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Woot! Update on opening a young coconut and another ?
Posted by:
banana who
()
Date: December 23, 2009 11:10PM Hi, all!
I want to thank everyone who answered my thread about opening YCs! Although I did not go out and buy a butcher knife or machete, I took my paring knife and started shaving around the top. Then I began using a Phillips screwdriver and after some good jabs, I broke through!!! So now I know it's possible for me to open one of these things without getting a sharp knife 
My question is about formedehyde and other chemical preservatives used on some YCs. Somewhere I read that ones from Thailand are treated this way. However, this YC was purchased at a Thai store and it looked off-white. Isn't the tipoff that the coconut has been dipped in chemicals when the husk is white as snow? Was my drab-looking husk perhaps chemical-free? Re: Woot! Update on opening a young coconut and another ?
Posted by:
Tamukha
()
Date: December 23, 2009 11:43PM The tip-off is that unmistakable high school science lab chemical smell coming off the husk. Every one I have bought in grocery stores of whatever account has definitely smelled of it. Re: Woot! Update on opening a young coconut and another ?
Posted by:
loeve
()
Date: December 27, 2009 01:09PM banana who,
I would trust your senses, like Tamukha. Conventional coconut sellers probably have their choice of a number of treatments to ward off spoilage. Coconuts have thick impervious shells and have not been shown to absorb dip preservatives, to my knowledge. They still have to get them through customs and I doubt they permit formaldehyde dips now if they ever did. Matt Amsden had his source of conventional Thai coconuts lab tested and it came up negative-- [www.basilandspice.com] Your source sounds like a good one. Did you get it open without draining the water first? Re: Woot! Update on opening a young coconut and another ?
Posted by:
Tamukha
()
Date: December 27, 2009 06:28PM I stopped buying chemical smelling coconuts when I realized there was no way to wash whatever it was from the husks and that in cutting through the husk and into the inner nut, I was delivering a portion, however small, of the whatever it was into the sloshing fluid of the coconut. This is one way things get cross comtaminated in commercial food preparation and I figured if whatever it was smells so antiseptic, I probably don't want to consume any.
Matt Amsden is lucky to live out in Santa Monica, where he has special sources for tropical foodstuffs. In the interior of the country, preservation may require dire means. The only way to be absolutely sure any coconuts that smell chemical aren't bad is to call the local college science department and ask them if they ever do food testing for the public for a fee. Re: Woot! Update on opening a young coconut and another ?
Posted by:
banana who
()
Date: December 29, 2009 09:52PM Loeve:
I had a hole from my screwdriver jabs and drained the YC and then was able to take the paring knife and get the rest open! Yay!!!! Now the only thing is to buy more and more and more! I had bought it in the city in a Thai store and my local Mexican tienda had moldy ones when I checked the other day...  Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2009 09:53PM by banana who. Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
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