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I have tried to extract coconut oil. Below is the process I have followed.

  1. Ground the coconut flesh with some added water.
  2. Milked the ground coconut flesh by cold pressing it and filtering all big particles.
  3. Dried the milk for a few hours in a steel vessel using butane flame.
  4. Filtering out the dried brown residue.

The resulting oil looks like the following.

oil jar

My question is about the efficiency of my process. I have a strong feeling that the colouration is due to the heating or bad filtering techniques. I tried to rest it for the night, and it doesn't seem to have any "heavier" residues at the bottom of the oil bottle. I tried filtering it with 4-layer muslin cloth with no luck. Is there a process that does not involve heating (assuming my intuition is correct)?

P.S. I'm not a scientist and I don't have a lot of background in chemistry. Please explain to me in layman's terms if possible.

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  • 1
    This is probably better suited at Seasoned Advice. However, please note that cross-posting is discouraged at stack exchange. We are able to migrate it there, please flag the question and the moderators will check it.
    – Martin - マーチン
    Sep 19, 2021 at 18:10
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    Are you asking for an efficient process (= one which is done with the least effort possible), or for an effective process (= one where the final product's quality meets your specifications)? The title and the body contradict each other there.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Sep 20, 2021 at 7:22
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    What are the characteristics you're looking for in your oil? And what kind of equipment do you have access to? There are several different techniques used in industrial-scale coconut oil production depending on desired grade and characteristics, some of them can be reproduced at home, some can't
    – Juliana Karasawa Souza
    Sep 21, 2021 at 6:48
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    Unfortunately, that level of clarity cannot be achieved at home with high yield - very clear coconut oil was chemically refined and clarified and you won't be able to do this in a domestic kitchen. Coconut oil without chemical refinement is slightly turbid. You can get better results with a few tweaks to the process but not to your idea of coconut oil
    – Juliana Karasawa Souza
    Sep 21, 2021 at 18:01
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    Juliana: that sounds like an answer, why not post it?
    – FuzzyChef
    Sep 22, 2021 at 0:33

2 Answers 2

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The color could be due to your heating. You can try a cold-press method to get a clear oil. While I have never done it, there are process descriptions online.

  1. Make the coconut milk (should be the same as your steps 1-3)
  2. Leave the coconut milk overnight to separate. You will get, from bottom to top: coconut water, coconut oil, and coconut cream.
  3. Separate the oil from the other layers. I suppose a fat separator pitcher will work for that.
  4. The oil will still have some water, milk and solids mixed in. Filter it well.
  5. Leave the oil sit, not tightly covered, until the residual moisture has evaporated.

You can see the process (in a commercial setting) documented on YouTube. The interesting part (after step 2) starts at 3:30.

The factory in the video creates a completely clear oil with this process. Of course, they have some heavy-duty filtering system for step 4. If you are only working with a nut milk bag or similar, you will likely have some particles left over. But without the heating step, it is unlikely that they will brown to give you the yellow color you dislike.

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Commercially coconut meat is dried before extracting oil. The practice is so common that the dry coconut has a name ; copra. Many decades ago I read that copra is a major product of commerce in some areas, presumably it still is

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