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Avocado oil is expensive and I've been trying to figure out a solution to make my own. I'd love to make a press (I do woodworking) but I haven't found anything online.

Is there a way to extract avocado oil from avocadoes at home?

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I wonder if that oil is separated using a centrifuge instead of a press. It seems like it is so emulsified with the other yummy parts of the avocado that it would be hard to separate with just pressure. Just guessing though. – Michael at Herbivoracious Jan 21 '11 at 9:17
@Michael - I know it's a mechanical process. Using a centrifuge doesn't sound unreasonable to me, though. – calico-cat Jan 21 '11 at 11:47
I changed the new [extraction] tag to [oil-extraction] - I think there are sufficiently many potential questions on the subject to warrant a tag (since every fruit/vegetable/nut/seed is different) but [extraction] by itself has high potential to be confused with something else (i.e. juice extraction). – Aaronut♦ Jan 21 '11 at 14:19
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There is a reason why it is so expensive - your average avocado contains only 15% fat, so if you could achieve 100% extraction, you would need 30 avocados per liter. But I suspect that with a home press, you can only get much lower amounts out of the avocado, so probably 50-60 avocados for a liter. I don't know where you live, but I would have to pay over 1 Euro for a 200 g avocado, so it would be more expensive to make my own oil even if I didn't factor in my time. – rumtscho♦ Jul 31 '12 at 17:48

3 Answers

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I made avocado oil from my trees here in southern Florida. I whipped up the pulp of 12 avocados with 1/3 cup coconut oil. I whipped for about 25 min with a hand blender on high. The mixture looks creamy and starts to look shiny.

Then I put in my food dehydrator overnight . I cut muslin circles to fit the tray and layered it about 1/2 thick. There was enough to do two overnight batches. Dry till it's almost a leather. Peel it off the muslin and press the oil out. I used my potato ricer. It's a rich dark emerald green.

Store it in the fridge.

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Press the skins only (with an orange press). Mix the pulp with coconut cream (not creamed coconut or cream of coconut), heat on stove. Put cheesecloth over a bowl. Put heated mixture into cheesecloth. Pick up sides of cloth, close so it resembles a bag, and squeeze. Squeeze as much oil out as you can.

You can combine the oil produced by pressing the skin with the oil you squeeze. Most of the oil is in the skin.

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up vote 1 down vote

I've heard of this being pressed, or cold pressed. The 'pulp' not the seed. Then use a muslin cloth squeeze out the oil.

Perhaps then separating the oil via a light boil or by skimming the top after letting it separate.

I'm sure there are easier or more efficient ways, but I figured I'd share my findings.

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