Homemade coconut milk, it seemed like a big hurdle, but I’ve made my first leap!
We found our homemade coconut milk to be very tasty. We also had peace of mind because we were avoiding all of those nasty toxins from canned goods, and it had a beautiful fresh taste. My husband mentioned that the smoothie we made using it didn’t have a “funny” taste that he had noticed with canned coconut milk.
Another thing I noticed when making my coconut milk was how beautiful the coconut flesh is! It’s a very pure white and was quite fun to work with.
A few things I noted when reading up on making homemade coconut. Different recipes used varying amounts of coconut flesh to water. This is important to keep in mind as the less water you use, the thicker the end product will be. In Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon uses two whole coconuts to get just 1 1/2 cups of coconut milk. I am sure that would be much thicker then what I did, so if you would like thicker coconut milk or need it to be thicker, definitely cut back on the water and use more coconuts! I was using my coconut milk mostly for smoothies, so I didn’t mind if it was a bit thinner this time around. (Canned coconut milk is very thick compared to homemade coconut, by the way). I decided to loosely follow the directions from this great video, which I found quite helpful. I tried to do her cool knife trick in cracking my coconut with no success, so I had to use a hammer. But I recommend watching the video as it’s a great visual.
Here’s what I did.
Making Homemade Coconut Milk-Attempt Number One
Make sure you buy a coconut that feels heavy and has a nice “sloshing” sound when you shake it. At some points in the process below, you may need to rinse your coconut pieces off, as they have have little pieces from the outside layers on it.
You will need:
1 Coconut
A sieve and bowl
a hammer
a food processor1-If you want the coconut juice inside of the coconut, you can hammer a clean nail into one of the eyes of the coconut and drain. This is what I did: On a sturdy surface, place your coconut with a towel over it. Hammer until it start to crack, I was able to let it drain into a bowl before continuing.
Hammer until it cracks in half, or it has cracked enough to be able to pull apart into two halves.
2-Now, on a heavy cutting board, place one half meat side down and place a kitchen towel over it (this is to prevent a piece from flying into your face). Hammer again to break into smaller pieces.
3-Once the coconut is broken into smaller pieces
then take a sharp small knife, and pop out the coconut meat. At this point, if you don’t care about saving the flesh, you can place in the food processor. Otherwise, with a very sharp vegetable peeler, peel the brown part off of the coconut pieces, and then place in the food processor.
4-Pulse in the food processor until it is very fine and place in a clean bowl.
5-Pour 2 cups of warm water over your coconut shreds
and squeeze the coconut shreds in the water to help release their “milk”. Do this for a few minutes. Then set up a fine sieve over another bowl (you may want to line the sieve with a cheesecloth too). Make a ball with some of the coconut shreds in your hands and squeeze tightly over the sieve to release the milk. Continue to do so until you have released all of the milk and you have dry coconut shreds again.
6-You can now add more warm water (another 2 cups) and do one more “pressing”, though this time it will be much less rich.
So that’s how I did it! Any coconut milk experts out there want to share how they do it? I would love to hear.
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I’ve tried coconut milk before, but I started with already shredded coconut which I whizzed in the Vita-Mix with clean water. I was expecting it to eventually get smooth, but it never did. Almond milk in the Vita-Mix ends up smooth enough to drink without straining, but this didn’t!
So, then I strained it and it was pretty good, but kind of frustrating because it was thick and took forever to strain. I then used it in ice cream and we liked it. The reason I attempted it in the first place is because there is a packaged organic coconut product where you take the coconut meat in the package and combine it with warm/boiling water, supposedly producing coconut milk. The directions didn’t say to strain (I don’t think) and the resulting milk was not smooth in the least and made horrible ice cream.
I wonder, is it better to start with a fresh coconut than to use good quality shredded coconut? The shredded is dried so I would think more water is necessary to reconstitute it in addition to making milk of it, as compared to fresh coconut. What do you think about the two options nutritionally?
~Wardeh
In one of Mark Bittman’s books he recommends using shredded coconut to make homemade coconut milk. I’ve never tried it myself, but I am intrigued.
