1 00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house Stuff Works dot Com 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:15,040 Speaker 1: where smart happens him Marshall Brain with today's question, how 3 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:18,040 Speaker 1: do they make olive oil or where does olive oil 4 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:22,120 Speaker 1: come from? Most people come into contact with olives in 5 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:25,560 Speaker 1: one of three ways. There are the olives that go 6 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:29,080 Speaker 1: on pizzas and into dinner entrees. They either come fresh 7 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 1: or they come from a can. Second, there are the 8 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:36,360 Speaker 1: olives with pimientos that go into martinis. And then third 9 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:39,120 Speaker 1: there's olive oil. Now, in my case, there was a 10 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:41,279 Speaker 1: fourth way. When I was a kid, I grew up 11 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:44,960 Speaker 1: in Huntington's Beach, California, which is in southern California near 12 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:48,920 Speaker 1: l A, and we lived in this little subdivision that 13 00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:52,280 Speaker 1: the developer had planted an olive tree in the front 14 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:55,920 Speaker 1: yard of every house. So when I was a little kid, 15 00:00:56,480 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 1: these olive trees would produce olives every year and we 16 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 1: would have olive fights with them. So the fourth way 17 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:05,360 Speaker 1: to experience olives is through olive fights. But ignoring that 18 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:10,200 Speaker 1: it seems odd, but olives, whether you're having fights with 19 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:13,640 Speaker 1: them or buying them at the store, have oil in them. 20 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:16,280 Speaker 1: Not only do the seeds have oil in them, like 21 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,800 Speaker 1: all seeds do. Like sesame seeds and soybeans and corn, 22 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:22,760 Speaker 1: they all have oil in them. Olive seeds have oil 23 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:26,760 Speaker 1: in them, but also the fleshy part has olive oil 24 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:30,839 Speaker 1: and its cells as well. So to make olive oil, 25 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:33,479 Speaker 1: what you have to do is you have to release 26 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:36,640 Speaker 1: the oil from the cells of the flesh as well 27 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:38,959 Speaker 1: as the cells from the seed. Or if you're making 28 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 1: a really high end boutique olive oil, you take the 29 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 1: seeds out and you just get the oil from the flesh. 30 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:47,400 Speaker 1: So the first step in making olive oil is to 31 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:50,400 Speaker 1: go out to your olive orchard which you've planted somewhere, 32 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:53,440 Speaker 1: and harvest the olives at just the right time. You 33 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:57,480 Speaker 1: don't want them to be too unripe or you get 34 00:01:57,520 --> 00:01:59,840 Speaker 1: acid e kind of olive oil, and you don't want 35 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:03,360 Speaker 1: to be too ripe or you get disgusting olive oil. 36 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:06,080 Speaker 1: You want them to be just the right level of ripeness. 37 00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: You harvest those olives, you could either rake them out 38 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: of the tree, or you can climb up in the 39 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: tree and hit them with your hands or um. You know, 40 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:16,880 Speaker 1: maybe there's a mechanical shaker like they use on some 41 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,240 Speaker 1: nut trees, though I doubt olive people would be the 42 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:24,800 Speaker 1: sorts to use mechanical shakers. So you harvest these olives 43 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:27,239 Speaker 1: by knocking them out of the tree into some cloths 44 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:30,240 Speaker 1: that you've spread on the ground. Then you wash the 45 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:32,880 Speaker 1: olives and separate out as many of the leaves as 46 00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:36,440 Speaker 1: you can, and now it's time to crush them. So 47 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:39,720 Speaker 1: the old fashioned way to crush them is to take 48 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,440 Speaker 1: giant granite wheels. So think about the wheel on your car. 49 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,480 Speaker 1: It's on an axle. There's the wheel and the rubber 50 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:49,720 Speaker 1: is hitting the road. Well, imagine making that wheel out 51 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:53,239 Speaker 1: of granite. But now imagine making it immense, say four 52 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:55,640 Speaker 1: or five feet in diameter, so it weighs about a 53 00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 1: thousand pounds, and you put it on an axle with 54 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,240 Speaker 1: another big granite wheel on the other side, and you 55 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:05,880 Speaker 1: spin them in a tub that you've filled with your 56 00:03:05,919 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: olives that you want to crush. So you're going to 57 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:12,680 Speaker 1: drive over these olives with your giant, thousand pound granite 58 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 1: wheels for about a half an hour and you're gonna 59 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:20,079 Speaker 1: mash that set of olives up into a paste. Now 60 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:21,520 Speaker 1: that's one way to do it. The other way to 61 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:24,240 Speaker 1: do it is with some kind of mechanical shredder kind 62 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:27,680 Speaker 1: of thing that uses blades to finally chop up the olives. 