Cocoa nut

“ Smelfungus, indeed, would insist upon it that the cocoa-nut is not a nut at all, and would thrill us with the delightful information, innocently conveyed in that delicious dialect of which he is so great a master, that it is really "a drupaceous fruit with a fibrous mesocarp." Still, in spite of Smelfungus with his nice, hair-splitting distinctions, it remains true that humanity at large will still call a nut a nut, and that the cocoa-nut is the highest known development of the peculiar nutty tactics. It has the largest and most richly stored seed of any known plant ”

“ The kernel of 37the ripe nut, thoroughly dried and pressed, gives forth a strong, clear, tasteless oil, which is used by the natives for anointing their skin and hair, and at the same time forms so important an article in European commerce, that above 5,000,000 ripe cocoa-nuts are annually exported through foreign mercantile houses in exchange for European fabrics. ”

“ The cocoa-nut tree belongs to the palm family: it requires to [250] grow seven years before it bears fruit; but after this period, and for a whole century, it yields continually the same product—that is, every month about twenty large nuts. This produce never fails, and on the same tree may be seen continually flowers and fruits of all sizes. The cocoa-nut affords, as everyone knows, nutritious food, and when pressed yields a quantity of oil. The shell of the nut serves to make vases, and the filamentary parts are spun into ropes and cables for ships, and even into coarse clothing. ”

“ Large quantities of this are exported, and used for sweetmeats, in the manufacture of which in great variety the natives of India are consummate adepts.
The cocoa-nut is consumed in a greater variety of ways than even the sap, and not a portion of it, or of the palm on which it grows, is without its special use. Besides the refreshing drink extracted from the young undeveloped nut, which is also made into a dye, the pulp inside the soft crust is considered a delicacy, and is used in the preparation of various dishes. ”

“ With their accustomed habit of imitation, they furiously tore off, nut by nut, all that grew upon the branches near them, to hurl them down upon us; so that it was with difficulty we avoided the blows; and in a short time a large quantity of cocoa-nuts lay on the ground round us. Fritz laughed heartily at the excellent success of our stratagem; and as the shower of cocoa-nuts began to subside, we set about collecting them. We chose a place where we could repose at our ease, to regale ourselves on this rich harvest. ”

“ Each young nut, when in the true milk stage of its growth, will yield about a pint of fluid, cool, and of slightly acid taste. The younger nuts contain a soft, rich substance, not unlike blanc-mange, which can be easily scooped out. From the juices of these immature nuts the natives manufacture an indelible black dye. Toddy, cocoa-nut wine, arrack, or rack as it is sometimes called, is made from the sap of the cocoa palm. In favourable seasons the plumes of cocoa-nut blossom are shot out from amidst the fronds of the tree crown about every six weeks. ”

“ We split open the nut, but, to our disgust, found the kernel dry and uneatable.
“Hullo,” cried Fritz, “I always thought a cocoa-nut was full of delicious sweet liquid, like almond milk.”
“So it is,” I replied, “when young and fresh, but as it ripens the milk becomes congealed, and in course of time is solidified into a kernel. This kernel then dries as you see here, but when the nut falls on favourable soil, the germ within the kernel swells until it bursts through the shell, and, taking root, springs up a new tree.” ”

“ The fruit consists of a thick external husk or rind of a fibrous structure, within which is the ordinary cocoa-nut of commerce. The nut has a very hard, woody shell, inclosing the kernel, within which again is a milky substance of a rather agreeable taste.
The cocoa-nut palm is so widely disseminated throughout tropical countries that it is impossible to distinguish its original habitat. It flourishes with equal vigor on the coast of the East Indies, throughout the tropical islands of the Pacific, and in the West Indies and tropical America. ”

“ The leaves are four fathoms, or four and a half long, at the very top of the tree, and serve excellently for thatching houses. At the bottom of the leaves the cocoa nuts grow in clusters of ten, fifteen, or twenty, hanging by a small string which is full of joints. Each nut, with its outer rind, is larger than a man's head, and within this outer rind is a hard woody shell which will hold near a quart of liquid. The nut or kernel lines the inside of this shell, and within this kernel is about a pint and half of pure clear water, very cool, sweet, and pleasant. ”

