A person wrote to ask me for a source of cocoa butter
as an ingredient for soap, and indicated that chocolate
manufacturers are a place where you might find this item.
Actually, the answer is a bit more interesting....
.
In the chocolate manufacturing industry cocoa butter is
the fatty part of the coca bean and is a natural fat extracted
from chocolate liquor under high pressure. This
cocoa butter is added to chocolate. It is used in manufacturing
to get a smooth, creamy chocolate. It is a way to
thin the thick chocolate to make it flow easier.
At the same time, cocoa butter makes a richer chocolate
product. The more cocoa butter - the richer the
chocolate product.
In the other use, coconut oil is usually found as an excellent
tropical oil used for roasting nuts and skin softening
products. It has a smooth, buttery taste and feel.
We sometimes use 76 degree coconut oil to roast seeds
and nuts. That means that, as the oil reaches 76
degrees, it will liquefy and under this the oil will gel
and lose its "greasy" feel. Therefore it is
not "hydrolyzed and cannot form plaque in the body
since it is liquid at the 96 degrees body temperature.
Sometimes we use palm oil which is extremely similar to
the coconut oil and costs about the same. We also
use a number of vegetable oil products such as soybean
and sunflower oil. The term "butter" is
a misnomer because it is not a true butter product.
People using this term really mean to use the term coconut
oil although it used to be formed into a log and used
as a butter substitute.
Twp ne of the biggest users of coconut oil in the northwestern
United States is the Lamb Wesson and the Simplot Corporations.
Both firms make Idaho French fries and buy the oil as
their roasting oil in the manufacturing process. McDonald's
french fries are shipped from Simplot plants in a frozen
state have been deep fried in coconut oil. They buy the
roasting oil in 6,000 gallon tanker trucks.
The biggest user of coconut oil is General Foods. It is
an essential ingredient in Palmolive soap and other fine
hand soaps. They used to buy about 25 percent of the imports
of these oils. Most coconut oil is shipped from the Philippines
and you can get a daily price in the commodities section
of the Wall Street Journal. Make sure to add freight for
the ocean tanker steamer if you decide to buy a shipload!.
Coconut oil makes skin soft and supple. It keeps the skin
from drying out. All fine sun screen oils (like Coppertone)
use coconut oil for a rich tan and the name "butter"
often comes from the use of the coconut oil as a covering
of the skin. It is an essential part of overall human
health and your body requires some of it on a routine
basis. Otherwise your skin would turn dry and brittle.
In early years during the 1950's when I lived in Wisconsin,
margarine was outlawed by the State of Wisconsin -
so that we would only be able to purchase butter in grocery
stores. This control was the way the State helped
the dairy farmers sell their crop.
If we wanted to buy margarine in Wisconsin, it was kind
of available but hard to use. We would
buy a one pound block of margarine which was really a
cube of coconut oil. It looked like hard Vasoline
or lard. we would add to this opaque, translucent
white-colored block, a yellow dye tablet that came packaged
with the margarine. This would give the product a streaky
yellow color. Needless to say, few people bought margarine
in Wisconsin and added the color. Most of us drove
over the border to Iowa or Illinois to buy actual margarine.
The cube of margarine was really a block of coconut oil.
It tastes almost the same as butter and gave you a rich,
lightly salty taste. Butter makes us
feel like we have the finest taste in our mouth. That
taste is imitated by the addition of coconut oil as a
margarine base.
Cocoa butter also can be added to chocolate to give them
a buttery smooth taste. That is why the two are confused.
Expensive chocolates makers add a bit of cocoa butter
to make the chocolate smoother and taste better. Fine
chocolates require this as an essential ingredient.
Sometimes
coconut oil is add to chocolate. It is usually used
as a hardening agent to make a coating for ice cream.
You cannot see this effect when you eat a dipped-in-chocolate
ice cream cone. the chocolate sets quickly over
the ice cream to make a hard topping.
The firm that supplies many oil products including coconut
oil is Mitsubishi Corporation. A barrel of coconut oil
weighs around 400 pounds. At The Nut Factory, we use
at least one or two 400 pound barrels a week
in our plant for processing our nut products.
The barrel of coconut oil holds 55 gallons so the oil
weighs about 7.27 pounds per gallon. You can buy it
in a smaller size, in a 15 gallon package. The price
is around $0.50 if you buy a steamship of oil - $0.80
per pound on a direct basis in 5,000 pound purchases
from oil through a wholesaler, the price will go closer
to $1.65 per pound.
In the phone book under the heading "oil - edible" you will find wholesalers and
they ought to be able to put you in contact with this product.
Here is a site called Cocoa Care that talks
about their cocoa butter skin products and may be interesting
~ Gene |
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Tip of the day
For a heavy dose of silliness, check out uselessknowledge.com |
Our
favorite recipes
Banana Nut Bread
a standard favorite
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1-1/2 cups ripe, mashed bananas (3 large)
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 Eggs, beaten
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 cup light vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
optional:
1/2 cup dates or apricots, chopped
Mix all dry ingredients together. Mash the ripe bananas. Cream the honey
and butter/oil and blend in the bananas. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour dust a 4" x 8" loaf pan....
Little by little fold the dry the dry mixture, honey mix, and beaten eggs
together in a bowl. When fairly uniform pour into the pan and level the batter.
Bake 70 minutes until the crust is golden brown and a toothpick comes out
dry. Storing the wrapped bread in the cupboard for a few days develops a richer flavor.
More recipes
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Little known facts
Caramel and Butterscotch are made in
similar ways to toffee, as is fudge. The difference is in the degree of boiling
temperature and the ways in which they are cooled. This whole process uses high-heat to
convert sugar. Crystallization, graininess, and whether it is brittle or smooth are simply
variations of this process.
more
about candy
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Half a century of fun
The Nut Factory started in 1952 as a roaster of peanuts. We are located in Spokane,
Washington. Over the years The Nut Factory has grown into a large snack food manufacturer.
We ship over 400 product every day to businesses everywhere throughout the United States.
Our history
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