How to Make Coconut Oil
This post shows how to make coconut oil, the old school way. I mean, it shows how to make coconut oil like they do in the mountain villages in the Philippines.
Right Picture: A goat along the jungle path to where we made coconut oil.
I think coconut oil is one of the greatest things in the world. Seriously. I use it for a bunch of stuff. One day while preaching the awesomeness of it to my Filipina friend she blurted out “That’s so easy to make. We can do it at my sisters place.” So the next weekend we went.
To get to her sister’s house is about a half hour habal-habal ride out of Baybay. We got dropped of at the side of the road and then walked into the Barangay, which, to my delight, was well off the path of normal residence. About twenty minutes walk into the jungle along a small foot path that apparently gets cut off when it rains to hard. Lately the rainy season has started. They must get cut off every day.
When it rains too hard they can’t cross this stream to get out of the jungle.
Eventually we got to the end of the path that opened out into which seemed to me like a little commune of sorts, with a few little huts scattered around a central “clearing”. A few chickens, dogs, cats, pigs and even a small horse.
The family horse.
As it turns out this is her family’s property so each little hut is like an uncle or something. Apparently, all the people in the Barangay we had to walk through to get to the jungle path are related in someway or another to her also.
Anyway, I discovered that the process of making coconut oil is extremely simple, although it takes some time.
How to Make Coconut Oil
Not surprisingly, you need coconuts. My friends younger brother sorted it out. He didn’t speak English so everything written here is just from observation.
Step 1. Get the Coconut Flesh
First you need to break the coconut so you can get the flesh out. He just hit it with the back of a big knife to split it in half. All the coconuts were brown so I’m guessing it won’t be good with green ones. We drank the water from some of them.
Breaking the coconuts open.
To get the flesh out he had some type of gismo which shaved it out. It looked like hard work but he made it look easy.
Using the home-made coconut shaver.
Step 2.Cook out the Oil
Once he had gutted about seven coconuts they called in their Aunt to cook the oil out of them. She got all the shredded coconut flesh and put a little water. Just enough to soak the flesh, but not too much. Then she squeezed the water out into another bowl. She did this twice.
Next she just put the liquid over a flame and boiled it for a while. It was just a wood fire so I guess there’s no need to worry about temperature control. Just boil away and stir often/constantly. Once it goes clear it is ready.
My friends aunt cooking the oil out of the coconuts.
Can’t be bothered making your own coconut oil? It’s easily purchased from many places, and can even be delivered to your door!
Step 3. Strain the Oil
Let it cool down a little and then strain it into whatever your going to carry it in. We just used an old rum bottle.
The finished product.
There’s black grainy stuff left over which we ate. I think it was burnt coconut bits. A deep fried coconut resin snack.
Any store bought coconut oil I’ve come across is clear (or white when it’s solid) but home-made stuff seems to be yellow. This is just going off some stuff I got off a lady in Bali and this batch.
Do you have experience on how to make coconut oil? Let us know your methods and/or if you have any questions or other comments 
