[Sca-cooks] olives/olive oil question

[Avraham haRofeh]

> >What about the oil? Is olive oil pressed from
> >fresh olives? Or from those that have been processed? If fresh,
> >then how come you can eat the oil with no problem, but the olives
> >need to be processed?
>
> The oil comes from the pits of the olive...  Not the whole fruit.

Everything I know about the process indicates that the fresh fruit is is the
source of olive oil. The traditional method involves crushing the olives
with the pits, then grinding the olives into a paste. This paste is then
scraped into a extractor of some kind - in period, probably a finely woven,
flat wicker basket. These baskets are then piled one atop the other and
weighted. The oil squeezes out and runs down the tower of baskets into a
collection trough at the bottom. A modern machine mashes the fruit and pits,
then extrudes the paste onto a series of metal plates, which are also
stacked together and weighted (or compressed). Pomace is what's left behind
after the good oil is extracted; a bit more very low grade oil can be
extracted from the pomace, and is used for commercial/industrial purposes
like soapmaking.

The above is extracted from www.oliveoilsource.com. I can't find anything on
why raw olives are inedible (they are, but I can't find anything to say
why.)

Avraham

****************************************
Avraham haRofeh of Northpass
     (mka Randy Goldberg MD)