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Coconut Milk


alanamoana

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i have two cans of coconut milk in front of me:

chaudoc brand

ingredients: coconut milk, potassium metabisuphide (preservative)

chaokoh brand

ingredients: coconut extract, water, citric acid (antioxidant) and sodium metabisulfite (preservative)

does anyone know what the difference is? they're about the same price...could this just be a poor translation? i don't want to pay for water in a can...

maybe i'll post this in the asian forum as well.

Edited by alanamoana (log)
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Coconut milk vs. coconut extract is just different terminology. Coconut milk has to be extracted chopping up the coconut meat and squeezing out the liquid. My can of Chaokoh coconut milk lists the same ingredients as yours.

Chaokoh is a good brand (because the name contains "A-OK"). Also, because it has a high content of delicious coconut fat. Most of the time the contents are solid rather than liquid (a good thing for coconut milk).

Happy cooking -- Bruce

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thanks everyone! i'm going to assume that they are interchangeable in most recipes (aside from the difference in fat content)...as i have never noticed the difference before...

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Coconut milk is made by extracting fats and liquid from the flesh of mature coconuts. So I reckon the terms are interchangeable?

Incidentally, I recently started using coconut milk in plastic pouches as opposed to the stuff in cans. The bags are available refrigerated in Thai supermarkets, so I'm not sure if they're sold in the US or elsewhere, but I've noticed that the taste is much, much better than the canned stuff. It also seems to contain more of the thick coconut milk--so much that I use it straight from the bag in cases where thick coconut milk is needed, and diluted with 50% water for thin coconut milk. Works great, and again, the taste is much "fresher" and somehow more rich.

Austin

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Chaokoh is great - lots of thick coconut cream floating on top of the water, which is necessary for making curries (you first fry the curry paste in the cream, then add the water.)

Chaodoc, in my experience, is a terrible product. The cans I've tried have been greasy/oily, and homogenized, making it impossible to separate the coconut cream. It also lacks the strong, rich coconut cream of Chaokoh and other good brands.

I've found that Mae Ploy (larger 19 oz cans) is the creamiest of all, so I tend to use it for desserts and other dishes where I want a very rich, creamy coconut sauce.

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Here's a tip when making a Thai curry. Stir fry you curry paste (red or green or massaman or other) in a little oil over medium heat. Add you chopped up chicken breasts and stir fry to coat for a few minutes. Then sprinkle one pack of coconut powder to coat the chicken. The chicken is giving off moisture and this re-constitutes the coconut powder, resulting in a richer gravy. Add enough water to make a medium gravy.

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when you open them, do they look the same?

ie. milky??

i mean, the pure stuff is just the following:

- mature coconut flesh

- ground/shredded into pulp

- coconut 'milk' is extracted via squeezing through cheesecloth or similar...

"Coffee and cigarettes... the breakfast of champions!"

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