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Extra
virgin oil is for classification, the best of the market; the product we sell,
comes from the olives we care in our farm. They are picked up healthy by hands
and rigorously from the plant even if this method is more expensive than picking
them up on the ground, such as it happens in Puglia or Liguria, but this process
is not good because the oil gains acidity ( the principle parameter for the
quality, maximum is 1%, our oil never surpasses the 5%, nor in the worst years!):
in fact the fallen olives are always the matures one ( they have lost their
organolectic features) or rotten. The olives so picked up are grinded during the
day in our oil press and are controlled by ourselves. Just in this way we can
obtain the best quality!!!
The
working is divided in 4 different phases:
| 1. The
washing |
A moment of
washing |
| 2. The
squeezing |
| 3. The
mixing |
| 4. The extraction of the oil
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1. By the
washing it’s possible to put out the impurities such as (soil and stone etc.)
2. The
squeezing, in which the olives are grinded one transformed in a paste. It can be
made by hammer mills, by disc mills or by the traditional stone mills.
3.
The
mixing is the process in which the olive paste produced is submitted to a
continuous mixing, to purpose to unite the small drops of oil and transform them
in big drops, to extract the oil.
4. The oil extraction can be in two ways: by the continuous or the
traditional method. In the first
case the separation of the three components
(water, oil and sansa) occurs with a centrifugal system, which exploits the
physic principle of the specific weight
difference.
This machine exploits the round
speed to push the heaviest elements to the external. In this way inside the
machine are formed three parts, outside sansa, in the middle water, inside oil
In
the second case the solid part ( sansa) is divided by
the liquid part (oil and water mix) by a disc press remaining the paste
on interwoven rope panels. Once obtained the mix of water and oil, it is
separated by a centrifuge similar to that utilized
in the continuous extraction. Many people ask what is the best extraction system
and someone speak of cold squeezing and warm squeezing.
Here I would explain what I
think and why “ Il Vecchio Frantoio”
uses the Alfa- Laval system. Oil-presses, as we know, are
structures which carry out the olive oil extraction, they have to do it in the
best way to not change oil flavour.
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The Oil-Press |
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An
oil-press can obviously make worse oil flavour, but it can’ t make
it better. Our plant is a continuous type and it’ s entirely
carried out whit inox steel following
the Community rules and this is the first advantage compared to the
traditional system in which the steel inox parts are
non-existent.
This is an odourless and flavourless and by a easy
washing it’ s possible to put ut all remainders that they stop on
it. So the weakest point of the traditional
system are “Fiscoli” on which is put the paste, then to
insert them in the disc press, “Fiscoli” are a naylon or coconut
fibre interlacing difficult to wash. |
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What do these remainders mean?
The olive paste too, such as all organic materials, goes bad, but
not only: this means that in the naylon interlacing are all
remainders of our customers, so a working where it can separate oil
which comes from good or bad olives, which compromise the quality or
the flavour, can’ t be made because every time there is on them
the paste of all oil mill customers, without the washing possibility
because of it’ s laborious.
Then this kind of working has a
longer process so olives are sometimes left in warehouse.
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The Oil Extraction
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Many
people think that “cold” extraction means by traditional system
and “warm” extraction by continuous system, but it’ s a wrong
way of thinking.
First of all because the olive paste, to be worked, must have
a minimum temperature of 27 degrees C., so independently from the
extraction way, we have to reach that temperature. In the
traditional oil press that occurs in a way that all deceive, through
the friction in the grind phase, the squeezing and the high pressure
during the pressing. In
the continuous system, the paste warming occurs in the squeezing
phase, because in the container walls, where the paste lies, flaws
warm water. |
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We
can decide by ourselves the water temperature, we work the paste at
27-28 degrees, and to have the guarantee of it, we have a constant
temperature control by electrical thermometers inserted in the
squeezing basins. What are the advantages of the high temperature
working? There are only economic advantages, in fact the temperature
> of 35 degrees has a drastic loss of the most important
characteristics.
We are owners of a small
private oil press, we prefer the quality instead of the quantity. |
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