Original: In 1828 , Conrad Van Houten of the Netherlands developed a mechanical extraction method for extracting the fat from cacao liquor resulting in cacao butter and the partly defatted cacao , a compacted mass of solids that could be sold as it was '' rock cacao '' or ground into powder .
Simplified: It was a compacted mass of solids that could be sold as it was '' rock cacao '' or ground into powder .