How does one harvest sterile coconut milk?

17 years ago

Back in 1966 I was taking a tissue culture class and discovered in the literature that coconut milk had all sorts of goodies. At the time I think we called them auxins and cytokinins.

43 years passed.

Recently I found a coconut at the grocer, they are rare here. I attempted to sterilize a jar and lid in boiling water like my grandmother did for canning fruit. I soaked the coconut in bleach for about 24 hours. I sterilized a tool with heat and poked a hole in the coconut and poured the coconut milk into the sterile jar using the best techniques I could recall from my student days.

The next day I had half an inch of fungus growing on the coconut milk in my jar.

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Comments (4)

hortster
17 years ago
Hey, I am not a canner, but I believe that the coconut MILK itself must be heated to (whatever) temperature to kill the bacteria or fungus, not only the coconut itself by being "chloroxed" or the jar by being boiled. The contamination probably occurs when the milk is at room temperature and is being poured into the sterilized jar. The milk needs to be sterilized somehow, too. Do some research on this...
ronalawn82
17 years ago
albert 135 Here is what I found on the site "Nutritional News-Nutritional value of green coconut water"
'Hermetically sealed, hypotonic, pyrogen-free and closely resembling blood plasma, its electrolyte composition having a qualitative resemblance to intracellular fluid. Coconut water has proven to be life-saving in many areas of the world where more sophisticated and conventional intravenous fluids were either too costly or not available. The fibrous outer husk of the coconut is removed and the smooth inner shell is insisted to insure its integrity. A slice is cut from the stem end, exposing three eyes. After the area is cleansed a sterile needle is inserted into one of the eyes to produce positive pressure, and a trocar (a surgical instrument used to drain off internal fluids) into a second eye from which the fluid can be drained. This can then be strained through a single layer of gauze in a funnel to screen out particular matter, into a transfusion bottle. This fluid is considered ready for use with no processing. Many reports speak of direct transfusion into the patient without the use of intervening filter of bottle.'
And for what it is worth, coconut water is the clear liquid of the coconut while coconut milk is the liquid which is expressed from the grated meat of the mature coconut. This 'milk' is used in cooking and the extraction of coconut oil.
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albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
Original Author
17 years ago
ronalawn82's note on "milk" vs "water" helped me find a number of sites on pasteurization of coconut water.

I wonder what would pasteurization do to auxins and cytokinins?

I don't know if I will ever get another coconut. They are rare in the small towns in the high deserts. I had thought of sterile needles. I might be able to get a couple at the horse feed store.
don_brown
17 years ago
Extract your coconut water and milk as cleanly as possible, then simply freeze it in small portions until you are ready to use it. freezing won't hurt the auxins and cytokinens, and you will not have to contend with spoilage.