The fruit of Cocos nucifera, the most useful tree in the world. It provides not only food and drink, but also vessels to serve them in and fuel to cook them, as well as textile fibre, thatching and basket materials, timber, medicines, chemicals, and many other valuable or useful products.
The coconut tree is a palm, usually tall, which flourishes on seashores in the moister parts of the tropics. It tolerates salty conditions and actually prefers light, sandy soil, since it needs a supply of air to its roots. This is provided by the ebb and flow of the tide lowering and raising the water table under it, so drawing air into the ground round the roots and then expelling it again. The roots are shallow, though widely spread; so the effect of strong winds is to give the palms their characteristic list. The huge leaves are often 6 m (20′) long, with a massive midrib and drooping leaflets.
The ‘nut’ is technically a drupe, i.e. a fruit with a hard stone. A whole coconut, as usually sold, is only the stone of the fruit, the husk having been removed before shipping, to lessen the weight and to be used for other purposes.
The outside husk or exocarp is smooth and very tough, green to reddish brown becoming grey as the fruit matures. In a few varieties it is ivory-coloured. Between this outer husk and the nut is a thick, loose layer of coarse brown fibres, the mesocarp. The shell of the nut itself, which constitutes the endocarp, is hard, woody and brown, with three ‘eyes’ in one end. It is through one of these eyes that the shoot emerges when the seed germinates.
Inside the shell is a thin brown coat, the testa, which adheres firmly to the kernel, which is hollow and contains liquid. In the young nut the kernel is soft and the liquid copious, but unpleasant and purgative. As the fruit ripens, the kernel gradually hardens to a creamy gelatinous texture and the liquid becomes a sweet and refreshing drink. This liquid can conveniently be called ‘coconut juice’ or ‘coconut water’. (What is usually called ‘coconut milk’ is different—see under coconut products, below.) In the mature fruit the amount of liquid is less, but still pleasant to drink; while the kernel is quite solid and slightly fibrous. The kernel, when removed and dried, becomes the product known as copra in commerce.
When they are mature, the fruits of many kinds of coconut palm fall off the tree, and it is better not to be standing underneath when this happens. The fruits of others do not fall and have to be gathered. It is possible to train monkeys to do this.
Botanists disagree about whether the species originated in the region of the E. Indies and Melanesia, as most think, or in tropical America, as a minority have vigorously argued.
The minority view is supported by the fact that almost all the coconut palm's relations are American, the one important exception being the oil palm, which is African. Yet the coconut has, at most, an exiguous history in C. America in pre-Columbian times; the evidence that the earliest Spanish invaders found it growing on the west coast of the Isthmus of Panama is uncertain; and if it was growing there it is odd that its cultivation was not widespread, since it is so useful. In contrast, the coconut has been been known in E. Asia and the islands for a very long time indeed; it exists in greatest variety in that region; and there is other evidence (including the number of species of insects associated with it in the various regions) that it did originate there, probably in Melanesia.
There is also an interesting diversity of views about the origin of the name ‘coconut’. Child (1974) gives a good account of these and comes down in favour of the etymology which commands most acceptance, that ‘coco’ was first used towards the end of the 15th century by Portuguese seamen, who applied to the nut, with its three ‘eyes’, the Spanish word coco, referring to a monkey's or other grotesque face.
When Linnaeus gave a scientific name to the tree in the 18th century, he toyed with Coccus (coccus, berry in Latin) but settled on Cocos.
It was also in the 18th century that the notorious confusion between coconut and cocoanut began. The blame for this seems to rest with Dr Johnson, who confused the two in a single entry in his dictionary (1755); and one still occasionally comes across ‘cocoanut’ when ‘coconut’ is meant. The term ‘coker-nut’, an old variant of coconut, was at one time in commercial use in the Port of London, to avoid the confusion, and remains in popular use.
The coconut is mentioned in Indian documents bc (see Achaya, 1994), but remained unknown in the western world for a long time.
No part of Asia west of India is suitable for it, and climate also barred it from China, although it was known in the south, and was taken north as an exotic delicacy.
Marco Polo encountered coconuts in Java and Nicobar in the 13th century; and Vasco da Gama found the palms growing on an island off Mozambique in 1497/8. It seems likely that Arab traders had been responsible, much earlier, for introducing it to E. Africa.
As for the New World—whether or not the coconut had already existed on the west coast of Panama—what really mattered were the introductions of it by the Spanish (to Puerto Rico in the first instance) and by the Portuguese (to Brazil, in the 16th century). Cultivation soon spread to all suitable regions; and began in Florida much later, towards the end of the 19th century.
The main growing and exporting countries are now the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea. Substantial crops are also grown in W. and E. Africa; around the Caribbean; and in Brazil.
There are countless kinds of coconut palm which can be distinguished by visible characteristics, including size, colour, shape, etc. of nut, but all belonging to the single species Cocos nucifera. In the past, botanists attempted to classify these kinds, giving them varietal names such as Cocos nucifera var typica. (These attempts corresponded, by and large, to the distinctions made by growers and consumers; but they, naturally, used vernacular names in their own languages for the various kinds which, to their mind, were significantly different. The Malay and Indonesian languages are particularly rich in vernacular names.)
