How to make Coconut milk and Extra Virgin Coconut oil.f

Last weekend, my aspiring mixtress took over, and I made ATTEMPTED TO MAKE Coconut Oil for the first time. Everything was going well until I was almost done. I tweeted about my progress and a few people asked about my method. The title of this post really should be-“Tweeted too soon.” Insert lone tear. :(

In this post, I’m setting out a method/recipe and I’ll also be showing you my progress, and telling you where I failed. If you try, I hope you do better than I did! If you have a few hints for us aspiring Coconut oil makers, please holler in the comments.

As a true champion, I refuse to accept defeat but time has become a little more precious. Can’t be blending coconuts just to prove a point. When I finally try again and succeed, I’ll be back! ^.^

Aaaaaaanyway, here’s how:

What You Need:

Coconuts (I used 3)

Knife or grater

Food processor, blender

Clean cloth

Clear containers

–

STEPS

COCONUT MILK

1. Break your coconuts and extract the meat. You could read about how to do this here. I had someone break mine for me.

    

   

   Coconuts!

2. Break it up. You could grate your coconut meat- or you could do what I did, chop it into pieces.

    

   

   Chop chop

3. If you’re grating, you can skip this step. Soak your chopped coconut in hot water for 15 minutes, to soften the membrane.

    

   

   Soak in hot water for 15 minutes

4. Blend the coconut bits, with a little water of course. Don’t break your (mama’s) blender. [If you’ve got a Food Processor, put your coconut bits in it before transferring to the blender.]
   

   Blending time. Be easy.

   You’re left with coconut puree.

5. Time to squeeze.
   

   The sieve wasn’t a great idea. I had to squeeze the pulp with my hands- to get more milk out, and I got little bits in my milk. Next time, I’ll be using a clean cloth to strain.

   In the photo, you see that I began with a sieve. Bad idea (if the coconut milk is going anywhere near your hair that is) It’s better to get a clean cloth- maybe a new handkerchief or a pillowcase. Put the coconut puree in and squeeze. This is the best way to ensure you get the milk out, with no bits.

6. Now, you have Coconut milk. If that’s all you want, you can stop here. If you’re interested in making coconut oil, proceed.

    

   

   L- Coconut milk R- the residue

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.

    

   

   Layers of coconut milk: Top layer- Full coconut cream Bottom layer- Skim milk.

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.

    

   

   Coconut cream

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.

    

   

   On top of the fridge. Top Layer- fermented curd. Bottom layer- 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.

    

   

   As I didn’t succeed at this point, here’s this Image from WikiHow showing you what it should have been like.

10. Voila. Your very own extra virgin coconut oil. At room temperature, it will be liquid again. :D

Between Step 8 and Step 9, I got into trouble. After 24 hours, the layers looked pretty separated to me so I put it the bowl in the fridge to set and I guess I left it in for too long. When I brought it out, I didn’t have a semi-solid layer of curd. I had pretty solid matter in my bowl. I microwaved for 1 minute ( ._.) and was able to lift the thick layer of curd. However, I noticed the base of the bowl was like a bed of coconut bits. Because I didn’t scoop the curd in the most delicate manner, I had a bit left, mixed in with what should have been my coconut oil. I put it in the fridge again to see if it could re-separate again but after hoursss, I didn’t have solids again but I just had this mix of (Again, what I imagine was oil) and floating curd. It was NOT pretty so I spared you guys the hardship of a photo of my mess. :(

There are other ways to make Coconut oil which require heat after step 4. For one of them, you could read how-to here.  Maybe another day I’ll try this too.

To the person wishing to try, here’s a final note from the good people of the interwebs: As an amateur, you might find that you still have traces of curd in your oil. This can cause the oil to go “bad”, smell funky or not last as long as it should. You might want to make coconut oil in small amounts until you perfect your moves.