Did peanut oil exist in ancient times? If so, how did people extract the oil in those ancient times?

Question 1: Was there peanut oil in ancient times?

There was. But relatively late.

China's history of vegetable edible oils, peanut oil appeared later, according to historical records, peanuts as oil plants, about from the Song and Yuan dynasties. The Qing Dynasty, Tanzui, in the "Dianhai Yu Heng Zhi" is this: "peanut for the first in the South fruit, to its funding for the most extensive civilian use. Between the Song and Yuan, and cotton, melon, sweet potatoes and so on, Guangdong estimate from the sea countries to get their seeds back to plant. Called cotton said 'Gibe', called sweet potato said 'groundnut'. Drop peanuts said 'ground beans' ...... drop peanuts to squeeze oil for the top. Therefore, from Fujian and Guangdong, no not eat drop peanut oil." Tang Zui's above record, written in the Qing Dynasty Qianlong years. However, in his Jiaqing eighteen years written in the "adjustment disease diet discernment - oil" chapter, but only four kinds of vegetable oil: fat hemp oil (sesame oil), soybean oil, rue Taiwan oil (rapeseed oil), jibai oil (cotton seed oil), and no peanut oil. It indicates that the southern people of China began to consume peanut oil during the Song and Yuan Dynasties, while the northern people were after the late Qing Dynasty.

Question 2: How did people extract oil, if at all, in that ancient time?

The method and technology of extracting vegetable oil began in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the earliest method was "pounding", which was a backward technology, and the oil was mostly used for lighting and rainwater protection. Really widely eaten after the Song Dynasty. Shen Kuo "Dream Stream Brush Tales" cloud: "today's northern people like to use hemp oil to fry things, do not ask what things, all fried with oil." At this time the oil extraction technology has matured, Song Zhuangchuo said: "frying and pressing to produce oil." This is the same as the modern oil extraction process.

Peanut oil is the use of existing sesame, rapeseed and soybean oil extraction methods to extract oil.

Traditional oil extraction methods (peanut oil as an example):

a. Frying the seeds.

Sun-dried peanuts in their shells are placed in a large pot and stir-fried over high heat until they are burnt on the outside and crispy on the inside.

b, grinding.

The fried peanuts are crushed into powder with a grinder.

c, make cakes.

The powder is pressed into equal-sized and shaped "cakes" using a mold.

d. Oil extraction.

The material cakes are arranged horizontally in the oil press, and at one end of the press, a large wedge is driven in by manpower with a "battering ram", and the oil in the cakes is squeezed out.