# How do they make peanut oil? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2004, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-peanut-oil/262022 "2004-08-29T00:14:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2004, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-peanut-oil/262022/21 "2004-08-29T12:44:49Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Now, to me, it seems obvious that we have peanut oil…eat a lot of peanut and your hands will be a little greasy, no? But how in the Hell do we get vegetable oil? I have yet to encounter a vegetable that seems like it could provide oil. Vegetable oil is almost always soybean oil. They mean vegetable in the “animal, vegetable, or mineral” sense, not in the “leafy green vegetable” sense. In other words, they mean oil that doesn’t come from an animal. FTR, peanuts are around 48% oil (by weight). If you want to see it for yourself, throw a bunch of shelled and roasted peanuts (maybe a little salt) in your food processor and process until smooth. Let it sit for a few hours and watch the oil rise to the top. Or, buy some “natural” peanut butter (the kind that doesn’t contain hydrogenated oils in it). The ingredients list will usually just say “peanuts” and the jar will have a layer of oil sitting on top of the peanut butter. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2004, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-peanut-oil/262022/22 "2004-08-29T12:48:17Z")
Oh, and also FTR soybeans (dried) contain about 18% oil. Oily for a bean, but it doesn’t come close the to the oiliest bean, the peanut. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2004, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-peanut-oil/262022/23 "2004-08-29T13:04:36Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > This thread is giving me a headache. > [@Kniz](#): > > They squeeze their nuts! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2004, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-peanut-oil/262022/24 "2004-08-29T14:24:32Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > You know when you open your half-used jar of peanut butter that you haven’t opened for a while and you have to mix it up because there’s oil settled out of it? What did you think that was, peanut tears? May not actually be peanut oil, oddly enough. Particularly in the case of cheap brands, peanut butter may be made from defatted peanut meal (a byproduct of the peanut oil extraction process) with _some other_ kind of oil added (oibviously a cheaper one that peanut oil, or the process would be pointless), such as rapeseed (I think this is called canola in the USA) or palm oil. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-peanut-oil/262022/25 "2004-08-29T14:33:04Z")
OK, sure, most vegetable oil is from soy…but what about corn oil? I can go buy a bottle of 100% corn oil. Do corn seeds have that much oil? But aren’t the seeds the kernals? So maybe corn oil comes from a different part of the corn? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-peanut-oil/262022/26 "2004-08-29T15:03:59Z")
All grains contain oil. Corn included. It is in the seed. Specifically, mostly in the germ and the hull and not in the endosperm (the soft, sugary part of sweet corn that tastes so good). Since corn used to produce corn meal or grits is hulled and degerminated first, producers have all of these germs and hulls left over that they can squeeze to get the oil out. Hybrid producers are also working on high oil corn varieties (mostly for llivestock feed). ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-peanut-oil/262022/27 "2004-08-30T22:08:55Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Sure, this is a stupid question, but then, most of my questions in this forum are. Anyway, I don’t get it. _Peanut_ oil? How on earth do you possibly bleed oil from a peanut? It seems like it would be akin to marketing “gravel oil”. So, what is it? Some kind of vegetable oil with microscopic peanut particles infused in it to give it flavor? I just can’t figure it. Peanuts have a lot of oil in them. You’re thinking of dried peanuts, I think. You make peanut oil pretty much the same way you make olive oil: by squeezing peanuts. The question is, “how do they make baby oil?” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-peanut-oil/262022/28 "2004-08-30T22:55:50Z")
> [@Mathochist](#): > > The question is, “how do they make baby oil?” That’s easy. Babies are soft. It’s machine oil that’s a bitch to squeeze out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-peanut-oil/262022.md?page=1)