Wardeh,
Thanks so much for sharing your experience in making coconut milk with coconut shreds. I’ve also done the same! I think that nutritionally they should be very similar.The only thing to watch for is that some dried coconut flakes have already had their “milk” pressed out of it. There is not going to be much left in there to extract. So I think that getting high quality coconut flakes will be key. I found that my coconut milk was pretty thin both ways, but maybe I need a vita-mixer to help me.
I will keep experimenting with it! Thanks for sharing!
Shannon,
Like I mentioned above, I have tried it and it did seem to work pretty well! I need to get some more coconut flakes so that I can keep experimenting though.
Kimi, … that is a good point regarding the milk possibly being pressed out already from coconut shreds. I’ll keep that in mind when I try again (thanks to your inspiration)! ~Wardeh
HI! I have also made coconut milk from the scratch a few times and found the taste much better than the one from the cans. I think the homemade milk is richer than milk made from dry coconut flakes, as it has more coconut oil in it. My milk was done much the same way than yours. Unfortunately the coconuts I found here were very hairy, so it took ages to remove it and get to the “eyes” of the coconut.
How does the cost of homemade coconut milk compare to your preferred brand of canned coconut milk?
Turtle Mountain has a coconut milk that comes in half gallons in the fridge section with the milk. It is called So Delicious- they make ice cream and yogurt too. I bought the “milk” to try and it is ok. Not great. Just ok. (the ice cream is wonderful, though!!!)But if you want to avoid coconut milk in the can ( BPA) it is an alternative- It is expensive- over $4 for a half gallon!!! I will stick to my canned coconut milk for the most part. I also noticed that it has added sugar(organic at least!), water, and vitamins- and I wasn’t too keen on that part either!! If I ever come across some good prices on coconuts I will try making my own!
my local asian market sells frozen shredded coconut, not dried. do you think it would have the same results?
Jessie,
It definitely depends on what price you can get them at. I can get some through azure standard for a little over two dollars a coconut ( and their organic!). But from our local health food store, it’s three dollars a pound for organic coconuts. Other then that, I saw at a local produce discount place that they had two dollar coconuts. So prices vary around here. It’s definitely probably cheaper to buy canned, however.
Vehement Flame,
Interesting! I didn’t know of that product! To bad it has added stuff to it though, huh?
Claudia,
I am sure it would! It probably would work even better.
Gosh, you’re brave to try a regular coconut! Those things are like rocks! (Well, almost. I’ve definitely used a hammer on them myself).
I prefer to use young coconuts, which I can manage to open with a large, sharp knife (not a good one, though, because I don’t think it’s especially good for the knife). These don’t have all of the husk on the outside, and are a bit less round in shape. They are specified as “young coconuts” at the store. I don’t know too much about their differences, just that the young ones are easier to work with.
The basic method I’ve used is:
-Position your young coconut on the counter, with the pointed top up and the flat bottom on the counter. It looks a bit like a little hut.
-Use the base of the knife blade to quickly jab a hole into the base of the “roof” of the hut shape (where it rounds out after being a bit pointy and triangular).
-Drain out the coconut water
-Jab a knife into the first hole that you made, until you can get it in enough to start sawing the top piece off. You can literally get a knife going around the top, until it slices it clean off (most of the time!). Once in a while, I’ve had to just really hack at it.
-Open it up, and simply scoop out the flesh with a soup spoon (it’s quite soft, unless the coconut is really old or gone bad)
I have enjoyed using fresh coconut in smoothies as well, and also in some desserts, especially raw desserts. I haven’t used it much for cooking or anything, or for making actual coconut milk out of, but have just dumped in both the flesh and the liquid to what I was making.
I think I saw on the price list from our food buying coop that Organically Grown Co. sells organic coconuts for $1.55 each. I’ve heard that Azure Standard purchases their produce from OGC. I’m not sure what kind of requirements they have as far as ordering minimums and they operate out of Oregon so not for everyone.
This is GREAT!!!!! I was just reading about using coconut milk on the GAP diet list. I am putting on my list of things to learn when I opened the link to your blog off my reader. My kids and I bought a young coconut a few days ago. I know what we’re doing tomorrow.
