Pure Coconut Oil — 500 ml

What is in the bottle

One thing: coconut. The kernel is sun-dried into copra, cold pressed in our own mill, filtered through cloth and bottled the same week. It is never heated, deodorised or refined, which is why it still smells of the coconut it came from.

Everyday uses

Everyday cooking

Good for curries, thoran, fish fry and tempering. Unrefined oil carries a coconut aroma into the food, which is the point of cooking with it.

Hair and scalp

Warm a spoonful between the palms and work it in. Most people leave it an hour or overnight, then wash it out.

Skin

A plain moisturiser. Works best on damp skin, straight after a bath, using less than you think you need.

Baby massage

The traditional use across Kerala. Warm a little in the palms first so it goes on at body temperature.

How long a 500 ml lasts

Going by the 15–20 ml of cooking oil a day an adult is generally advised to use — about 500–600 ml per person a month. That comes to roughly half a litre per person a month. On that basis a 500 ml pack suits one or two people. Lasts a family of two about two weeks. A sensible first bottle.

Buy a pack you will finish inside the nine-month shelf life. Oil left open for longer will not harm you, but it loses the fresh coconut smell that is the reason to buy unrefined oil at all.

Cooking with more or less than average? Compare the three packs on the pack sizes page.

Storing it

It has gone solid and white

That is coconut oil behaving normally. It sets below about 24°C and melts again as the kitchen warms up. Nothing is wrong with it and nothing is lost.

Turning it back to liquid

Stand the bottle in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes. Do not put a capped PET bottle in a microwave, and do not put it on the stove.

Where to keep it

Capped, out of direct sunlight, and away from the heat of the stove. A shelf in the kitchen is fine. It does not need a refrigerator.

Keeping it clean

Use a dry spoon. Water carried in on a wet spoon is what shortens the life of any cooking oil.