for pressing small quantities of oil.

[contadino]

Funnily enough, I took a batch of olives to the mill this morning. I noticed that the meters on the presses were reading 450 bar, and that's a cold press which is considered inefficient. The motors that run each press at are rated at 50 hp each. If I remember correctly, rapeseed, soyabean, and coconut oil needs much higher pressure (600-700, but it was a long time ago.)

In a nutshell (sorry, couldn't resist) you need far higher pressure than can be delivered from a fruit press.

[grahamhobbs]

The press I saw was an old traditional hand press, not as big as a fruit press, like a small wooden box used in the kitchen for pressing, sunflower or walnuts, and probably just enough oil to cook with.