“ COCOA-NUT CANDY.— Take three cocoa-nuts and grate their meat on a coarse grater. Weigh the grated cocoa-nut, and to each pound, allow one pound of the best double-refined loaf-sugar. Put the sugar into a preserving kettle, and to every two pounds allow a pint of water, and the beaten white of one egg mixed into the water. When the sugar is entirely dissolved in the water, set it over the fire, and boil and skim it. When the scum has ceased to rise, and the sugar is boiling hard, begin to throw in the grated cocoa-nut, gradually, stirring hard all the time. ”

“ The cocoa-nut is planted as follows: Selecting a suitable place, you drop into the ground a fully ripe nut, and leave it. In a few days, a thin, lance-like shoot forces itself through a minute hole in the shell, pierces the husk, and soon unfolds three pale-green leaves in the air; while originating, in the same soft white sponge which now completely fills the nut, a pair of fibrous roots, pushing away the stoppers which close two holes in an opposite direction, penetrate the shell, and strike vertically into the ground. ”

“ In the early green stage at which cocoa-nuts are generally picked for household use in the tropics, the shell hasn't yet solidified into a hard, stony coat, but still remains quite soft enough to be readily cut through with a sharp table-knife—just like young walnuts picked for pickling. If you cut one across while it's in this unsophisticated state, it is easy enough to see the arrangement of the interior, and the part borne by the milk in the development and growth of the mature nut. ”

“ The interior of the nut is extracted without breaking the shell, by filling it with salt-water, after which it is buried for some time in the sand, when the inside pulp becomes decayed, and the shell is then well washed out. The largest nuts are chosen for the purpose, and are often seen highly polished, and of a fine black colour. The cups of the natives are usually made of sections of the cocoa-nut in that stage of ripeness, when they are denominated by the Tahitans Omutu ”

“ During very hot weather, if the nuts are fresh gathered, or suffered to remain for a while in cold water, it is not very easy to withstand the temptation.
The shell of the cocoa-nut is always most valuable when suffered to ripen upon the tree; it then acquires great hardness, and a fine dark chocolate color, interveined by fine lines of a rich dun, or clay, or perhaps striated with those tints: they then take a good polish, and may, when tastefully mounted, be considered as ornamental to the sideboard. ”

“ Plant Cocoa-nuts when the stomach is overburdened with food (kalau kita ’nak sangat berak) ; run quickly and throw the cocoa-nut into the hole prepared for it without straightening the arm; if you straighten it the fruit-stalk will break. Plant them in the evening, so that they may bear fruit while they are still near the ground. When you pick seed cocoa-nuts off the tree somebody should stand at the bottom of the tree and watch whether the “monkey-face” of each seed cocoa-nut, as it is thrown down, turns either towards himself or the base of the tree, or whether it looks away from both. ”

“ The Fruit, which is least esteemd, is also in the least plenty. It is a nut about as big as a childs head coverd like a cocoa nut with a fibrous coat, under which are 3 kernels which must be eat before they are ripe, otherwise they become to [o] hard to chew; in their proper state they resemble a good deal in taste the kernel of an unripe Cocoa nut and like them probably afford but a washy nutriment. ”

“ The other occasions on which the spinning of a cocoa-nut is used, are chiefly for amusement, and then no prayer is made, and no degree of credit is attached to the result. The women often spin a cocoa-nut to decide some dispute at a game.
Another valuable production of the cocoa-nut is the oil, which is a valuable article of exportation from Ceylon, and other parts of India, Polynesia, &c. ”

“ TO MAKE COCOA-NUT CAKE.
To two whites of egg, take one cocoa-nut; after it has been peeled and grated, sugar to the taste; make them high in middle, and bake a few minutes.
COCOA-NUT AND ALMOND CAKE.
Blanch half a pound of almonds, and pound them in a mortar, with a little rose water, to prevent them oiling; add an equal quantity of grated cocoa-nut, three whites of eggs beaten to a froth, and sugar to the taste; bake ten minutes. ”