They should enjoy that. Thank you for posting this. I’ll let you know how the milk turns out tomorrow.
Hey Karen,
Just so you know, a young coconut won’t actually have much “meat” inside of it, but mostly liquid and some very soft “meat”. We love them! But you can’t make coconut milk with it. You want one of the “hairy” coconuts.
Hope that helps!
Dear Kim,
I made my own coconut milk out of necessity in a very similar fashion according to my mother-in-law’s instructions. We were vacationing on the tiny island of Monserrat (three months before it was devastated by a volcanic erruption). We were tired of eating at the island’s few restaurants, and wanted to make a coconut milk curry. We had rented a house with a lovely garden with fruit trees.
All of the chicken breasts on the island were sold to the restaurants, so we made it with the backs and other odd bits. We had no potatoes, so we used cristophenes (sometimes called chayote) diced in cubes as the starch, then threw in some hot chillies from the garden and a handful of raisins onions and curry powder.
The coconuts we collected from a tree in the yard, then hacked open with a machete at great risk to life and limb. It was a ridiculous amount of work, but we were on vacation on a tiny island with all the time in the world. We grated the coconut by hand, dumped it into a sieve and poured boiling water through it, then wrung it out by handfulls. It made a lovely rich coconut milk. …and one of the best curries I’ve ever tasted.
My mother-in-law claimed we could continue to pour water through the coconut and extract more milk, but I think we just gobbled up the rest or maybe mixed it up in fruity rum cocktails.
Kimi, We use a lot of coconuts in South India. Most of the everyday dishes use coconut ground with other spices as a masala. But for special occasions we use coconut milk made at home. Coconut is scraped/grated first and then using a blender/mixer, we grind it a bit and add water to it and blend it to a very fine paste. then using a thin cloth, we filter this out and keep this milk aside as first milk. The second milk is extracted using the coconut residue in the sieve/thin cloth and some more water and filtered again. When cooking, we use the second milk for the curry for prolonged cooking. The first milk is added in the last few mins or sometimes after the curry is removed from the stove. This coconut milk is delicious for desserts as well.
You can try this at home too, a blender like vitamix would do a great job. An ordinary blender like oster would do a decent job as well. Use the maximum speed setting. The consistency of the water+coconut mixture would look like a milkshake… before filtering it. Cheesecloth would not be a good idea to filter. Something like men’s undershirt would do a good job. Also, the water we use is just water at normal temperature, as hot water might make the coconut milk more oily.
Kay,
Wow! Thanks for sharing.
That was really helpful.
I just read all the benefits of coconut oil and it is amazing! I just bought my first jar the other day to make some coconut flour pancakes. They were really good! I have always stayed away from coconut oil because of all the bad press about the fat. I think I will start using it more. I have Celiac, IBS, and osteopenia. I could use a good immune booster:) I already struggle with going to the bathroom too much sometimes. Do you think coconut oil would make it worse?
Thank you for such an informative post. I love your blog. We’ve been using coconut oil for many years. I’d like to try your suggestions for makng fresh coconut milk. I’ve been using Coconut Cream Concentrate from Tropical Traditions. I mix it with filtered water to the consistency I need for my cooking. I also use it in drinks. I’m looking forward to making it fresh.
I missed the last carnival. Hope to participate in the next one.
when are coconuts in season? i’d love to try this, but the few times i’ve gotten coconuts at my grocery store they’ve been pretty disappointing, with dry, hard meat, like they’d been sitting out too long (i guess it’s not a popular choice in my area).
I’m wondering… as to the idea of making coconut milk from shredded coconut… what do you think of buying the coconut chips from Tropical Traditions, shredding them in the food processor, and then making milk from that? It seems like the chips would still all the good stuff left in them, and Tropical Traditions has a gallon of coconut chips on sale right now for $7. If it worked, one could make a good bit of milk with that…
Any thoughts?
Kimberly,
Some people find that coconut oil will kind of “cleanse” them, which could make you have looser bowl movement for a little while. But, I have read that many people suffering for IBS actually try to eat coconut/coconut oil everyday because they say it really helps them! It’s worth a try!
