Some items to me are just go to shop and buy, but I always love food factory shows. I watch a show called "Food Factory" in discovery and love it.. I had a live experience of how a product is made. Love to visit some places like Krispy Kreme Donuts where we see the factory of making donuts from shaping the doughnuts, to proofing the doughnuts to frying and glazing it. Next is the beautiful local hotels here in India where we can see the food getting cooked from where we order. Today we are going to be seeing my tour of “oil press” where coconut is made to coconut oil.
On my recent trip to Trichy, I was super excited to learn how is coconut oil pressed and details. Wanted to share that with you all and also have it on my blog for my log.
So it all starts with coconuts. There are about 5 coconut trees at my in laws house. A local coconut tree climber is hired to get the tender coconuts from the tree. If you are talented enough, you could do this by yourself too. But the height is too high and you need knack and practice to do it. So the coconut tree climber comes, climbs the tree and cut the bunch and the entire bunch of coconuts falls on the ground below. The person gets paid Rs. 30 per tree and in each tree it is about 2 or 3 cuts. That is all. So he cuts the bunch and it falls down entirely.
Now we have the fresh coconuts. This is allowed to dry until it becomes brown in color.
When it becomes brown, some of them can be used for everyday cooking and you get fresh coconuts when you break them open. As time goes, some become kobarai. In other words, the coconut water inside the coconut gets all dried up and the coconut starts to dry out.
So there is a process of separation that happens. Coconuts with water and that are fresh are kept for everyday cooking. The ones that have become kobarai are kept to dry more.
When all the coconut water is dried out, the coconut is opened with the help of a special tool and you get the inside one. Now break the inside one and you will get the kobarai. Cut this kobarai into 4 pieces.
Sun dry the kobarai until it becomes quite dry. Note the point here, that it should be dried completely, if not you will not get correct amount of oil. The fresh ones will become all chutney and it will also get spoilt.. So the correct amount of drying is required.
So now, you have the sun dried kobarai pieces.. We had about 14 kg of kobarai.
Now take a drive to the oil mill.. in tamil it is known as "Ennai Chekku". Ennai is oil and Chekku is the name of the machine that does the work.
Once inside the mill, the kobarai will be measured for the weight. The chekku machine will have some kobarai left from the previous process which is removed
Then the area of where the oil will out is also cleaned.. Now the switch is on and the kobarai is put inside the chekku and switch on!!!
After it spins for some time, you will see the oil coming through the outlet.. First the oil will look muddy and then good oil will start to come out..
The muddy oil is collected in a separate container and then the good oil is poured into the main container...
The aroma of the fresh ground oil is so heavenly and standing there is so therapeutic.
Now you have got the oil.. The yield is generally about 65 - 70%.. So if you put 1 kg of kobarai, you get around 650 - 750 grams of oil...
After it is all done... Took about 10 minutes, you will collect the oil in the container and come back home. Keep it in the container undisturbed for around 8 hours and the impurities will settle down and you can use the oil from top to bottom leaving about 1/2 inch of oil in the bottom where the dirts would have settled. Do not stir..
But do not think that the oil with sediments is waste. That is also used.. When you come towards the end of the usage or you have poured the top clear oil to another container, you have the oil mixed with sediments.
Filter this oil through a muslin cloth or a clean and dry cotton towel and the impurities will get filtered out.
Now you have fresh and clear oil ready!!
The uses of coconut oil are many... This is how we use in our house.. Coconut oil is best for deep frying. Great as a moisturizer, a hair oil... etc.. Here is a list -
1. For Deep Frying
2. For Stir frying
3. For hair oil
4. Hair conditioner
5. Skin moisturizer
6. Lip balm
7. Soothing for burnt wounds
8. Quickly heals wounds
9. and much more!!!
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 56
Wow..Interesting post, Good to know .Fresh ones are always the best
ReplyDeleteWat a detailed and beautiful post, this post makes me nostalgic, my grandma used to prepare her own coconut oil this way, and she never failed to take us to watch the whole process..Missing those days.
ReplyDeleteSuch a lovely tour Sowmya, even I love visiting such places to learn about it..thanks for sharing..
ReplyDeleteOn my trip to Kerela , I re bee visiting a factory where they extracted coconut oil..It is rather interesting..and to get that pure oil..it surely is a treat.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed coconut oil extraction pictures. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteLovely post sowmya. My mum had their own check, though we never saw it she used to say a lot of stories about it and she says that the freshly pounded kobarai/punakku tastes so yumm!
ReplyDeletemaking me to remember my childhood days :) thanks for sharing such a lovely post
ReplyDeleteWow.. Great to see all these machines and I am so amazed how you put it all together. I have seen this when we were in pannaipuram. Amazing process.
ReplyDeleteWow! that is an interesting article.
ReplyDeleteI never saw or even knew how coconut oil is made. Thanks for the amazing pictures. Lovely pics.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post, loved reading it and see pics. Wish I could this process live, lucky you.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post.Love reading about the basics.
ReplyDelete