Pressing Sunflower Seeds into Cooking Oil

We no longer eat seed oils because the manufacturing process causes them to be extremely toxic. When I discovered current studies claim they probably caused my late Mother's macular degeneration blindness, I swore I would not use them at all. We now press our own oils with a Happybuy Electric Hot Oil Press/Extractor machine purchased from Amazon. It is well made, heavy duty, fully metal, and will last our family a lifetime. It is quite pricey but I consider it worth the money Reese spent for our health benefits. 

The instructions were easy...easy to get confused that is. Don't try to read into the detailed instructions too much. Just plug in, preheat for ten minutes, then press go!

Some assembly was required. At least we weren't putting together a shelf from Ikea.

We pressed 40 pounds of sunflower seeds purchased from Tractor Supply Company for less than $20 USD. On occasion we experiment with other types of seeds but sunflowers have given us the best results. It took about ten hours to process the whole bag. The machine did not overheat but ran steadily all day long. Ear plugs were not required, thankfully. We got about one and one-fourth gallons of oil from this particular bag. Fresher, higher quality seeds produce more oil. Reese experimented later with preshelled sunflower seeds to see how they compare with those in shells. They pressed faster and less waste was extruded, but the preshelled cost about 2.5 times more for the same volume of oil than those with shells. It is a choice between spending more time (with shell) or more money (preshelled).

It was tedious constantly loading the hopper every 10-15 minutes. So we placed a plastic gallon milk jug (with the top and bottom cut off) into the hopper to increase the volume of seeds. It worked surprisingly well. The spoon stirred the jammed seeds into the press. This only happened 1-2 times per load even though Reese would stir it unnecessarily to relieve boredom.

The shells were expelled from the discharge pipe and the oil dripped into a small filtered cup. It was not large enough for our purposes so we replaced it with something larger.

It seems staring at the machine made it drip faster and caused hypnotism. 

The shells were dry and crumbly when expelled. A cooled handful could easily be crushed into a third of the volume. (Reese also considered this activity entertaining.) Originally the shells dropped into a large bowl but it was changed to a clean trash bag to hold more volume. As long as the can was placed correctly and the shells were occasionally crushed down, much work was saved. It later became great mulch in the garden. 

The oil produced is full of sediments and must be filtered. It has a very distinct and overpowering taste of sunflowers and can't be used. 

We let it sit undisturbed for a month so the larger particulates would settle down and form a thick sludgy mass. The goodish oil on top was poured into a clean vessel. It was then strained through a coffee filter which was replaced 6-8 times per gallon due to quickly clogging. The filtering would still take several days. However, if you were to leave the oil undisturbed on the shelf for 3-6 months, even smaller particulates would eventually settle down. Another option is to pour the good oil off and only filter the remaining oil. The coffee filter method expedites the filtration, but waiting 6 months gives a cleaner final product.  

Reese stores the machine at his house and presses enough once a year for everyone.  Much to our surprise, this jar which was pressed two years ago has not gone rancid. Google claimed fresh pressed oil would only last 9-12 months. Our experience has blown that estimate out of the water. It has worked perfect in everything except the fresh oil's flavor interferes with some recipes and like first pressed olive oil, stings your throat. Storing it open has lessened the flavor. 

We have moved completely away from everything that has seed oils and it has not been easy. I only use high quality olive oil and my sunflower oil. I saw first hand how my Mother suffered and won't risk it happening to me or my family. Good health and vision are too valuable to risk on anything.