How to make home-made virgin coconut oil

by Kelvin Scoon
(Trinidad and Tobago)

I am interested in trying coconut oil for my creeping memory loss. I am 78. I live in the tropics with ample supplies of fresh coconuts. The traditional way of home preparation is to boil the 'milk' that we squeeze out of the grated white meat of the dried nut that we call the 'jelly'. Does this boiling affect the quality of the oil? Packaged "virgin coconut oil" is not available locally.

Reply: Hi Kelvin, I've never made coconut oil in Canada, as it is readily available in many health food stores.

However, I did some research and found an excellent tutorial that shows how to make your own virgin coconut oil.

Below is a summary of how to make coconut oil and you'll find a link to the reference page that contains some great pictures of the entire process.

You'll need coconuts, a blender, some kind of fabric to strain the coconut milk, a large container.

• You must first collect the coconuts, crack them open and extract the white coconut meat.



• Put the coconut meat in a blender and blend it with water (3 cups of water for every 2 cups of coconut).



• Strain the blended coconut water through a piece of cotton or cheesecloth into a deep container. You can also squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can into a bucket or deep pot.



• Cover the container of drained coconut milk and leave to ferment in room temperature. It may take 24 - 48 hours for the oil to separate from the coconut milk. If it oil doesn't separate you may try cooking the coconut milk over a low heat.



• Pour off the oil into a smaller container so you have a ready container of coconut oil.

Here's a link (with pictures) that shows how to make virgin coconut oil.

Hope this information is helpful and feel free to let us know how this recipe works out for you.