How to Make Homemade Olive Oil
Olive oil has had many uses beyond just for cooking - for thousands of years it has been used in cosmetics, medicine and it was even used in the original olympic torch as fuel. Follow our handy guide on how to make olive oil at home for you to enjoy or gift to others.
When making olive oil at home, it’s up to you if you decide to use green or black olives, ripe or unripe - as long as they’re fresh and not from a can, it doesn’t matter. The only difference is it will change the final flavour profile of your olive oil. If you don’t live near olive trees or an olive farm you can order raw olives online.
How to Pick Olives Yourself
You can pick the olives individually but this can be painstaking so if you’re making a large batch, you’re better off shaking the tree or you can also use a garden rake to whack the branches.
Don’t worry about leaves ending up mixed in with the olives as we’ll clear those out later.
It’s fine to use any olives that are on the ground as long as no pests have decided to make a home out of them.
As tempting as it is to eat an olive straight off the tree, you’ll find they’ll be very bitter, which is why they fermented in brine to make them edible.
Prepping & Pitting the Olives
Into the kitchen we go. Give your olives a wash removing any leaves or twigs.
Now it’s time to remove the pits from the olives. There are ways you can make your life easier for yourself by getting a pitter but if you don’t have one you can also use a knife to carefully squeeze the pit out.
Pitting an olive with a knife
- Put the olive onto a chopping board
- Put the flat side of the knife on top of the olive
- Press down, pulling the knife gently towards you
- The pit should start to squeeze out. You can use your fingers to gently pull the rest out without causing too much damage to the olive
Worth noting is the pitting process can take a lot of time so I’d definitely recommend shoving on your favourite film whilst doing this.
