Coconut milk

“ It is to their free use of coconut oil, in fact, that the remarkable hirsute growth of the Fijians and other South Sea islanders is directly attributed. The refuse left after making oil is fed to pigs and poultry, a purpose to which it is admirably suited. On the delights of eating coconut-fattened pig, roasted on hot stones and served with miti-hari sauce—itself a mixture of coco milk and lime juice—I have rhapsodized in one of the Tahiti chapters. ”

“ Mix flour with a little cold milk to form a smooth paste. Gradually stir this into the scalded milk. Cream butter and sugar, add well-beaten eggs and stir this into the first mixture. Cook until smooth and thick, add coconut and flavoring. Put between layers. Ice with chocolate icing. Serve while fresh. ”

“ These ingredients are, among others, the cayenne or chili-pepper, turmeric, sarei or lemon-grass, cardamums, garlick, and the pulp of the coconut bruised to a milk resembling that of almonds, which is the only liquid made use of. This differs from the curries of Madras and Bengal, which have greater variety of spices, and want the coconut. It is not a little remarkable that the common pepper, the chief produce and staple commodity of the country, is never mixed by the natives in their food. ”

“ A vender near by, interested in the purchase, and charitable to the strangers, takes the cocoanut, and, with a sharp knife, dexterously pares off one end, and with a slash straight across the top, cuts through the still soft shell, and hands it to us ready to quench our thirst with a long pull, for there is as yet no meat in the cocoanut, only a quantity of the rich milk. I cannot say that it is particularly good, or particularly bad; it has an inoffensive sweet taste, is said to be perfectly harmless, and is one of the few fruits of the tropics that the uninitiated can eat with impunity. ”

“ In health or sickness, infancy or age, at home or on our travels, nothing is so generally useful, so sustaining and invigorating. Far better than the majority of vaunted substitutes for human milk as an infant's food, to supplement what other milk may be available; incomparable as a family drink for breakfast or supper, when both tea and coffee are really out of place unless the latter is nearly all milk; prepared as chocolate to eat on journeys, and in many other ways, cocoa is a constant stand-by. ”

“ Apart even from the manifold merits of the tree that bears it, the milk itself has many and great claims to our respect and esteem, as everybody who has ever drunk it in its native surroundings will enthusiastically admit. In England, to be sure, the white milk in the dry nuts is a very poor stuff, sickly, and strong-flavored and rather indigestible. But in the tropics, cocoa-nut milk, or, as we oftener call it there, cocoa-nut water, is a very different and vastly superior sort of beverage. ”

“ The knob grows out at last into the young plantlet, and it is by means of the soft hole that it makes its escape through the shell to the air and the sunshine which it seeks without. This brings us really down at last to the true raison d'être for the milk in the coco-nut. As the seed or kernel cannot easily get at much water from outside, it has a good supply of water laid up for it ready beforehand within its own encircling shell. The mother liquid from which the pulp or nutty part has been deposited remains in the centre, as the milk, till the tiny embryo begins to sprout. ”

“ Fritz was delighted with my stratagem, and rushing forward picked up some of the finest of the nuts. We drank the milk they contained, drawing it through the holes which I pierced. The milk of a cocoanut has not a pleasant flavor, but it is excellent for quenching thirst. What we liked best was a kind of solid cream which adheres to their shells, and which we scraped off with our spoons. ”

“ Bruise well to get all the goodness out, and strain through jelly-bag. When fresh celery is not to be had, celery seeds may be used. Simmer in water, strain, and add milk.
Cocoanut Milk
is also very good, and will sometimes be retained when ordinary milk is rejected. Select a juicy cocoanut, pierce a hole and drain out the milk. Break and remove from shell, and pare off the brown skin very finely, so as not to lose any of the oil. Grate or run through mincer, add two cupfuls boiling water, and beat with a wooden spoon from ten to fifteen minutes; then squeeze through a cloth or potato masher. ”

