Fresh Coconut Milk

Coconut milk is readily available worldwide in canned or bottled containers. That being the case, why on earth would you want to prepare your own coconut milk?

First, fresh coconut milk has a fragrant, naturally sweet and nutty flavor totally non-existing in the canned versions.

Furthermore, a Nordic test of cans containing coconut milk shows that 11 out of 30 cans contain the endocrine disrupting chemical bisphenol A... 💀

Also, as food aficionados, we are willing to go the extra mile to make our dishes with the freshest, healthiest and best quality ingredients we can afford.

Altogether, If you can avoid BPA-lined cans and unnecesary preservatives, and at the same time increasing flavour in your dishes, the decision is a no-brainer.

Once you try fresh coconut milk, there is no way back 🚫

What is coconut milk?

Surprisingly, it is a common belief that coconut milk is the liquid inside the shell, and that to obtain the milk, all it is needed is poking holes in the eyes of the coconut and drain out the milk.

Nothing further from the truth. Coconut milk is not the water found inside a coconut, but a milky white natural oil-in-water emulsion extracted from the flesh of a well-matured coconut.

Grated coconut meat mixed with warm water, then massaged and squeezed for the creamy white liquid. Nothing more and nothing less.

Is there more than one kind of coconut?

All coconuts come from varieties of the same tree, Cocos nucifera.

It is one of the most useful of all trees in the tropics, providing not only food but raw materials for making all sorts of furnishings and household supplies.

Moreover, it is an excellent source of raw ingredients for the development of dairy like products such as yogurt.

However, coconuts change a lot during growth process:

Young coconuts, normally of green color, contain little flesh but plenty of water. The flesh is easy to scoop, gelatinous and not very flavorful. The liquid inside the green coconut provides a very refreshing and healthy drink.

In contrast, ripe coconuts, normally of brown color, do not have much water left, but produces more meat. The meat of a well-matured coconut is thick, fibrous and full of flavor.

The water of ripe coconuts, although not particulary nice to drink, is still very good for marinating and cooking.

I highly recommend this amazing Coconut Masterclass if you want to learn more about the different ages of coconut and their usage.

How to pick a good coconut?

Here are some good advices when choosing coconuts for making milk:

First, give it a good shake. If you can't hear the sound of the coconut juice inside, bad signal. There may be cracks or leaks in the shell, or the juice could have evaporated through the eyes because it has been on storage for too long.

Second, the thick flesh inside should be a pure white color. If it has started to yellow, it is most probably rancid.

Third, if the coconut has a lighter brown shell, it means it is not fully matured. Milk from that kind of coconut will be less creamy, and therefore not good enough to use in some curries and other recipes.

Some suppliers keep some husk on the coconut covering the eyes. That husk offers extra protection for eyes puncturing and air seepage or mold growing inward. Air and mold entering the coconut will make the rich meat spoil quickly.

Making coconut milk at home

Remove all the husk around the coconut eyes. Sometimes the farmer keeps a bit of husk covering the coconut eyes to protect them and avoid the coconut water to come out accidentally.
Open holes in the widest coconut eye. Any small sharp knife will do the job, I like to use a corkscrew.
Remove the coconut water and reserve it
Break the coconut in two halves. Hold the coconut firmly in your hand and hit several times it with a hammer or the back of a cleaver until it breaks open
Grate the coconut meat. The white coconut flesh has a thin brown outer skin. It is totally edible, but if you are going to use the coconut milk for cooking light-coloured dishes, it is better to stop grating when you see that brown skin.
Pour hot water over the coconut meat, stir and let it sit for some time.
Squeeze the mix through a cheesecloth or muslin cloth to get the milk.
Enjoy it!

Coconut milk spoils quickly, better consume it within 48 hours after pressing. Freshly squeezed coconut milk is the best.

Freezing coconut milk is not recommended, as this increases the likelihood of its curdling when it is next used in cooking.

Grating the coconut meat

In this part of the world, coconut producing countries use a handmade tool made with a plank of wood and a serrated piece of metal at the tip.

You can sit on a chair on top of the plank and use the tip to grate the coconut meat. It's a nice meditative task once you get the grasp of it 🧘

Thick vs thin coconut milk vs coconut cream

The recipe mentioned aboved will yield a creamy, thick coconut milk, also called first extraction milk.

If you take the coconut meat leftover and repeat the operation, you will get the so called thin coconut milk, or second extraction milk.

Being an emulsion without any stabilizer, coconut milk tends to separate overtime. If you let it rest for a while, the fat and the water will separate and the fat will go to the top.

Scooping the fat from the top will give you the most flavourful coconut cream you have ever tried, it is worth the effort.

Coconut milk also contains some coconut oil as an emulsion. For example, you can boil some meat in coconut milk. Once the water is evaporated, the meat will be fried with the remaining coconut oil. This is the method used to cook the classical indonesian dish Beef Rendang.

Experiments on Coconut Milk Extraction

Assuming we already pick the best possible coconut as described above, what other factors may affect the quality of our coconut milk? I came up with the following ones:

The particle size of the grated coconut meat. The extraction should be faster when the surface area is bigger.
The kind of water you use.
The amount of water added.
The temperature of the water we use.
The extraction time.

I did a short experiment trying different temperatures and extraction time:

	Temperature	Extraction time	Yield
40ºC	15min	68%
70ºC	10min	67%
70ºC	15min	69%
100ºC	15min	73%
100ºC	30min	78%

Yield is defined as: weight of the resulting coconut milk / (weight of coconut meat + water)

The final result

In our experiment, a long extraction time with boiling temperature water gets the highest yield.

Good coconut milk has a clean, white color and tastes rich, creamy, and mildly sweet with the essence of coconut. It should have a complexity and depth of flavor that keeps you intrigued, and not leave an unpleasant aftertaste.
Kasma Loha-unchit , author of Dancing with Shrimps

What about the leftover coconut pulp?

The squeezed pulp still have plenty of nutrients left. It is a great source of fiber and it is also low in fat, since most of the fat has been already extracted out.

One option is simply to put the pulp in the oven until it is dried out. You can keep the dry coconut in a jar and use it anywhere, salads, smoothies, on top of your granola or yogurth, etc...

If you like sweets, it is a great chance to cook some coconut macaroons for your friends and family.