Coconut milk

Coconut milk is a plant-based liquid made by grating the white flesh of mature coconuts and pressing it. Its milky-white color and rich flavor come from a high oil content, mostly saturated fat. This ingredient has long been a staple in the cuisines of Southeast Asia, Oceania, South Asia, and East Africa. It is also used for cooking in the Caribbean, Central America, northern South America, and West Africa—regions where coconuts were introduced during the colonial period.

Coconut milk is categorized by fat content. The richest form is coconut cream (or thick coconut milk), followed by coconut milk (or thin coconut milk), which has up to about 20% fat, and finally coconut skim milk, which has almost no fat. Coconut cream can be dried into coconut milk powder, which lasts much longer. However, these terms are not always used consistently in commercial coconut milk sold in Western countries.

Coconut milk is also used to make drinking products, sometimes labeled as "coconut milk beverages," which are meant for drinking rather than cooking. A sweetened, processed version from Puerto Rico is called cream of coconut; it is different from coconut cream and cannot be swapped in recipes. It appears in many desserts and drinks, such as the piña colada.

Nutritionally, 100 milliliters of coconut milk provides 230 calories and is 68% water, 24% total fat, 6% carbohydrates, and 2% protein. The fat includes 21 grams of saturated fat, half of which is lauric acid. It is a rich source of manganese (40% of the Daily Value per 100 grams), but other micronutrients are not present in significant amounts.

Coconut milk is a stable oil-in-water emulsion, with proteins acting as emulsifiers and thickeners. It ranges from watery to creamy in consistency. Traditional preparation involves grating the white flesh of mature coconuts, then mixing the shreds with a small amount of hot water to suspend the fat. The grating can be done by hand or machine. In Polynesia, special fiber bundles from sea hibiscus, heliconia, or the coconut itself—called tauaga—are used to wring out the milk.

Two grades are traditionally produced: coconut cream (20% to 50% fat) and thin coconut milk (5% to 20% fat). Cream comes from the first pressing of grated coconut through cheesecloth, often without added water. Thin milk comes from later pressings after soaking the squeezed pulp in hot water. If left to stand, gravity separates the liquid into a top layer of cream and a bottom layer of skim milk. Cream can also be diluted with water to make thinner milk.

Freshly extracted coconut milk spoils quickly when exposed to air, turning rancid within a few hours at room temperatures of 28 to 30°C (82 to 86°F) due to lipid oxidation and lipolysis. Rancid milk has a strong, unpleasant smell and a soapy taste. Coconut cream, with more suspended solids, works well in desserts and rich sauces. Thinner milk, with fewer solids, is used for general cooking. In Western countries, fresh coconut milk is rare, and most people buy it in cartons or cans.

Coconut milk is also an intermediate step in traditional wet-process methods for making virgin coconut oil, using gradual heating, churning, or fermentation. These methods are less efficient than oil production from copra.

Coconut graters (or scrapers) are essential tools for traditional extraction and were part of the material culture of Austronesian peoples. From Island Southeast Asia, this tool spread to other regions.