Coconut oil is one of those rare natural oils that can be used for almost anything-- cooking, baking, massage oil, moisturiser, hair & scalp, skin rashes, sunscreen (
SPF 4, 75% UV Protection) and many more. Check out a comprehensive list on Coconut oil uses on this
website.
Coconut tree is a large palm tree that can grow up to 30 metres tall. The fruit of this is generally referred to as a Coconut. When tender, the coconut is used for its refreshing water and meat. When it is ripe, it is also used for its water but mostly for its thick white juicy meat. In many cultures, including in India, the meat of coconut is dried and used for cooking as it has a very long shelf life. The other major use of a ripe and dried coconut meat is to make coconut oil.
Oil from mature coconut meat can be extracted in many ways, but we figured out that we can do the wet process at home. And since we found out how to make our own oil, we've never bought coconut oil again. Here is the process we use to make coconut oil at home by wet process.
Ingredients and tools:
- 4 mature coconuts split into half
- Sieve cloth or a thin cotton scarf
- A spoon or a small knife to disassemble coconut meat
- Blender to mix
- Water
- Large bowl to store coconut milk overnight
- A thick bottomed pan to cook coconut fat
- A long handled spatula (preferably steel as you would need to scratch the bottom while cooking)
- A gas/electric stove
- A bottle that can store up to 500 ml of coconut oil
Step 1: The first step is to get hold of mature coconuts with thick meat in them. During our travels, especially in south east Asia and in India, where we could find mature coconuts easily, it was very convenient to make our own oil. We bought our coconuts from a nearby temple where devotees offered coconuts to their gods and they were later sold by the temple administrators. It is also very economical to buy coconuts at temples. If you have to buy a coconut to offer at a temple, it costs around 25 rupees (€ 0,32/$0.35) but the same coconut after the offering from the temple costs around 2.5 rupees (10% of the original price).
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| Coconut shells we bought from a nearby temple |
Step 2: Extract the coconut meat from the shells. You can either use a hard spoon or a knife, whichever is convenient for you.
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| Separating coconut meat from the shells |
Step 3: Once the meat is extracted, cut them into small pieces and collect them in a bowl.
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| Coconut meat ready for next step |
Step 4: Blend these pieces with water in a mixer. Blend until the mixture turns into a thick milky paste. Add more water if necessary.
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| Coconut meat in a blender |
Step 5: Extract milk from the mixture. Take a big bowl and cover it with a large sieve cloth (or a thin cotton scarf/towel). Pour the mixture over the cloth and squeeze out the coconut milk. Take out the left over pulp from the cloth and add it back into the blender with some more water and blend it again. Extract more milk if you can.
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| Coconut meat blended with water ready to extract milk |
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| Coconut milk extracted out of coconut water blended mix |
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| Coconut milk and left over pulp |
Step 6: Let the mixture sit in the bowl overnight either in a refrigerator (if you want to use the coconut water for other purposes) or on your kitchen counter for at least 8 - 10 hours. The fatty oils from the milk rise up to the top and the water settles at the bottom.
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| Coconut milk stored overnight with fatty oils on the top |
Step 7: Use a wide spatula and take out the fatty oily layer from the container and add it to a thick bottomed pan. We used a thick aluminium pan. Take care to transfer as little water as possible otherwise the next step will be a bit messy.
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| Moving the fatty layer to a pan |
Step 8: Start heating the mixture on high heat on a stove. Make sure you cook only on high heat. The oils won't evaporate or get burnt because the smoking point of coconut oil is very high (350ºF/177ºC). If there is too much water in the mixture, it will pop out of the pan for a few minutes until all the water is evaporated. As the fatty mixture heats up, continue mixing it with a long spatula. Make sure you have a long spatula as the mixture gets very hot and might heat up your hand.
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| Cooking the fatty coconut oils in a pan |
Step 9: Slowly, the oil separates from the coconut meat solids. Continue to cook and scrape with the spatula until the solids in the oil starts turning dark brown. Switch off the stove and take the pan off the stove. Let it cool.
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| Oil separating from the solids |
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| Home made coconut oil |
Step 10: Take a thin sieve cloth or a cotton scarf and filter out the oil from the solids. There you go. Your fresh home made coconut oil is ready to use. You can store this for many months or even a year or more without refrigeration.
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| Coconut oil stored in a glass bottle |
If you decide to try this out at home, let us know about your experience or any new tips and tricks you found along the way.
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