Coconut oil has experienced a huge surge in popularity among the healthy diet, superfoods and food marketing crowd. It’s been said coconut oil can be used on the skin, implemented in the kitchen and be orally consumed for a host of benefits that are said to include anti-aging, increased liver function and reduction of heart disease. As such, coconut oil has become big business. But it wasn’t always that way. Making coconut oil was a labor-intensive process carried out at home for personal use. To allow readers to understand what goes into making coconut oil the traditional way we’ve written an article about how fresh Roatan coconut oil is made.
Processing The Coconut Meat
To make about a quart of coconut oil, you need the dried meat from about 10 coconuts. The coconut meat needs to be grated to allow extraction of the coconut milk. This is done by soaking the grated coconut in water and then squeezing out the liquid from the meat. This should be done at least a couple of times to ensure you get all the milk out of the dried coconut meat. You’ll end up with about a gallon of fresh coconut milk.
Extracting Coconut Cream From The Coconut Milk
Once you’ve extracted the coconut milk, you want to separate the concentrated coconut cream. This is done by simply letting the coconut milk to stand, allowing the coconut cream to rise to the top. You can speed up this process by chilling the coconut milk in a refrigerator. Once the cream has risen to the top you can skim this layer off and put it aside for further processing. Now you can dispose of the remaining coconut water.
Refining The Coconut Cream
Place the reserved coconut cream in a pot or large pan and slowly cook it over medium heat. Any excess water will be cooked off and pure coconut oil will be left behind. This process can take up to a couple of hours, so you’ll need to keep an eye on it and stir it often. Cooking off all the excess liquid is very important since any left over water can cause the coconut oil to go rancid. The longer you cook it, the darker the oil will get. There will be some excess residue which you can remove and eat as a snack.
The Final Product
What’s leftover after cooking off all the excess water and scooping out the residue is pure coconut oil. This can be allowed to cool and should ultimately be stored in sterilized containers to ensure it doesn’t have a chance to go rancid from any microorganisms contaminating the precious coconut oil.
Benefits Of Coconut Oil
As mentioned, coconut oil has achieved a notable level of prominence or repute in the health world. However, it’s not quite a miracle drug, and many of the claims cited by coconut oil proponents haven’t been scientifically proven. Still, there’s no doubt that it can be used in a variety of ways with a number of benefits. Coconut oil is good for dry skin and doesn’t contain supposedly harmful compounds, found in many over-the-counter moisturizers. It can also be used as a hair conditioner, makeup remover and light sunscreen. Coconut oil also has a very high smoke point which makes it a good option when frying foods.
When it comes to health benefits of consuming coconut oil, it appears there’s still much research that needs to be done. Marketers have claimed that coconut oil can benefit anything from heart health to problems related to Alzheimer’s disease. Skeptics say the scientific literature still isn’t completely convincing. Yet none can deny, it is a great cooking oil, downright tasty, and requires no more than a tropical climate, plenty of sunlight and a hefty portion of hard work to produce it. Enjoy some on your next Roatan vacation!