Coconut oil offers a variety of health benefits and can be used for cooking as well as skin and

hair care. Virgin coconut oil is believed to be of the highest quality, made naturally and free of

harsh chemicals. Learn how to make virgin coconut oil at home using the wet mill method, the

cold process method, and the boiling method.

Edit Steps

Using the Wet Mill Method

1. 1

Split a coconut with a sharp cleaver. Use a mature, brown coconut, rather than a young

green one.

2. 2

Scrape the meat of the coconut from the shell. Use a sharp pairing knife or a sturdy

metal spoon.

3. 3

Cut the coconut meat into small pieces.

4. 4

Place the pieces into a food processor.

5. 5

Turn on the food processor to a medium speed and blend until well shredded. Add a

little water to help it blend if necessary.

6. 6

Filter the coconut milk. Put a coffee filter or cheesecloth over a wide-mouth jar. Pour or

spoon a small amount of the coconut mixture onto the cloth. Wrap the cloth around the

coconut mixture and squeeze the milk into the jar.

o Squeeze hard, to make sure you get every last drop. o Repeat this process until all of the coconut mixture has been used.

7. 7

Leave the jar unattended for at least 24 hours. As it sets, the coconut milk and oil will

separate and a layer of curd will appear at the top of the jar.

o Refrigerate the jar so the curd hardens more quickly if you'd like.

o If you'd prefer not to refrigerate it, leave the jar in a cool room.

8. 8

Scoop out the curd with a spoon and discard it. The pure virgin coconut oil is left in

the jar.

Using the Cold Process Method

1. 1

Start with dried or dehydrated coconut. You can buy dried unsweetened coconut

flakes from the grocery store. Be sure the only ingredient the bag contains is coconut. If

you want to start with fresh coconut meat, cut the meat into pieces and use a dehydrator

to dry it out over the course of 24 hours.[1]

o You can use the oven at its lowest temperature to dry coconut meat. Cut it into

small chunks, place it on a baking sheet, and cook it at a low temperature for 8

hours, or until its completely dry.

o If you're using store-bought coconut, go for the coconut flakes, rather than

shredded coconut, which tends to clog the juicer.

2. 2

Put the coconut in your juicer. Juice the dried coconut in small batches, since placing a

lot of coconut in the juicer will cause it to clog. The juicer will remove the oil and cream

from the fiber. Continue processing the coconut until all of the flakes have been run

through the juicer.

3. 3

Process the coconut again. The juicer won't be able to extract all of the oil the first time

around, so run the coconut flakes through it once more to make sure you get every last

drop.

4. 4

Place the coconut oil in a jar and store in a warm place. Wait 24 hours for the coconut

cream to settle at the bottom of the jar. The pure coconut oil will rise to the top.

5. 5

Spoon the oil into a new container. Once the oil has separated from the cream and

solidified, use a spoon to remove it from the first container and place it in a new

container. It is now ready to use.

Boiling the Coconut

1. 1

Heat 4 cups of water. Place the water in a saucepan and put it on a burner. Turn the

burner to medium high and heat the water until it starts steaming.

2. 2

Grate the meat of 2 coconuts. Use a fully developed brown coconut instead of a young

green one. Open the coconut, scoop out the meat and grate it into a bowl.

3. 3

Blend the coconut and water. Put the grated coconut in a blender. Pour the hot water

over the coconut and close the lid of the blender. Hold the lid of the blender in place and

puree the coconut and water into a smooth mixture.

o Don't fill the blender more than halfway full with hot water. If your blender is on the smaller side, blend the coconut and water in two batches. Filling the blender

too high may cause the lid to fly off.

o Hold the lid in place while you're blending the mixture; otherwise it could come

off while you're blending.

4. 4

Strain the coconut liquid. Place cheesecloth or a fine-mesh strainer over a bowl. Pour

the pureed coconut over the cloth or strainer so that the coconut milk drips into the bowl.