“ II. The haari, or cocoa-palm (Cocos nucifera) , whose trunk, bark, leaves, and fruit are pressed into their service by the natives. The fruit, however, is the most important, as it is used as meat for man and beast, as well as a beverage, and to obtain oil from it. Mixed with fine sandal-wood shavings and other aromatic substances, the oily liquid pressed out from the cocoa-nut is used by the Tahiti women as a much-prized cosmetic (monoï) , with which to lubricate their long beautiful black hair. ”

“ The kernels, dressed in various ways, are used as food, and the expressed oil of the nut is exported for use in the manufacture of candles, soap, and pomades; the oil when fresh is used in cookery. In southern India and other countries the cocoa-nut forms one of the staples of life. ”

“ Cocoa-nut oil, produced from the small round cocoa-nut, called "Cochita" about the size of a hickory-nut, not the ordinary cocoa-nut, is also produced in considerable quantity. At Manzanillo it is worth about seventeen dollars, coin, per barrel.
Of tropical fruit, Colima—the State at large—is able to raise unlimited amounts, and with good roads to Manzanillo, and a foreign market, an immense trade might soon be built up. Cacao—pronounced ka-kow, not cocoa—or the chocolate bean is produced all over the Tierra Caliente of Mexico, and its product could be increased indefinitely. ”

“ The shell of the nut is made into cups, and from the kernel, cocoa-nut oil is pressed out and largely used in making soap and for other purposes.
In Ceylon, the tree is cultivated extensively. It is estimated that there are twenty million trees in that island, and that each tree produces about sixty nuts yearly. The wealth of a native is based upon the number of cocoa-nut palms he owns. ”

“ Hence the cocoa-nut has readily been able to dispense with the three kernels which each nut used in its earlier and less developed days to produce. But though the palm has thus taken to reducing the number of its seeds in each fruit to the lowest possible point consistent with its continued existence at all, it still goes on retaining many signs of its ancient threefold arrangement. The ancestral and most deeply ingrained habits persist in the earlier stages; it is only in the mature form that the later acquired habits begin fully to predominate. ”

“ I thought there might be cocoa-nuts about, for these when they are old, as you generally only see them in England, contain, instead of juice, or ‘milk’ as they term it in the tropics, which the nut is filled with when young, a valuable amount of solid matter, which is not only tasty to eat but nourishing as well, being mostly a kind of vegetable fat or oil. ”

“ Curiously enough, at a little distance from the sandy levels or alluvial flats of the sea-shore, the sea-loving cocoa-nut will not bring its nuts to perfection. It will grow, indeed, but it will not thrive or fruit in due season. On the coast-line of Southern India, immense groves of cocoa-nuts fringe the shore for miles and miles together ”

“ Every one is aware that chocolate is an aliment obtained from the cocoa-nut, roasted and reduced to paste, with sugar and aromatics.
But first, the choice of cocoa nuts is not indifferent.
Those from Soconusco, from Caracas, and Maracaibo, are the best{313} and sweetest; it is, however, well to mix with them other kinds, to correct their insipidity by a certain sharpness far from being unpleasant; thus, to four parts of Caracas cocoa, earthed—that is, rendered mild by a sojourn of some weeks under the moist earth—a part of cocoa from the Antilles, or Maragnon and Para, is added ”

“ In any case, wherever it happens to strike, the young cocoa-nut sends up at first a fine rosette of big, spreading leaves, not raised as afterward on a tall stem, but springing direct from the ground in a wide circle, something like a very big and graceful fern. In this early stage nothing can be more beautiful or more essentially tropical in appearance than a plantation of young cocoa-nuts. ”

“ When the fruits reach us, the albumen has hardened and become somewhat tough and indigestible. This nut is one of the sources of wealth—in some cases, perhaps, the only one—of the coral islands of Oceania and some other tropical regions. With the top in the sun and its roots bathed by the sea-waters—its favorite station—the cocoa-tree (Cocos nucifera) continues in good condition to the age of seven or eight hundred years. The dry nut, called copra, is marketed by the thousand tons every year, to be employed in various uses for which fats are ”