| The coconut
palm rates higher than the family cow to one third of the
world's population. You can probably guess these people live
in the tropical countries where the coconut tree is intertwined
with life itself, from the food they eat to the beverages
they drink. Household utensils, baskets, cooking oil, furniture,
and cosmetics all come from the coconut tree.
Some historians surmise that many of the tropical regions
where coconuts presently grow received their first coconut
trees via the sea. Others believe the coconuts were brought
to the different regions of the tropics by explorers and
sea travelers. Today coconut cultivation encircles the globe
between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Exactly where coconuts originated is not known for sure,
but many historians believe Malaysia and Indonesia grew the
world's first coconuts. Conjecture is that early sea travelers
of the East Indies carried coconuts with them for nourishment
as well as to trade for other commodities.
Early Sanskrit writings reveal that
the people of India were using coconuts as a staple for
food and various everyday
needs. In India the coconut palm was known as kalpa vriksha,
which translates as "tree that gives all that is necessary
for living."
Historians of Zanzibar question whether coconuts are indigenous
to East Africa. Based on the fact that similar varieties
grow in Southeast Africa and Madagascar, they speculate the
coconut did indeed originate in East Africa. An alternative
theory is that either seamen from Malaysia brought the coconuts
to East Africa during the early centuries CE or Arabian sea
travelers who traded crops brought the coconuts from India
about 3,000 years ago.
Coconuts made a strong impression
on Venetian explorer Marco Polo, 1254 to 1324 CE, when
he encountered them in Sumatra,
India, and the Nicobar Islands, calling them "Pharoah's
nut." The reference to the Egyptian ruler indicated
Polo was aware that during the 6th century
Arab merchants brought coconuts back to Egypt probably from
East Africa where the nuts were flourishing.
Coconut oil, one of the oldest recorded sources of vegetable
oil, is still used for cooking in many of the tropical regions
where coconuts grow. Once a highly valued, worldwide commodity
for cooking, coconut oil was replaced by soybean, peanut,
and cottonseed oils. More recently the oil is gaining recognition
in the U.S. and Europe for its health benefits.
The production of pure virgin coconut oil and refined coconut
oil are two distinctly different processes.
Production of coconut oil begins with copra, pronounced
KOP-ruh, made by kiln drying or sun drying of the coconut
meat to a moisture level of 3.5 percent from its original
50 percent. After crushing and grinding the coconut meat,
the producers make a coconut milk by pouring boiling water
over the coconut and kneading the grated coconut to extract
as much liquid as possible from the meat.
Next, the milk is strained off and boiled gently for a long
time to evaporate the liquid, leaving only the oil behind.
Copra has an oil content that ranges from 50 to 70 percent.
Always with their eye on the bottom line, producers develop
ways to get the most from the raw material. Some boil the
copra first to extract more oil, and some use solvents. Even
the copra left behind, called coco meal or coco cake, becomes
useful as high-protein animal food.
Filtering is the next step to remove impurities and particles,
followed by several hours of boiling to eliminate an unsavory
odor. A second filtering process, and sometimes an added
bleaching agent, creates a coconut oil that is colorless,
odorless, and tasteless. However, fearing the colorless oil
will not appeal to customers, many processors add food coloring.
Extracting virgin coconut oil is an unmechanized, labor-intensive
operation where most of the work is done by hand. In wet
milling, the process of grating the fresh coconut begins
by holding the nut over a rotating grater that somewhat resembles
an orange juice reamer. The mechanized grater, operating
at very high speed, requires skill to hold the coconut in
place during the grating process.
The wet gratings are then put into a special dryer furnace
to remove the moisture. The dryer uses cleaned coconut shells
for fuel added continuously during the entire drying process.
The dried gratings are then fed into a screw press to extract
the oil. The machine is not motorized but is belt driven
to keep the temperature low during the 45-minute process
of extracting the oil. The coconut gratings are passed through
the press three times to squeeze out all possible oil.
The raw oil is then
carefully purified by a slow process called racking, a
three-step process that allows the oil
to settle for 18 hours during the first step. Impurities
fall to the bottom and the oil is decanted off the top. With
the second settling, the oil rests for a week before it is
siphoned off. The third and last decanting takes three weeks.
Finally the pure oil is bottled for the consumer. The end
product has a definitive pleasant coconut aroma and flavor
and has an indefinite shelf life.
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