From cracking the coconut open to extracting the oil. I’ll show you how to make Cold Pressed Virgin Coconut Oil in a kitchen right here in North America!

I grew up eating coconut, and coconut oil is what I use in most of my daily cooking. Surprisingly, I had no idea how it’s made before.As I become more serious about eliminating waste from my cooking, I try to make as many packaging-free foods from scratch using raw material as I can–from sprouted tofu, almond milk, soy sauce and more.

Now, I have mastered how to make Cold Pressed Virgin Coconut Oil from scratch. However, It was almost impossible for me at the beginning–why?

hold it with a kitchen towel and use a cleaver to crack in the middle

First of all, coconut has a thick-hard shell (or skull) that is not easy to crack, and grating the coconut meat can be overwhelming. After I learning to crack it, I tried to grate it the way we do in Thailand. It was too difficult, so I gave up, many times.

Create a warm spot to ferment it

Second of all, it’s cold most of the time in North America and the process of extracting the oil needs to be done in a warm climate.

Those two obvious things stopped me from being successful so many times. However, my curiosity about the possibility of making it kept me going.

Even though I combined elements from the methods I learned online, and created my own method. I have to admit that I failed many times before I could make it reliably.

As making Cold Pressed Virgin Coconut Oil is a very time consuming process. I only planned to do it until I knew I could reproduce the results. Obviously, I didn’t stop after the first success–I’m still doing it now.

Once I got my system down, it’s actually not that hard at all. In fact, it’s rather fun and satisfying to see the result.

If you are reading this, and trying to make your own Cold Pressed Virgin Coconut Oil. I’m sure you know about its health benefits.

Despite there are so many articles claiming that coconut oil is bad for you. From my own experience using and eating it my entire life–I believe it’s very beneficial to health!

Ready to give it a try? Let me show you how!

Ingredients:

mature coconut and lukewarm water

1. 3 mature coconuts (most of them now have a mark in the middle that makes them easy to crack)
2. Filtered lukewarm water. The amount of water varies.

Note: This makes about 10-11 cups (3.4-3.74 kg) of raw coconut meat. 16 cups (128 fl oz) of coconut milk, and 1 pint (16 fl oz) of coconut oil.

Guidance equipment:

1. A cleaver, and a small knife . These are for cracking the coconuts, and getting the meat out of the shell. (a serrated knife works great)
2. Bowls or containers of your choice
3. A blender, a nut milk bag or cheesecloth for squeezing the coconut milk, and a small one for straining the oil, and a small strainer, rubber bands & a stick
4. A makeshift warm place. I use a canning pot, hot water bottles, and a few towels. If you make this during the hot summer weather and the room temperature is about 85 degrees fahrenheit (29.5 degrees celsius), you won’t need heat.

Note: watch the video to get some ideas on what to use to create a warm space–using what you already have is the ideal.

Instructions:

1. Day 1: Early in the morning, wipe the coconut shell down with a damp cloth to get rid of small particles on it, so they don’t get into the coconut water.
2. Use a washcloth or a glove to hold the coconut as the impact might be hard on your hand when you crack it. Hold it by the ends and tap in the middle with the cleaver, and turn it as you tap until it cracks. Once it cracks, use the tip of the cleaver to slightly open the crack and pour the coconut water into a bowl. You can drink the water or store it for later.
3. Use the small knife and cut a small part of the meat out.Once you have one part open, it’s easy to take out the rest. If the coconut is mature, the meat should come out cleanly and easy.
4. Cut the meat into small pieces to make it easier to blend.
5. Blend 2 cups (680 g) of the coconut meat with 11/2 cups (12 fl oz) of lukewarm water. This ratio is perfect for creamy coconut milk. You can blend more at a time, but 2 cups at a time makes it easier to squeeze (for me anyway).
6. Put the well- blended coconut in a nut milk bag over a bowl and squeeze as much milk out as you can. Use the pulp to repeat the process one more time. Note: For blending the pulp, I use 2 cups (680 g)  of pulp with 2 cups (16 fl oz) of lukewarm water.
7. Now, you should have about 16 cups (128 fl oz) of coconut milk. Put it in a fridge for a few hours, so the cream can separate from the water. Note: If you start early in the morning, the cream should be firm enough by late afternoon. However, if you start the project late in the evening, keep the coconut milk in the fridge overnight is perfectly fine.
8. When the coconut cream is solid to the touch, gently scoop it into a smaller container (I use a glass jar). You can keep the water for cooking, or get rid of it. Though, it doesn’t have a lot of flavor left,  sometimes I keep a small amount for cooking white rice as a treat!
9. Loosely cover the container, and put it somewhere warm to ferment overnight. I use a canning pot with 2 hot water bottles and cover it with a few towels. A good temperature for fermenting is about 85 degrees fahrenheit (29.5 degrees celsius).
10. Day 2: You can see three layers now: the top is the coconut curds, the middle is the coconut oil, and the bottom is water. Put the container in a fridge for a few hours, so the curd and the oil can harden up which makes it easy to separate them from the water.
11. Separate the curd & oil from the water and put it into another container. Loosely cover the container, and put it back in a warm place. Let the oil separate from the curd for another night.
12. Day 3: Now you can see the curd and the oil separate more, with a little bit of water on the bottom. It’s time to strain.
13. Place a small strainer on the container and put a small cheesecloth (or a small cloth bag) inside the strainer. Gently scoop the oil, and strain it through the cloth first as it goes through fast. When it’s harder to scoop just the oil, just pour the rest into the bag. This way the oil that’s mixed with the curd can drip out.
14. Use a rubber band to tie the cloth/bag. Insert a stick through the band, and hang the bag over the container. Put the container back in a warm place.  If the room temperature is cold, the oil and curd can harden up and can’t be strained.
15. Let it strain until the oil stops dripping.
16. When it stops dripping, you can see that the oil is cloudy because there is still water mixed in it. Put the container in the fridge to speed up the process of solidifying the oil. You can leave it on the counter (if the room is cold). It doesn’t take long for the pure oil to solidify.
17. When the oil is solid (it’s pure white). There is still water in the bottom, gently break it and scoop it into a storage container–now it’s done!.
18. You can leave Cold Pressed Virgin Coconut Oil on the counter or pantry. There is no refrigeration necessary. Note: The oil melts as the temperature increases, and solidifies when the temperature drops– and that is totally normal.When it melts, you can see the oil is clear. If it looks cloudy, there must be some water in it. Let it solidify and separate the water.
19. Enjoy.

Have you made Cold Press Virgin Coconut oil before? Share it with me if you have—I’d like to hear about it!