“ It contains a large percentage of fat, is very rich and nutritious, and may be said to unite in itself the inspiring properties of tea with the strength-giving qualities of milk.
Starch, as well as sugar, is sometimes added to cocoa and chocolate by the manufacturers, and the practice is believed to be justified, owing to their richness in oil and as better fitting them for digestion. Cocoa is, however, also prepared free from starch and deprived of a portion of its oil. There are many preparations of chocolate and cocoa in market, and they embrace all grades of purity, sweetness and price. ”

“ The milk is pleasant, and in hot and thirsty countries is no doubt often a great boon. The white flesh—a familiar school-boy dainty—is eaten raw and cooked. It produces oil, and is used in the manufacture of stearine candles. It is also used to make marine soap, which will lather in salt water. The wood of the palm is used for ornamental joinery, the leaves for thatch and basket-work, the fibre for cordage and cocoa-nut matting, and the husk for fuel and brushes.
Cocoa and chocolate come from another palm (Theobroma cacao) , which is cultivated largely in South America and the West Indies. ”

“ The woman who drinks coffee and tea in moderation may increase the supply of milk by drinking to excess; but the milk will not gain in quality, and her nerves will suffer from overstimulation. Milk, cocoa, and chocolate in moderation increase the quantity of milk and improve the quality, except in the rare cases where the mother cannot digest them. The woman who can sip gruel, plain or with cream, will find the supply of breast milk gaining in both quantity and quality; but when the gruel is disliked, when it actually nauseates the mother, it does not have a good effect on the milk. ”

“ We are still at breakfast, however, and wish to know about that pint of cocoa which is handed to each man. The general way in which the ingredients are mixed is this:—In every hundred pints of the article, as it issues from the kitchen, there ought to be three pounds two ounces of cocoa, eight pounds of molasses, or four pounds of raw sugar, and twelve and a-half pints of milk. So that the allowance to each man, in his pint of cocoa, is half-an-ounce of cocoa, half-a-gill of milk, and either one ounce and a-third of molasses, or two-thirds of an ounce of sugar—the rest being water. ”

“ Cocoa itself is the nut ground to powder, and sometimes mixed with sugar, the husk being sometimes ground with it.
In Chocolate—a preparation of cocoa—the cocoa is carefully dried and roasted, and then ground to a smooth paste, the nuts being placed on a hot iron plate, and so keeping the oily matter to aid in forming a paste. Sugar and flavorings, as vanilla, are often added, and the whole pressed into cakes. The whole substance of the nut being used, it is exceedingly nutritious, and made more so by the milk and sugar added. Eaten with bread it forms not only a nourishing but a hearty meal ”

“ Tapping the nuts with their fingers, they know by the sound those which are fit for food. They prefer the young nuts, in which the milk is as clear as spring water, and the flesh of the consistency of cream. When a cocoanut has lain on the ground a short time, a shoot emerges from one of its three eyes and enters the ground. A cord connects it with the nut, and supplies half the nourishment of the young plant till it is 60strong enough to draw all it requires from the ground. The tree and its products are put to such an infinite variety of uses that without it the natives would be badly off. ”

“ Mode.—Put the cocoa into a breakfast-cup, pour over it sufficient cold milk to make it into a smooth paste; then add equal quantities of boiling milk and boiling water, and stir all well together. Care must be taken not to allow the milk to get burnt, as it will entirely spoil the flavour of the preparation. The above directions are usually given for making the prepared cocoa. The rock cocoa, or that bought in a solid piece, should be scraped, and made in the same manner, taking care to rub down all the lumps before the boiling liquid is added. ”

“ The outside rind or husk of the fruit yields the fiber from which the well-known cocoa matting is manufactured. Cordage, clothes, brushes, brooms, and hats are made from this fiber, and, when curled and dyed, it is used for stuffing mattresses and cushions. An oil is produced by pressing the white kernel of the nut which is used for cooking when fresh, and by pressure affords stearin, which is made into candles, the liquid being used for lamps. The kernel is of great importance as an article of food, and the milk affords an agreeable beverage. ”

