Peppermint oil??

[Feygan]

Ok so I had a nosey around and so far the best thing i've found for how to make this is to take one jar, fill it with chopped peppermint leafs and topup with salad oil and leave for a month.

Anyone offer any tips on how accurate this is or any better alternatives?

Asking since i've just got a few mint plants that I intend sticking in large containers to let them go abit rampant so I can knockup my own kendal mintcake.

[Wombat]

That's peppermint flavoured oil, peppermint essential oil is made by steam distilling the mint leaves. I am not sure which type you need though, Feygan.

Nev

[Feygan]

Ah see what you mean now, got any ideas one rough ratios of leaves to oil production one can expect? Had a quick look about and i'm guessing it will be pretty low, so I may endup going down the route of muddling instead.

[Stonehead]

Steam distillation of peppermint oil usually yields 0.5 to 1% oil from vegetation. So, to get 10g of oil, you'll need to harvest at least 1kg of peppermint and probably more like 2kg.

To distil that much peppermint, you'll need either a reasonably sized still or do multiple batches using scientific equipment (flasks, condensers, beakers, gas burners etc).

If you do buy a still that can be used for distilling alcohol (which is illegal in the UK without the appropriate licences), you can expect a visit from HM Revenue and Customs as they check on people who buy stills and can do chemical analysis to see what you've been distilling.

(I've looked into distillation of essential oils as a potential way of earning a bit of cash, but the outlay and effort for the return make it non-viable unless you can do it on a reasonably large scale.)

[Feygan]

Had an incling it would be a low yeild around there, guess muddling it is then.

[Jack]

Gidday

But one thing about it is it is something you can grow and take right through to the finished product at home onm your own.

[Stonehead]

Gidday

But one thing about it is it is something you can grow and take right through to the finished product at home onm your own.

True, but wait until you work out just how much peppermint (or lavender etc) you need to grow to get several kilograms of harvested foliage.

[Clara]

Hiya

Are you wanting to use the peppermint oil medicinally or for flavouring? If you go about distilling your own make sure you have mentha x piperita and not mentha arvensis, as the latter EO (quite often sold as peppermint) contains neurotoxins.

Do you have a specific reason you want to make your own or is it just a self sufficiency challenge? The reason I ask is because it is a relatively cheap oil to buy and distilling for the quantities required for personal use is not efficient in terms of time and effort.

As mentioned above, if you do decide to buy make sure the bottle lists the latin name.[/i]

[Feygan]

I'm going to be using in to knock up a few kendal mint cakes, but after seeing the amounts for distilling i'm probably going to go with muddling it and straining instead.

[Clara]

Presumably then you only need a few drops? I don´t think you´ll get such a potent flavour from using a macerated (infused) oil, and if you use more oil to compensate then you´ll get a weird texture. As EO is just EO, nothing added, what you´ll get is the carrier oil with a small amount of EO diluted in it.

However you´ll get best results if you chop the plant material finely, as this will rupture some of the microscopic essential oil sacs that distillation would do more efficiently.

As an EO goddess, I recommend you buy some anyhow. It is a brilliant medicine for stomach upsets, heartburn, nausea, gas etc. External use only though!

Good luck.

[frozenthunderbolt]

OK - i know this works for oregano oil - VERY VERY POTENT - used in oil evaporators only, so make no claim for cullinary use, i IMAGINE it would be ok if used very sparingly.

Get a pressurecooker with a screw top and a pressure relaese valve with removable weight that sits on top of the valvey thing (sorry best description i can do) and as much thin copper piping as you can.

bend pipe into an upside down "L" to fit over the valve when weight is removed.

bend rest of the pipe into a downward spiral.

pack pressure cooker with herb then add a few litres/pints/'some' water

screw lid on tight

heat pot/pressurecooker

but cold wet towels over the copper spiral that will recondense the steam

collect the fluid that comes out the bottom in a HIGH volumn NARROW clear (if possible) pipe with the bottom sealed.

this will take a few hours.

let the liquid settle overnight then unblock the bottom a little and drain of the water(under the oil layer) - this may be arromatic like rose water

once you reach oil, bottle. i got about 2/3rds a bottle for a 4/5 full pot

NOTE: keep collecting past when you think you are done. and LET THE POT COOL BEFORE OPENING. if you dont you get a face full of oil laden steam. might b less impressive with mint, but oregano oil in the eyes was nasty!

hope this helps!

[Clara]

LET THE POT COOL BEFORE OPENING. if you dont you get a face full of oil laden steam. might b less impressive with mint, but oregano oil in the eyes was nasty!

hope this helps!

Nope that would burn like hell too! When I trained in the south of France, there had just been a fire in the barn where they stored the EOs (big barrels of ´em). The guy who first discovered the fire and so got a lungful of EO vapour (predominantly peppermint) was still bed ridden. Two months later the minty smell still hung in the air, very strange.

Going OT but caution with oregano oil, as what is sold as oregano oil in the states (and the antipodes?) differs from oregano oil in europe, the european variety being far more toxic. Origanum vulgare is what you´re looking for.