Trying a little experiment today....

[The Tradition]

I have an avocado tree that is loaded with fruit. I'm eating a couple every day, giving them away to friends and folks at the office, and I still have too many avocados.

Now, avocado oil is EXPENSIVE at the grocery store, so I started researching how to make avocado oil at home.

After removing the flesh from the pits and the skins, and blending it into a smooth paste, you have a couple of different methods to choose from:

• You can cook it in a pot on the stove.
  
  
• You can dry it out on a cookie pan in a dehydrator or an oven (if you have one that you can set below 150 degrees).
  
  
• You can let it dry naturally in the sun (takes two days).
  
  
• Or you can press just the skins themselves.
  
  
• It's also possible to extract oil from the pits.

All of these methods have problems:

• The stove method seems pretty labor intensive, and extracting oil with that much heat will change the oil's properties.
  
  
• I don't have a dehydrator or an oven that will set below 150 degrees.
  
  
• Sun drying sounds like a terrible idea in Florida. It could rain any time and bugs will get into your avocado paste. Especially over the course of two whole days.
  
  
• Pressing the skins or pits requires specialized equipment.

As I was pondering what to do, an idea hit me: The ideal drying temperature might be inside a closed car sitting out in the sun this time of year. Why not use that like an oven? Brilliant!

So, the car is sitting in the sunniest place I have here at Tradition Manor, with the sheet of avocado paste drying out right now. The oven method is supposed to take five hours. We'll see how long it takes in the car (probably closer to seven hours).

Wish me luck!

 

[billanole]

What is avocado oil used for?
If you can’t use all of them, maybe you got a good thing going on.

 

[The Tradition]

What is avocado oil used for?
If you can’t use all of them, maybe you got a good thing going on.

It's a great cooking oil. High smoke point. It also has a neutral taste which makes it good for salads and marinades.

It's also supposed to be good for skin and hair as a beauty treatment, but I won't be using it for that.

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

It's a great cooking oil. High smoke point. It's also has a neutral taste which makes it good for salads and marinades.

Always use Avocado oil for both….

 

[nolesincebirth]

So once you dry them out, does the oil separate from the paste?

Cool idea though. Let me know how it works and how much oil you get out of a batch of x number of avocados. You could have a business plan brewing here.

 

[The Tradition]

The car has been maintaining a cabin temp of 115 degrees. Not has hot as I'd hoped.

 

[Jerome Silberman]

Set your oven on the lowest setting and crack the door with a wooden spoon. It's going to heat your house a bit, but you'll get the heat and air flow you're looking to achieve.

 

[billanole]

The car has been maintaining a cabin temp of 115 degrees. Not has hot as I'd hoped.

Hot enough to kill peeps or pets.

 

[The Tradition]

So once you dry them out, does the oil separate from the paste?

Cool idea though. Let me know how it works and how much oil you get out of a batch of x number of avocados. You could have a business plan brewing here.

After drying the paste out, you scrape it into some cheesecloth or a nut milk bag, squeeze as much oil out as you can by hand, and then hang it over a container overnight to allow any additional oil to slowly drip out. Strain the resulting oil through cheesecloth one more time, and then store in an airtight container like any other cooking oil.

 

[RileyHawk]

Avocado oil that tastes like cigarette smoke? Yuck.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Won’t that make your car smell?

 

[The Tradition]

Avocado oil that tastes like cigarette smoke? Yuck.

I'm using my wife's car. It has a darker color paint job and she doesn't smoke in it.

 

[The Tradition]

Won’t that make your car smell?

We'll find out!

 

[The Tradition]

Set your oven on the lowest setting and crack the door with a wooden spoon. It's going to heat your house a bit, but you'll get the heat and air flow you're looking to achieve.

The internet has instructions for recalibrating an oven so it'll hold lower temperatures, but I couldn't find instructions for my oven make/model.

Your idea sounds horrible for the planet. The oven will just run constantly for five hours.

I did think about putting it in my all-black Weber Kettle in the sunshine. It gets pretty hot in there with the sun beating down on it even without a fire. Or maybe just with a single lit piece of charcoal at a time.

But I don't want this batch to be a smoke-flavored oil. Maybe next time.

 

[Jerome Silberman]

The internet has instructions for recalibrating an oven so it'll hold lower temperatures, but I couldn't find instructions for my oven make/model.

Your idea sounds horrible for the planet. The oven will just run constantly for five hours.

I did think about putting it in my all-black Weber Kettle in the sunshine. It gets pretty hot in there with the sun beating down on it even without a fire. Or maybe just with a single lit piece of charcoal at a time.

But I don't want this batch to be a smoke-flavored oil. Maybe next time.

Ok

 

[The Tradition]

The car has been maintaining a cabin temp of 115 degrees. Not has hot as I'd hoped.

Now that we're in the heat of the afternoon, we're cooking at 130. Nice.

The paste has the color of peanut butter.

 

[The Tradition]

MOAR ideas for using a car as an oven on a hot day....

 

[The Tradition]

Now that it's almost five o'clock, the solar power ain't gonna do it anymore. Temps were falling so I moved it to the oven.

Two things I've learned:

(1) Yes, it leaves a grassy smell in the car.

(2) If I just give the oven microbursts of convection heating, I can maintain temps below 150 measured with a probe thermometer in the oven. Turn it on for about 15 seconds and then turn it off. Stays above 120 for about an hour.

I used a fork to score lines in the paste. While brown on top it was still green below. The fork treatment should expose more surface area to air and heat, accelerating the dehydration process.

Stay tuned, avocado fans!

 

[fredjr82]

It's also supposed to be good for skin and hair as a beauty treatment, but I won't be using it for that.

Marlboro lines already too far along?

 

[Fan In Black]

csb

 

[THE_DEVIL]

nut milk bag

 

[The Tradition]

Okay, this didn't work. Don't do this.

Back to the drawing board.

 

[PoopandBoogers]

Can you stick them outside in a metal box, grill, trash can, or old ass toaster oven rather than a fuggin car lol?