Use a spatula to push the pulp and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

o If it's easier for you, you could pick up the cheesecloth and squeeze it over the

bowl with your hands.

o To extract even more liquid, pour more hot water over the pulp and squeeze it

again.

5. 5

Boil the coconut liquid. Place it in a saucepan on a burner and turn the heat to medium

high. Bring it to a boil and cook, stirring constantly, until the water has evaporated and

the cream has separated from the oil and turned brown.

o The process of boiling the liquid until it reaches the right state could take over an

hour. Be patient, and stir constantly.[2]

o If you'd rather not boil the mixture, you can allow it to separate on its own. Place

the liquid in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Leave it at room temperature

for 24 hours, then place it in the refrigerator so the oil solidifies and floats to the

top. Strain the oil from the liquid.[3]

Edit Tips

A mature coconut can be recognized by its hard, dark brown husk. Coconuts that have

not fully matured will be a lighter brown color. Young coconuts are small and green. A

mature coconut will yield more oil than a young one.

Virgin coconut oil is believed to have over 200 amazing health benefits. Sipping a

spoonful each day is said to increase immunity, lower blood pressure, relieve joint pain

and even aid in the treatment of cancer. It can also be applied to the hair and skin to

enhance moisture levels and repair damaged cells and follicles. Examples of this are

diaper rash and dry skin relief as well as insect bites. Other benefits include improved

circulation, normalized thyroid function, boosted metabolism and weight loss.

Cold-processed virgin coconut oil is made with no heat. This allows the oil to retain more

of its naturally healthy benefits, anti-oxidants and vitamins.

Freezing and then thawing the coconut pieces prior to putting them in the food processor

will soften the meat and may allow for more milk extraction.

Virgin coconut oil can be used in cooking for wonderfully light, flaky pastries such as

scones and pie crusts. It adds a delicate vanilla flavor and is much healthier than

traditional fats like lard or butter.

Coconut oil has been considered taboo in the past, mostly due to the alarming fact that it

is nearly 90 percent saturated fat. However, it has recently been redeemed in a health

conscious world because, unlike hydrogenated oils, it is not processed or chemically

treated and therefore retains all of its healthy plant-based nutrients. Used in moderation,

coconut oil could be more actively beneficial than olive oil.

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Virgin coconut oil is rich in Lauric Acid, an essential fatty acid that is only found in high

concentrations in human breast milk. When taken internally, Lauric Acid turns into a compound

known as Monolaurin. This monoglyceride has antiviral, antibacterial, antiprotozoal, and

antimicrobial properties that can help cure various diseases. It works by destroying lipid-coated

viruses such as HIV, herpes, cytomegalovirus, influenza, and various pathogenic bacteria. Thus,

virgin coconut oil is considered a natural antibiotic.

How to Make your own cold processed Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO).

1. First, the husk and the shell is removed from fresh coconuts,

2. then the meat of the coconut is shredded -a process called “Wet Milled”,

3. then the meat is “Cold Pressed” to get the coconut milk without any chemicals. At home, you

can hand press using gloves. Collect coconut milk.

4. The milk is then fermented in containers for a day or two. After which, oil is produced. This

oil is carefully filtered and separated from the curd. You now have what is called, virgin coconut

oil.

Benefits of Virgin Coconut Oil:

- It strengthens the body’s immune system

• A good source of saturated medium chain triglycerides

• Virgin Coconut Oil helps regulate blood sugar

• Lowers the viral load of AIDS patients

• Has anti-viral & anti-microbial properties

• Helps hepatitis C, herpes patients

• Helps maintain healthy thyroid function

• Maintain LDL & HDL cholesterol levels

• Heals & nourishes the skin, hair & scalp

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Making Coconut Oil through Fermentation Posted on May 9, 2013

After a chat with our acupuncture doctor about diet, I finally decided to try making coconut oil in

a way that is different from how Penny makes it. Here, our oil comes from coconuts growing in

the garden and Penny extracts the oil through the traditional way: by heating the coconut milk

until the water evaporates and the oil separates from the curd.