Nurturing Wisdom,
I would love to have you join us next carnival!
Lac,
I am not sure, but I imagine that your problem was that the coconuts had been in the store a long time. Try to talk to the grocery about when they were ordered and buy them when they first come into the store. That might help.
Daisy,
It seems like it would work to me! Let us know if you try it. Thanks for the tip about the sale! It seems like a wonderful price!
I made coconut milk this morning using Sally Fallon’s Eat Fat, Lose Fat recipe which only called for one cup of warm water… I got about a half a cup of very creamy milk, but not really worth the work and mess…I will try 2 cups, as in your recipe, next time! Have any ideas for all the coconut meat? I have been putting them in smoothies or dehydrating for Sally Fallon’s coconut granola recipe (Eat Fat, Lose Fat). I was going to try adding them to oatmeal next…Anyone have other ideas?
We are from Southern part of India where we grow and eat lots of coconut and dishes made out of coconut milk. Canned coconut milk is not something people there would think of doing.
Both my mom and my MIL do it in 2 different ways.
1. We break the coconut into 2 halves with a cleaver kind of knife and then grate it. To extract the first thick milk, we then squeeze the coconut with our clean hands into a bowl. Try to do that with the whole batch a few times. This is the first extract. The 2nd and 3rd extracts are done by adding some warm water and then again squeezing with our hands. We usually require atleast 3 extracts for most of our sweet desserts. (This method is done at my MIL house)
2. The simpler method at my mom’s house. Do exactly the same for breaking and grating coconut. Then she would put the coconut in a blender along with water and blend it fine and then strain out the coconut milk.
Also we usually grate it with a rotary coconut grater or a sit down coconut grater.
I lived in the Philippines in the late seventies and we had a coconut tree in our yard! I was young at the time and was under the impression that coconut milk was the liquid naturally occurring inside the coconut before you open it. I was weirded out years later to open a can of the stuff and see it so thick.
If you think they’re funny-looking in the supermarket, you should see them on the tree. (If you haven’t already, that is.) They have a thick green hull on them, sort of the way walnuts and pecans do, and they reminded me of rather large green footballs. We stayed inside whenever it was storming, and not just because of the winds.
I will have to look for frozen coconut at the Asian markets here. But I have to say I may stick with the canned for a while yet because food prep is already interesting with a little one underfoot and hardly any counter space.
We started drinking coconut milk but haven’t made our own. We have been buying “So Delicious” coconut vanilla flavor from Turtle Mountain Company (they also make “Soy Delicious”). There is a local Drug Emporium that sells a 1/2 gallon for $3.00. I have really enjoyed it. Though, there are few things extra in the ingredient list ( can’t think of them off the top of my head). Thanks for the great posts and website.
I, too, love the coconut concentrate from Tropical Traditions! When added to water, it makes great coconut milk! And I use it to make coconut knox blox’ (using packaged gelatin) sweetened with Stevia for a sugar free treat. It’s even better cut into squares and added to a bowl of cut up pineapple!!!
I did exactly this (mostly), but at the end threw the coconut chunks and distilled water into my blendtec blender and blended. Then blended again and voila, full on coconut milk. I actually choose to drink it pulp and all in most instances.
It is wonderful to read from such gifted people. Coconut milk is best produced from fresh coconuts with the drawback being that in countries that are far away, the coconuts are not very fresh by the time we buy them. However, there is nothing like fresh coconuts.
Second best is aseptic packaged milk, followed or equal to coconut powder from someone like Nestle but there is also S & P from Malaysia and others and a distant fourth would be canned, an altogether inferior product.
Since from the contributors it appears that there are a fair number who are extracting their own fresh milk producing fresh coconut milk, I wonder if anyone has tried to make coconut cheese. People have experimented with this in the past, there was an American expat living in Fiji who was quite prominent in doing so. A soft cheese results which is reputed to be a bit salty. I would love to hear from anyone who has produced cheese and tackled the inevitable problems on the way.
Personally I am pretty sure that there would be major market opporttunities for such a cheese and that is my motive in pursuing the question. I help develop coconut sector strategies and am currently doing so for the Solomon Islands.