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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. Jan 21, 2011 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, 2011 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, 2011 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, 2012 at 17:48
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6 Answers 6

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The cold process is easy.Just blend the fresh pulp using a kitchen blender to make a thin and smooth pulp.Heat the pulp in low heat and maintain a 50 degrees celcius heat for about an hour and a quarter.This is called malaxation which enables the oil molecules to collect into globules visible by eye.Then after malaxation,take the warm malaxed pulp and strain it into a cheese cloth or a muslin cloth and press by squeezing out the oil as it collects into a container beneath.There you have pure virgin avocado oil.I never buy cooking oil at home.I use this for deep frying,baking and desserts making.Its very health and pocket friendly cooking oil especially if you live where avocado is grown in plenty like my home area of Meru in Kenya.I have 20 avocado trees which i make use of.You can try this too at home and enjoy your cooking.

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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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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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Another cold pressed method without a dehydrator is to mash or blend the flesh, spread it very thinly on baking sheets, pie pan, etc. let it dry in the sun until the pulp turns black and flakes are hard, then strain it with two layers of cheesecloth, butter cloth,nut milk bags, or a thin old cloth of similar material to cheesecloth. you can also put the pans in the oven and turn the oven to the lowest setting, but this uses a lot of energy.

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I've done this, and its simple and easy. Am in Uganda, so I get avocado pears. Blend it or mash the ripe avocados, then spread out to dry in the sun. Put in a cloth, and squeeze out the oil. It comes out quickly....a dark green appearance.

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