Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Beech-mast Oil
BEECH-MAST OIL, is expressed from the mast, after it has been shelled and pounded. It is used in many parts of France and Silesia instead of butter; according to some accounts, it is little inferior to oil of olives. After the oily part has been extracted, the remainder of the mast, when dried, is said to be sweeter and more palatable than before, and may be easily converted into flour, of a similar taste and colour to that of wheat.
In order to obtain pure oil, the following circumstances must be attended to: 1. The fruit must be carefully selected, and all musty, rotten, or tainted nuts, particularly, those of the former year, should be rejected.
2. The shell of the nut should be taken off, which is necessary not only for increasing the quantity, but also for improving the quality of the oil, because the husk communicates a particular flavour.
3. The film which surrounds the kernel, should then be removed, an operation which is essential to the perfection of the oil and the flour; for the film, though small in quantity, has an astringent disagreeable taste, which is plainly perceptible in both the oil and the flour, where its removal has been neglected. It may be separated by putting the kernels into hot water, as is practised in blanching almonds.
4. After the nuts are gathered, they should be preserved for two or three months in a dry place, so thinly spread out as not to allow them to heat, and often turned, to keep them sweet; then bruised like apples in a cyder mill. In this state, the mass should be put into bags of strong thin canvas, and pressed cold. The oil must be extracted by three degrees of pressure: the first moderate, which gives the purest and finest oil; the second harder, which yields it of an inferior quality; and the third as forcibly as the materials will bear, from which an oil of an indifferent quality is obtained. After each separate pressure, the bag should be turned, and the mast, after being well shaken, may be preserved for use.
It has been asserted, that the mast, though three times pressed, is more nutritive than in its natural state. It may, therefore, not only be given as a wholesome food to poultry, swine, and oxen, but also be manufactured into hair-powder.