How to Make Virgin Coconut Oil

Coconut oil offers a lot of health benefits, which can be used in cooking or for skin and hair care. Virgin coconut oil is considered to be of the best quality, made with artisanal methods and free of harmful chemicals. Let’s learn how to make virgin coconut oil at home by following 3 methods: wet milling method, cold pressing method and distillation method.

Table of Contents

Using the Wet Grinding Method

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Use a knife to split the coconut. Use old coconut instead of young coconut.

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Get the copra. Use a dedicated coconut scraper, knife or metal spoon to remove the copra. Getting the copra requires a bit of dexterity. You should use a butter knife instead of a sharp knife. You should insert the knife between the shell and the copra to separate each piece of copra, avoiding slipping and cutting into your hands.

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Cut the copra into small pieces or use a scraper to shred the copra.

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Place the shredded coconut in the blender.

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Turn the blender on medium and blend until the copra is very small. You can add a little more water if needed to make blending easier.

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Strain the coconut milk. Place a coffee filter or a thin cloth (tissue cloth) over the mouth of a wide-mouthed glass jar. Pour a small amount of grated coconut on top. Grab the ends of the towel and squeeze the coconut milk into the jar.

Squeeze it vigorously to remove all the coconut milk.
Do the same with the remaining copra.

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Leave the coconut milk in a cool place for at least 24 hours. At that time, the coconut milk and coconut oil will separate. The coconut milk will solidify and float to the top of the jar.

You can put the jar in the refrigerator to make the coconut milk harden faster.
If not, just put the jar of coconut milk in a cool place.

Using the Cold Press Method

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Use desiccated coconut. You can buy unsweetened desiccated copra at the supermarket or grocery store, but make sure it’s 100% copra, free of any other ingredients. If you want to use fresh copra, cut the copra into small pieces and dry it in a food dryer for 24 hours. ^{[1] X Research Source}

You can also dry the copra by putting it in the oven, turning on the grill mode to the lowest temperature. Before that, chop the copra and place it on a baking sheet. Bake the copra for 8 hours until the copra is completely dry.
If you’re using supermarket-bought desiccated coconut, use the one that’s been shredded into thin slices, instead of shredded coconut, which can clog the juicer.

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Put the coconut in the press. Note, divide the number of copra into small batches to avoid clogging the press. The press will squeeze the coconut oil and coconut milk. Gradually squeeze all the prepared copra.

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Continue to put the coconut residue into the press again to get all the coconut milk.

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Pour the coconut milk into a glass jar and leave in a warm place for 24 hours. The coconut milk will settle to the bottom of the jar while the coconut oil will float to the top.

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Pour the coconut milk into another jar. When the coconut oil has completely floated to the top and hardened, use a spoon to scoop the oil into another jar. Now your coconut oil is ready to use.

Distilled Coconut Oil

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Heat 4 cups of water. Pour water into a small saucepan and place on the stove. Turn the stove on to medium heat until the water starts to evaporate.

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Grate the pulp of 2 coconuts. Choose old coconut instead of young coconut. Split the coconut in half, use a spoon to scrape the copra and put it in a bowl.

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Grind the copra and water. Place the copra and hot water in the blender. Close the lid and keep it tight. Blend until the copra and water mixture is smooth.

Do not fill the jar with copra and water more than half full. If you are using a small blender, grind in small batches because if you overfill, the water and coconut milk can splash out as you blend.
Note: remember to keep the lid of the blender jar firmly in place during the blending process to prevent the lid from coming off.

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Strain the coconut milk. Use a thin cloth (several washcloths) or a small eye strainer over the rim of a bowl. Pour the mixture of water and grated coconut on top so that the coconut milk drops into the bowl. Use a spoon to spread and squeeze the coconut residue.

Easier way, you can grab the ends of the cloth and squeeze to squeeze out the coconut milk.
To get more coconut milk, add hot water to the coconut residue after the first squeeze, squeeze again.

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Boil coconut milk. Put the coconut milk in the pan and put it on the stove. Heat over medium heat until boiling. Reduce heat to low and continue to cook. While boiling, use a spatula to stir until the water evaporates, the coconut milk separates from the coconut oil and turns brown.

The whole process of boiling coconut milk as above takes about an hour. Be patient and stir constantly during the cooking process. ^{[2] X Research Source}
If you don’t want to boil, you can let the coconut milk and coconut oil separate. Place the mixture of water and grated coconut in a bowl and cover. Let the bowl sit at room temperature for 24 hours, then place it in the fridge to let the coconut oil solidify and rise to the top. At this point, you can easily separate the coconut oil. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

Advice

You can use virgin coconut oil to cook in wonderfully light, fluffy cakes like scone bread (a type of quick bread popular in the UK) or pie crust. Coconut oil creates a milder vanilla flavor and is healthier than traditional fats like lard or butter.
In the past, coconut oil was considered a taboo, mostly due to the fact that it is almost 90% saturated fat. Recently, however, coconut oil has regained its place in a world where health matters more. Unlike hydrogenated oils, coconut oil is unprocessed, not chemically treated; so it retains all the nutrients of plant origin. If used in moderation, coconut oil is even more effective than olive oil.
You can recognize an old coconut by its hard, dark brown skin. Younger coconuts will have a lighter brown skin. Young coconuts are usually small and still green. Older coconuts will give more oil than young coconuts.
Make coconut oil by cold pressing method without using heat. Therefore, the oil will retain more nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins that are beneficial to health.
Freezing, then thawing the copra pieces before putting them in a blender or juicer will make the copra softer and extract more oil.
Virgin coconut oil is believed to have over 200 surprising health benefits. Eating a spoonful of coconut oil a day will help strengthen the immune system, lower blood pressure, reduce joint pain and support cancer treatment. You can also apply coconut oil to your hair and skin to increase moisture and repair damaged cells/cysts. Some examples of cell/follicular damage are: diaper rash, dry skin, insect bites. Other benefits include strengthening the circulatory system, normalizing thyroid function, boosting metabolism, and losing weight.

Things you need

Wet Grinding Method

An old desiccated coconut
Big chopping knife
Small sharp knife
Grinder
Coffee filter or cloth bucket
Wide mouth glass jar
Spoon

Cold Pressing Method

Food Dryer
Fruit presses

Distillation Method

Blender
Small eye strainer

Steps