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<pre>Reading the discussion about traditional vs.continuous, I remember what I
saw in Tunisia some year ago. Just as Phil wrote:
+AD4- Mats did not appear to be cleaned on a regular basis, the workers looked
as if they worked with automotive oil and were covered with it ... Mind you
the oil tasted terrific+ACE- +ADw-
And it also smelled awful.
This is not only a question of cleanliness of the mats and so on, but a
question of ignorance about what happens to the olives and the oil in these
conditions. The problem with the traditional column-type presses is that you
cannot clean the mats after each process. So if they pressed rancid olives
before yours, you can do what you want, your oil will not be perfect. And
imagine what happens to the mats during the rest, because rarely the presses
do a 24 by 24 hour turn. But if we discuss the influence of the press on the
quality of the oil we must be aware that pressing is only ONE step in the
process. It starts with growing the olives, then harvest, then follows the
VERY important storage, the grinding, then stirring ('gramolatura'),
pressing and separating and finally the storage of the oil itself. During
each of these steps errors can deteriorate quality. The most sensible steps
are storage of the olives (short, dry, cool), grinding (as slow as possible:
it's not the pressure that heats the olives but speed plus pressure),
stirring of the olive paste (not to short and not to long, not to warm and
not to cold) and the type of pressing. I tried the traditional way (10 years
ago here in Tuscany we had still many traditional presses), the 'modern'
three-phase presses (output is oil, water, and the solid 'sansa') and the
last development, the two-phase separators. In my neighbourhood we have one
press of each type, but I can assure you that the best quality ever comes
out of the two-phase separator (I think it is an Alfa-Laval). The latter
does not require the addition of water to the paste and thus keeps many of
the fragrances that normally go away with the waste-water. Indeed, the oil
is so tasty that some people that are not used to such a fresh and tasty
oil, don't appreciate it because it is too strong. We love it and for some
week we eat lots of things with only fresh olive oil, for instance potatoes
in their jackets, salt and oil, nothing else (mmmh, delicious+ACE-). Anyway
after a few months the taste 'normalises, but this oil can be stocked very
long because of its rich content of polifenolics and vitamin E. We have
tried to store it for more than 3 years (from November 1995) in a dark
cupboard at normal temperature (up to 28-30 degrees Celsius in summer) and
it is still slightly green, smells good (it tastes a bit more 'fatty' than
before) and
is not yet rancid. Of course this is only a test, nobody should keep olive
oil more than two years.
The waste in this system is only one component, a kind of liquid pudding
that can be used as a fertiliser which contains nearly no fat, so it cannot
be recycled for making low quality sansa oil, and there is no waste water to
get rid of. I can assure Peter Warnock that is nothing like McDonald, but a
real improvement in quality.
Of course (and with this I do NOT want to criticise anybody) taste is
something very personal. Who is grown up with food with certain defects of
taste (in olive oil as it may happen with wine), may appreciate these
defects because they are 'something special'. Many farmers here are
convinced that their oil is 'the best' although it has sensible defects,
often due to bad storage of the olives. But they have grown up with this,
it's the taste of their life, of their childhood. A perfect oil might not
remind them of the happy days of their childhood ....
By the way I offered an excellent Australian wine (one of the best wines I
ever tasted) to a tuscan friend and he said that local wines are better.
That's what I mean.
Volker Piasta, Volterra - Tuscany (http://toscana-toskana.de )
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