Coconut oil is a very useful oil that has been in existence for ages; it is used for cooking, on the skin and in various cosmetic products. The oil can be made at home by the heating method with some simple kitchen utensils by following some simple steps.
With the many uses and benefits, it is better to make your own coconut oil at home; itis cheaper and saves cost.
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Types of coconut oil
- Refined coconut oil
- Unrefined coconut oil
- Refined coconut oil refers to the type that has gone through the process adulteration, it could mean there is nothing in it, purified and has lost the coconut flavour in it since it is mass-produced; using a chemical distillation process.
- Unrefined coconut oil is the type of coconut oil that has not undergone through any process of purification. It is sometimes referred to as virgin or organic coconut oil. All the nutrients are intact.
How to make homemade coconut oil
Homemade coconut oil is the best because it ensures you get to choose what you add to it. It is often considered to be the cheapest compared to store-bought coconut oil. Below are the steps involved.
Methods of extracting coconut oil at home
There are basically three ways in which coconut oil can be extracted at home without any chemical additives included in it. These methods include:
- The cold-pressed process
- And the dry wet mill process
- The boiling process
I am just going to go about explaining just a little on the cold press and the wet mill processes since my concentration are going to be based on just one of the methods which are the boiling or heating method
The boiling method of making Coconut oil at home
This is the method I will talk more about; this method is similar to the cold press method, only that it involves the application of heat for the coconut oil to be extracted. To achieve the best outcome you need to use matured coconuts and not the young green coconuts.
- Crack open coconut pods using rod, hammer or a small axe.
- Using a coconut scraper or sturdy metal, peel out the flesh of the coconut from the hard shell.
- Rinse the flesh with clean water and cut the coconut flesh into smaller chunks.
- Place the cut chunks in a blender, add some hot water to it and blend in batches, depending on the size of your blender till you have very tiny coconut flakes.
- Pour the outcome into an empty bowl and repeat the same process until you are done with the whole coconut flesh.
- Use your hand to mix the coconut mixture you have blended; pass it over a fine sieve to strain all the milk from the fibre. Squeeze this so hard while in the filter or sieve the mixture and make sure the whole liquid comes out of the chaff.
- The fibre may still contain some milk in it, pour it back in the blender and blend the second time and add small hot water to enable you to remove much milk from the chaff. You may keep the second liquid separate if you actually want to get concentrated coconut milk, but if you don’t mind like me, just go ahead and pour it to the first.
- Sieve the coconut milk the second time into another bowl, some particles could settle at the bottom of the bowl.
- Leave the content to cool down a bit and then cover the bowl and let it sit in the fridge for 4 hours to freeze the oil. If you have no fridge, it is not a problem, just place the bowl in a bigger bowl containing a cup of water and leave it in a cold part of your room to rest overnight for about 24 hours or more, undisturbed.
- The next day, you will notice that the oil has become solidified, separating from the milk. Use a spoon to scoop out the hardtop into a stainless steel pot. If you are using a fridge, after few hours, the oil must have frozen.
- Place the pot on medium heat. Let the content boil on a medium to low heat until the liquid evaporates, leaving the clear oil and some sediment at the bottom of the pot
- Bring the pot off from heat and allow it to cool completely.
- When the pot containing the oil cools; use a cheesecloth or paper towel to filter the oil into an empty jar and discard the sediments.
- Your coconut oil is ready, cover the jar and store the oil for personal use.
Some tips to note while making coconut oil
- When processing it for commercial purpose, you may not necessarily need to wait all that long for the coconut oil to set for 24 hours or more. All you need to do is to either drop the coconut milk in the freezer for about 4- 5 hours or more to freeze before boiling it; or use a small amount of water to extract it and directly boil it together with the milk till all the liquid escapes. This leaves just the oil and should take you about 2 hours depending on the quantity of the coconut milk you have extracted. By doing this, you will be able to do your packaging in time in order to meet your customers demand right in time.
- If you don’t have a blender or food processor, you can use the traditional grater; they are very cheap and easy to manage too. I make use of this sometimes when I want to give my hands some exercise. This type of grater is not the type for slicing salad vegetables; it has some thinner holes than the one (people)s used for slicing salad ingredients.
- If you don’t have a fridge to freeze your coconut milk, you can simply drop little ice in a bowl and place pot or bowl containing the coconut milk in it, or better still just drop the content at one corner of the cold part of your room.
- Coconut oil can become solid again at room temperature; you may need to melt it a little before using.
Simple tools for processing and extraction of coconut oil at home
- 4 matured coconut or more depending on the quantity of oil you want to remove
- Sturdy knife or coconut scraper.
- A small axe hammer or rod for removing the shell of the coconut
- Flat surface or board for chopping the coconut flesh into smaller pieces with a kitchen knife
- Blender or local grater for the blending of the coconut flesh
- Bowl for the mixing of the blended coconut
- Hot water (about 2 litres)
- Slotted spoon for scooping of the frozen coconut milk
- Cheesecloth, paper towel or fine sieve for filtering of the coconut milk and oil
- Stainless steel pot for boiling of the frozen coconut (curd)
- Heat source (stove, oven, gas cooker or charcoal fire)
- Jar with a fitted lid for storing the processed coconut oil.