If, however, it is accepted that there are no truly wild coconut palms in existence, and that all the different kinds are, ultimately, based on cultivated palms, it is not appropriate to speak of ‘varieties’; the term used should be ‘cultivars’. This principle holds good even for the particular kinds which have evolved on isolated islands or atolls.
One thing which can safely be said is that coconuts differ considerably in what they offer to the consumer. Some are rich in oil; some are outstandingly good to eat; some bear small, indeed dwarf, fruits; and so on. The best-known groups or kinds may be listed thus.
The so-called coco de mer, or ‘double coconut’, is not a true coconut, and is described separately.
Except where a harvest of ripe nuts (as opposed to ‘green’ or not fully ripe ones) was required, and these were of kinds which drop off the tree when ready, harvesting was a dangerous business. A man would have to climb the straight, unbranched, tall palm, using a rope or leather loop as a safety device while ascending and to steady himself while gathering at the top of the palm. Accidents were frequent. The employment of trained monkeys to do the job, referred to earlier, was only possible in a few places and on a small scale.
In modern commercial plantations, especially those using new dwarf cultivars, the nuts may be harvested from the ground, using hooked knives mounted on long bamboo poles.
The husk is removed by striking the end of the fruit against a spike. The husk, which contains useful fibre, known as coir, is not discarded but is set aside to produce, for example, coconut matting.
The nut is removed and may be used in various ways. ‘Green’ coconuts, which are harvested for their refreshing juice, have their tops sliced off with a machete, the remainder being used as a cup from which to drink the juice. Mature coconuts, harvested for their copra, also yield some juice. If two of the three ‘eyes’ are pierced with a spike, it can be poured off into a glass and drunk. The nut is then struck hard against, for example, a concrete floor, so that one of the three ridges at the ‘eye’ end takes the force of the blow; whereupon it should split open.
Copra is the name for dried coconut meat. The water content of copra should be 5% or less, compared with close to 50% before drying. The oil content is high, around 70%, and coconut oil (see below) is produced from copra.
Coconut milk or cream is a thick sweet liquid produced by pouring boiling water over grated coconut, leaving it to cool, and squeezing the liquid from the pulp through a straining cloth. Twice as much water by volume as there is grated coconut produces ‘milk’ of normal thickness; half that amount of water will yield the thicker ‘cream’. The same pulp can be used several times to produce a decreasingly rich milk.
Coconut milk is a standard ingredient in the cookery of the southern part of the Indian subcontinent and SE Asia. It is an emulsion, as is cow's milk, but contains less protein and more fat. If it is made to separate, the fat rises to the top and can be removed as coconut oil, which is obtained for domestic use in this way.
Coconut milk can be made from desiccated coconut.
Coconut ‘cream’, in the sense of rich and thick coconut milk, is not the same as the commercial product called ‘coconut cream’, which is a solid white preparation furnished with instructions on how to reconstitute it with hot water.
Desiccated coconut is made from the white part of the kernel only, after the brown skin has been removed. It is sterilized, frayed out with water into a wet pulp, dried and sieved into grades (of which the finest is called ‘macaroon’).
Coconut oil can be made from fresh coconuts, a procedure still used locally in coconut-growing areas, but is normally extracted from copra (see above) by pressing.
The oil has a high proportion of saturated fatty acids, and is therefore resistant to rancidity. It is liquid in the temperatures which prevail in its countries of origin, but solidifies at temperatures below 85 °F/30 °C. Almost tasteless after processing, it is extensively used in making margarine, confectionery, and bakery goods, and for frying. It is especially important in the south of India as a cooking oil.
Among the sweet products of the coconut is coconut syrup, which is made by heating coconut milk and invert sugar together. The result is similar to ‘golden syrup’, which is pure invert sugar. Coconut honey is a darker product made in the same way but with a little of the brown rind included and longer cooking. Cocolait is a commercially made coconut milk with its composition adjusted to resemble that of cow's milk.
Toddy, an alcoholic liquor, is made by tapping the tree, which is done by cutting off the tip of a flower stem. The sap released ferments quickly and spontaneously. The resulting toddy can be drunk raw; or distilled to make arak; or used as a source of yeast for bread; or allowed to turn into vinegar. Alternatively, unfermented sap can be boiled down to make jaggery or gur, types of palm sugar. However, tapping damages the tree, so it is preferable to use other, less useful, palms for these various purposes.
See palm for palm heart, an extravagant product, procured only at the expense of killing the palm.
Finally, there is also one rare and valuable product: the coconut ‘pearl’ which occasionally forms inside a nut, in a manner which is not fully understood but which may be the result of germination being arrested by a defective eye. In structure, composition (calcium carbonate) and appearance it is remarkably like a pearl from an oyster, although often larger, up to the size of a cherry. It has a white or bluish lustre, and various kinds of medical and magical powers are traditionally attributed to it.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Achaya, K. T. (1994), Indian Food: A Historical Companion, Delhi: OUP.
Child, Reginald (1974), Coconuts, London: Longman.
