Hung Xuan: Restoring peanut oil pressing profession
After a long time, the manual peanut oil pressing profession in Hung Xuan commune (Hung Nguyen) gradually faded away due to the cheaper price of industrial vegetable oil and its eye-catching designs... But now, with the trend of consumers choosing refined peanut oil, ensuring quality and good for health, this craft village that has existed for more than half a century has "rekindled" again.
(Baonghean) –After a long time, the manual peanut oil pressing profession in Hung Xuan commune (Hung Nguyen) gradually faded away due to the cheaper price of industrial vegetable oil and its eye-catching designs... But now, with the trend of consumers choosing refined peanut oil, ensuring quality and good for health, this craft village that has existed for more than half a century has "rekindled" again.
The peanut oil pressing profession appeared in Hung Xuan in 1950, passed down by Mr. Tran Ngu in Hamlet 9 (who was a worker at Vinh Oil Factory during the French colonial period). By the 1980s, Hung Xuan peanut oil was present throughout the district and neighboring districts, even in Vinh city, specializing in supplying retail locations, restaurants, and eateries. However, when industrial vegetable oil appeared with low prices, eye-catching designs, and a systematic business system, peanut oil was only produced in moderation, mainly serving the people in the commune. For about 3 years now, although the price of peanut oil is more than double the price of branded vegetable oils on the market (currently priced at about 450,000 VND/5 liter can), it is still chosen by many housewives because peanut oil has guaranteed quality and is good for health.
Peanut grinding stage
Uncooked peanuts are wrapped into cakes and then pressed into a mold.
Pressing time of nearly 2 hours will produce the product.
Currently, the whole commune has more than 30 households participating in the profession, of which 15 households are professional year-round producers, mainly concentrated in hamlets 9 and 10. Every year, in May and June of the lunar calendar (when the spring peanut harvest is finished), people in the two hamlets are busy with the oil pressing season. After being ground, peanuts are put into a pot, heated over a steady heat for about 40 minutes, stirring at least twice when the peanut residue is wet, it means it is cooked; then wrapped into small cakes and put into a rotating press mold... During the main season, many households cannot keep up with the work because many customers inside and outside the district come to order as gifts to take away. According to the calculations of the households doing the profession, to make a 5-liter can of oil costs about 11 kg of peanuts, after deducting expenses, the profit is over 10,000 VND; on average, a household sells 30-35 liters of oil/day for an income of about 80,000 VND.
In addition, households also receive processing, each 21kg of peanuts earns 30,000 VND. If people who press oil do not need to use the dried peanuts, they will buy them back at 8,000 VND/kg to serve livestock farming. More than half a century has passed, the profession has had its ups and downs, but it has contributed significantly to improving the lives of the people here. It is known that since 2008, in order to restore the profession, the commune has built a project to be recognized by the province as a peanut oil pressing craft village, moving towards improving tools, shortening pressing time and increasing oil recovery efficiency.
According to the experience of the people of Hung Xuan commune, peanuts grown on loamy soil often produce more oil. And to prevent the peanut oil from smelling bad when cooked, you should let the oil heat up before adding onions or garlic; the amount used for one cooking is usually less than industrial vegetable oil because the dry oil will expand and become fatter when heated...
Ngoc Anh