“ Many people who abstain from the use of tea and coffee find cocoa indispensable. Not only is it valuable for its own nutriment, but for the large amount of milk added to it. Cocoa may be well placed in the dietary of a child after his third year, while chocolate should be avoided as a beverage, but may be given as a confection. Invalids and those of weak digestion can take cocoa where chocolate would prove too rich. ”

“ Decorticated cotton cake exclusively used as an auxiliary in conjunction with large quantities of roots and hay is not an economical food for dairy cows, owing to the large percentage of flesh formers it contains, whilst practically cotton cake, though admirably adapted for rearing and fattening purposes, when given to milking cows in quantities of 4-6 lb. a day produces a leathery cream, and certainly not a superfine quality of butter. A mixture of pea and palm-nut meals will produce a rich milk, though not of the finest quality. ”

“ Native attendants soon produced clusters of cocoanuts, with the crowns of their heads knocked off, ready for consumption. We made cocoanut-milk punch—every man his own punch-bowl; with a sprinkle of lime-juice, and syrup of powdered sugar-cane—gently agitated within the milky shells—which made as delicious a beverage as ever a regent brewed: it is worth a trip to Polynesia alone to enjoy it. ”

“ Cattle not only readily get accustomed to the fodder but subsequently take to it with eagerness. The best results were obtained with Dutch, Swiss and Parmesan milch cows. After 10 days feeding the butter and milk-sugar had increased, as well as the daily average yield of milk from 44 to 49·5 kilogrammes. As soon as the feeding with cacao husk was discontinued the yield of milk decreased. Faelli concludes that cacao husk, which can be used as a fodder up to 4 kilog. daily, exercises a very favourable influence on milch cows, and he purposes to continue the investigation with horses. ”

“ At this island we found something in the shape of molasses that we had never yet seen. It is made from the milk of the cocoanut boiled down, and called by them “teka moi moi.” It resembles maple molasses, both in color and flavor, more than any thing else, and was quite a treat to our ship’s company, who purchased large quantities—five cocoanut shells filled with it for one “plug” of tobacco.
Those who have never tasted the young cocoanut may be excusable in eating, and drinking the milk of the miserable things called cocoanuts which are exposed for sale at our fruit-stands. ”

“ The two weeks' experience on board the transports had made the finding of cocoanuts an event to be noted, and the dry pulp and strongly flavored milk of this tropical fruit became extremely grateful to the palate, even if not altogether safe for the stomach. If ripe, however, the cocoanut could scarcely be more ungenial to many, than the raw, canned tomatoes upon which they had in part subsisted during the voyage. It is to be added that this report of the finding of the cocoanuts is not the report of an old soldier, but of a young and intelligent, first enlistment man. ”

“ By section 5778 a food is adulterated if a valuable ingredient has been wholly or in part abstracted from it, and the effect of this provision vision upon skimmed milk is qualified only by section 12720 which states the stringent terms upon which alone that substance can be sold. It seems entirely clear that condensed skimmed milk is forbidden outand only out. But if so the statute cannot be avoided by adding a small amount of cocoa nut oil. ”

“ Cocoa is more easily digested than chocolate, because it contains less fat. Though the amount of cocoa used in a cup of this beverage is not large, when prepared with milk it serves as a nutritious food. ”

“ Travellers certainly do sometimes tell untruths, but on the subject of the cocoa-nut I believe them to be innocent. The cocoa-nut is well known to contain the liquid you describe, just before they are in a state of ripeness. It is the same with our European nuts, with only the difference of quantity; and the circumstance is common to both, that as the nut ripens, the milk diminishes, by thickening and becoming the same substance as the nut. If you put a ripe nut a little way under the earth in a good soil, the kernel will shoot and burst the shell ”

“ By diluting with water to reduce the protein and salts, and adding sugar and a little cream, the proportions of these different substances may be made to approximate those in mother's milk. In both the sugar is the same—lactose, or milk-sugar; the fats are also much alike in each; but the albuminous matter of cow's milk differs somewhat from that of human milk, particularly in the way in which it coagulates in the presence of acids. Human milk forms into small, light, feathery curds; cow's milk into large, compact, not so easily digested masses. ”