FOOD NEWS
Ancient Egyptians Made Wine And Olive Oil Thanks To The Torsion Method
By Chase Shustack
Much like how we enjoy wine and olive oil with bread when we go to restaurants, the ancient Egyptians also enjoyed these simple pleasures. While they didn't have access to the machinery and technological advancements we use today, their culture employed another method to produce wines and olive oils to feed their population.
The ancient Egyptians extracted liquids from grapes and olives using the torsion method, which required filling a large woven bag with either fruits or olives and inserting two long sticks through both ends of the bag. The sticks would then be twisted or moved back and forth, crushing the grapes or olives while the liquid seeped through the bag's permeated surface.
In more modern terms, it's like putting a bunch of grapes or olives inside some cheesecloth, taking a mallet, and smashing the fruit until the juice drips out. Sapiens notes that there is evidence that the torsion process lasted well beyond the time of the ancient Egyptians, going so far as twentieth-century Italy if some illustrations are to be believed.