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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Olive Oil Extraction

So, I just wanted to take a few quick moments and tell you all something really neat. I just extracted some real-life olive oil from some real-life olives. And it felt fabulous!

From one kilogram (that’s about 2-ish pounds) of ripe olives, I was able to produce about 50 milliliters (less than a quarter cup) of oil. Here’s the rundown of my method: For one hour, at the lowest speed of a Thermomix (an incredibly awesome and incredibly expensive European blender, that I really, really want, but I really, really want a lot of things, so oh well) I blended the olives, pits and all, into a purple paste that looked delicious, like a bright and luscious blueberry sauce, but tasted of bitter, horrible terribleness.

 
I filled large test-tubes with the beautiful-yucky olive paste, and spun them around a couple-million times or so in a centrifuge, which actually only took about ten minutes. When their spinning time was up, a clear golden oil rested atop the purple gunkiness: my very own, very extra virgin, olive oil.

 
It was slightly bitter and a little grassy-tasting, but round and fresh and really nice. We hadn’t tried this at Alicia before. I was mimicking industrial methods on a much smaller scale, and none of us was sure if it would actually work. But work it did! And we couldn’t have been happier or more satisfied with ourselves. It was a perfect end to a busy week!

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