BN Living: How to Make Virgin Coconut Oil in Your Home | Watch

These steps will show you how to make Virgin Coconut Oil in your home. This Virgin Coconut Oil does not contain any preservatives nor cosmetic wax like the ones sold in the shops so you will have to refrigerate it to preserve it.

To make 500g (18oz.) of Virgin Coconut Oil, you will need:

• 3 medium mature coconuts
• Blunt object eg a hammer for breaking the coconuts
• Blender/Grater
• Knife
• Lukewarm to warm water
• Sieve with a fine mesh
• Chiffon/Cheese cloth
• Plastic bowls
• A refrigerator

More info:

Any blender with at least 500W power can grind coconut meats. A mature coconut is dry and the skin that is exposed after breaking the outer shell is dark brown. The coconut meat and the water are very sweet.

Uses of Virgin Coconut Oil

The following are some of the uses of Virgin Coconut Oil.

• Virgin Coconut Oil is a great hair moisturiser especially for coily African hair. So if you are an African naturalista, you should be making yours at home.
• It is a great moisturiser for your body. Virgin Coconut Oil will keep your body supple without the shine. It also helps keep those skin conditions (eczema, heat rashes, nappy rashes, craw-craw lol) at bay.
• Have you ever done coconut oil pulling? Coconut Oil pulling is oral detoxification that is done by swishing or gargling a tablespoon of virgin coconut oil in your mouth for 15 to 20 minutes. This helps reduce harmful bacteria in your mouth and improve oral health.
• For cooking: use it as salad dressing. Add virgin coconut oil in your cooking to give is a coconut flavour. But do not use it for frying because it has a low smoke point. Use the refined coconut oil for frying instead. Or just use vegetable oils and sun flower oil because they are better for frying.

Procedure

1. Break the coconut into pieces with a hammer and pry out the coconut meat from the shell.
2. Peel off the brown skin of the coconut. This is so that we can make the purest and whitest virgin coconut oil.
3. Wash the coconut meat and cut into tiny pieces to help your blender.
4. Place in a blender, add a small quantity of warm water (just enough to allow the blender blades to rotate freely) and grind into a smooth paste. You can also use a grater for this purpose. But a blender is more efficient in that you get more coconut oil when you use a blender.
5. Pour the blend into a sieve with tiny holes so that none of the chaff gets through.
6. Use hands to squeeze out as much milk from the chaff as possible.
7. Blend the chaff with warm water to get out even more coconut oil, pour in the sieve and squeeze out the coconut milk.
8. Pour the coconut milk (mixture of coconut oil and water) through a chiffon or cheese cloth to remove the tiniest coconut chaff.
9. Place the bowl of coconut milk in a working fridge overnight.
10. The next morning, you will notice that the coconut oil (the white part) has separated from the water and caked at the top of the bowl. The vibration and cold temperature of the firdge is what makes this happen.
11. Gently take out the blocks of coconut oil from the bowl. pat them dry with paper towels and place in another clean dry bowl.
12. Use a mixer to run through the coconut oil till you get a smooth consistency. If you do not have a mixer, use a spatular to mix like you are making semolina.
13. When you are happy with the mix, leave it in the bowl and after some time, you will see more water seeping out from the oil. Keep pouring out this water till you can see no more water seeping out.
14. Scoop the coconut oil into containers (glass jars are the best), cover and keep in your fridge and keep refrigerated at all times. This virgin coconut oil does not contain preservatives hence will go bad and develope a foul odour if you do not keep it in the fridge. In fact, if you will not use it up within a few days, it is best to keep some in the freezer and keep the one you will be using in the fridge.
15. That’s it!

Use as stated above and if you have any questions about making your own virgin coconut oil, click here to ask me.

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