The other way is by natural fermentation. This method requires no heat at all.

Coconut milk fermentation after 21 hours. Coconut oil in the middle.

Removing the curd with cheesecloth. Let it drip then later, put in refrigerator so the oil with

harden and be easy to separate from the water.

I did some research on the Internet about making coconut oil through fermentation and found

varying information. The basic method however is:

Extract coconut milk from mature coconuts.

Let the coconut milk stand at room temperature in a place away from sunlght.

After several hours, the curd, oil, and water will separate – the protein stays at the surface, the oil

floats in the middle, and the water settles at the bottom.

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How to Make Virgin Coconut Oil at Home

Virgin coconut oil is considered to be best among all coconut oil available. The reason is

obvious, it is the purest of all and thus preserves all the great health benefits of coconut.

If you are thinking that how can you make virgin coconut oil let me tell you our ancestors have

been making virgin coconut oil for hundreds and thousands of years. It is just that in today's

world the word "virgin oil" seems very sophisticated - but if you go deep, it just means pure.

There are several methods available to make virgin coconut oil at home. Fermentation method is

one of the most common and easy of all.

What all is required for making virgin coconut oil - fresh coconut milk (see its recipe here), pan /

vessel to keep milk / oil.

Process to make virgin coconut oil at home

I have already mentioned the recipe of making fresh coconut milk at home. It is best to use

homemade coconut milk as if we use packed coconut milk the very purpose of purity will be

defeated. Thus, prepare coconut milk first using fresh mature coconuts make sure that coconuts

do not have mould in them.

Next step is to keep the fresh coconut milk to ferment. You need to keep the coconut milk for 24-

48 hrs. It is best to keep the temperature between 30-40 C for best results for fermentation. In

case you are doing this in cold weather, make sure you heat the milk a little bit in oven

What next happens is as fermentation proceeds, water settles at the bottom while curd starts

forming at the top. A thin layer of coconut oil is formed in

between the two.

The next few steps is to separate the oil from the water and

curd. This is the hard part. There are several methods for this,

some sophisticated and some simple but long. I prefer the

simple ne as I do not have apparatus to do a sophisticated ones.

It involves freezing the complete mixture for say 3-4 hours till

the oil and curd freeze. When this happens we can separate

water from the mixture. This is because while curd and oil

harden easily water takes much longer to do that.

Now when we are done with water we are left with curd and oil. SO next step is to remove the

curd. Now we need to heat the remaining mixture in a pan slightly (40-70 C) for 10-15 min. This

has two purposes - removal or remaining moisture from the pan and also separating the curd from

oil.

When the pan is cooled, oil and some solids will be left. One can use a cheesecloth to separate the

oil in a jar. In case you need more refined oil, use multiple cheeseclothes. The way to use

cheesecloth is to put it over a jar and put mixture over it and then let it drain a bit and then

squeeze to get all the oil.

In case you are doing this in winters, do not cool the pan completely and start the above process

when the mixture is still hot else oil will solidify

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COCONUT MILK TO COCONUT OIL

1. Pour your Coconut milk in a clear container and place in the fridge for like an hour

2. After an hour or two, you’ll observe two layers.

3. The bottom layer is the watery skim milk, but the top layer is thick and creamy. This is

the full cream part of your coconut milk, the richest bit.

4. Scoop the top layer (coconut cream) out, into another clear container.

5. You can still use the bottom layer to cook or do anything you want. If you want some of

the rich cream, now is the time to take that out.

6. Set the coconut cream on a warm-ish surface. Not under direct heat, but somehow close

to it, like beside your cooking top or on top of your fridge. Leave it there for 24-48 hours.

Covered of course.

7. Again, you have 2 layers. The top layer is the curd, the fermented cream. The bottom

layer is what you want, the oil.

8. Put the container in the fridge so that the layers can set.

9. Scoop, or scrape off the now semi-solid layer of curd.

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