63 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:30,440 Speaker 1: But either way, what you're getting is this paste that 64 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:34,240 Speaker 1: consists of the olive flesh as well as the olive seeds, 65 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:38,560 Speaker 1: all ground up and finally minced. You take that and 66 00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: you need to let it sit for about an hour. 67 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:44,240 Speaker 1: So let me pause for a second here. As I'm 68 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: recording this, there's someone listening in the background and a 69 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:49,680 Speaker 1: question has come in. The question is what does an 70 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 1: olive seed look like? Because usually when you get olives, 71 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: the seeds have been removed. Now, if you have olive 72 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 1: fights with all of these little kids, you see the 73 00:03:57,520 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: seeds all the time. That's the best part. So this 74 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:03,240 Speaker 1: seed is sort of like a miniaturized peach pit. It's 75 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:06,600 Speaker 1: very hard, like a peach pit is, and it's just 76 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:08,960 Speaker 1: one of them at the center of the olive. And 77 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:11,680 Speaker 1: to make an olive with pimentos, a push that seed 78 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:14,600 Speaker 1: out and put a pimento in its place, and that's 79 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 1: why you never see the seeds anyway. So now you're 80 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:21,240 Speaker 1: paste has been sitting for a half hour or an hour, 81 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:23,560 Speaker 1: and the oil has had a chance to kind of 82 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: separate out and develop and it's time to extract the oil. 83 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:29,039 Speaker 1: You do that in one of two ways. The old 84 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: fashioned way is to put the paste in a press 85 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:37,120 Speaker 1: and to apply a lot of pressure hydraulic ly to 86 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:41,479 Speaker 1: force the oil out, and you have your olive oil. 87 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:45,640 Speaker 1: The more modern way is to put the whole blob 88 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:48,240 Speaker 1: of paste and a little water into a centrifuge and 89 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:51,320 Speaker 1: spin it up and it separates, so you get this 90 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:54,960 Speaker 1: seedy kind of stuff on the outside of the centrifuge, 91 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 1: then the fleshy kind of stuff, the water based stuff 92 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:00,279 Speaker 1: in the middle, and then in the center of the 93 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:03,839 Speaker 1: centrifuge you get the oil because it's the lightest thing 94 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:08,120 Speaker 1: in that package. And presto, you have olive oil. It's 95 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:09,880 Speaker 1: ready to be put in a bottle or a can 96 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,599 Speaker 1: or wherever it's gonna get put so it can be 97 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 1: shipped to you. Now, when you go to buy olive 98 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,279 Speaker 1: oil at the grocery store, you've seen these designations. There's 99 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:22,719 Speaker 1: virgin olive oil and extra virgin olive oil, and olive oil, 100 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:26,320 Speaker 1: olive oil and refined olive oil. What's the difference between 101 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:31,520 Speaker 1: all these different kinds. Well, the difference between virgin and 102 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:35,680 Speaker 1: extra virgin has to do with acidity. So both of 103 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:40,039 Speaker 1: these things have been processed using the process we just 104 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:44,120 Speaker 1: discussed where you crush the olives. You don't heat them 105 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: up to a high temperature, you don't use any chemicals 106 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:50,920 Speaker 1: for oil extraction. You just crush them, you let them sit, 107 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:53,680 Speaker 1: then you press or centrifuge the oil out of it. 108 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:57,279 Speaker 1: Either way you're gonna get virgin or extra virgin olive oil, 109 00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:02,680 Speaker 1: but the differences based on the acidity. The lowest acidity 110 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:06,279 Speaker 1: gets called extra virgin olive oil. If it's higher acidity, 111 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:09,039 Speaker 1: it's virgin olive oil. If it has too high of acidity, 112 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 1: you can't call it either, and you have to do 113 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:14,600 Speaker 1: something else with it. And in that case you might 114 00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:18,039 Speaker 1: send it through some kind of process or blending to 115 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: try to bring down that acidity level. And then there's 116 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: also what you can do after the facts. So with 117 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 1: that paste you have left over, there's still some oil 118 00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: left in it, you might try to extract olive oil 119 00:06:31,279 --> 00:06:35,000 Speaker 1: from that using heat or chemicals, and then that's just 120 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,760 Speaker 1: plain old olive oil or refined olive oil, probably not 121 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:43,000 Speaker 1: used for cooking, but used for something else. Now, having 122 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:45,320 Speaker 1: learned all about olive oil, I will tell you one 123 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:48,000 Speaker 1: thing that kind of disappoints me. And that's the fact 124 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:51,599 Speaker 1: that in this subdivision there were hundreds of houses, which 125 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:55,880 Speaker 1: meant hundreds of olive trees and thousands of pounds of olives. 126 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:59,680 Speaker 1: In all likelihood, if we had been really industrious as children, 127 00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:02,719 Speaker 1: we could have collected up all those olives and started 128 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:06,800 Speaker 1: our own olive oil press. But I guess, for one thing, 129 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:09,760 Speaker 1: people in America maybe weren't so interested in olive oil 130 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: when I was a kid. In second we weren't quite 131 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:17,360 Speaker 1: that industrious. So until next time. For more on this 132 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Does that how stuff works 133 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:21,960 Speaker 1: dot com and don't forget to check out the brain 134 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:24,360 Speaker 1: stuff blog on the house stuff Works dot com home page. 135 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:27,240 Speaker 1: You can also follow brain stuff on Facebook or Twitter 136 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:32,280 Speaker 1: at brain stuff hs W. The house Stuff Works iPhone 137 00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.