In the spirit of an earlier blog, He Really Knew His Product, I'm continuing my coconut research and today I find out how coconut oil is extracted from the coconut.

I wanted to know what part of the coconut the oil comes from; I assumed it was the meat. So I checked out Wikipedia.

The answer is yes on the meat (also called the kernel). There are two ways it's extracted, a wet process and a dry process. In the wet process, the coconut is shredded, mixed with water, and then pressed to extract the oil. It's actually an oil/water mixture, so they separate it naturally and the oil is skimmed off. That's the traditional method although other methods can be used to separate the oil from the water.  For the dry method, the coconut kernel is shredded, dried in an oven, put in a press and the oil is then expelled. (Direct Micro Expelling, Kokonut Pacific Pty Ltd, accessed April, 2008)

If you're interested in really getting to the core of coconut production, Tropical Traditions has a fantastic article: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/what_is_virgin_coconut_oil.htm

Because I'm a big fan of Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, I've adapted our family's diet over the years to replace some of the more popular cooking oils with coconut oil. I use both Nutiva, and Tropical Traditions (Tropical Traditions sells an expeller pressed coconut oil for those who don't care for the flavor and scent of coconut oil but still want to the nutritional benefits).

The photo below (in the public domain) depicts a traditional bullock-powered coconut oil mill. Dried coconuts are crushed and oil is squeezed out.