Coconut Milk, Coconut Cream or Creamed Coconut: What's the Difference?

A recipe asks for coconut milk. The cupboard holds a tin of coconut cream, a hard white block and a carton from the chiller. Will any of them do?

Some will, with a little adjustment. One definitely won't. They're all made from the same nut, but they're made in different ways, and the difference is mostly about how much fat and how much water you're getting.

Where they all start

Every one of these products begins with the white flesh of a mature coconut. It isn't the clear liquid you hear sloshing about inside the nut. That's coconut water, a different thing entirely.

To make coconut milk, the flesh is grated and pressed, usually with some water, and the rich white liquid that runs out is collected. Change how much water goes in, or what happens to the flesh afterwards, and you get each of the products below.

Coconut milk

This is the everyday one. Coconut milk is the pressed liquid from the grated flesh, loosened with water to a pourable consistency.

Our RAWGORILLA Organic Coconut Milk contains 11 to 12% fat and just two ingredients: organic coconut extract and water. That's rich enough to make a proper curry and light enough to go into porridge or a smoothie without taking over.

Use it for: Thai and Indian curries, laksa, dhal, soups, rice pudding, overnight oats and smoothies.

Coconut cream

Coconut cream is made the same way but with much less water, so it's thicker, richer and more intensely flavoured. Think of it as the double cream to coconut milk's single.

RAWGORILLA Organic Coconut Cream is 24% fat, roughly twice as rich as the milk. It contains small amounts of guar gum and xanthan gum, two plant-based thickeners that help keep it smooth rather than grainy.

Use it for: richer curries and satay sauces, desserts, dairy-free ice cream, panna cotta, and as a dollop over fruit. It also works in cocktails such as a piña colada.

A note on whipping. Coconut cream will whip once the solid fat has been chilled. For the most reliable result, use a cream made specifically for it, such as Biona Organic Coconut Whipping Cream, at 30% fat. Chill the tin overnight, open it without shaking, scoop the thick part into a cold bowl and whisk.

Creamed coconut

This is the one that trips people up. Creamed coconut isn't a liquid at all. It's the whole coconut flesh, dried and ground into a dense paste, then set into a hard block. Nothing is pressed out and thrown away, so the fibre stays in.

That makes it the most concentrated of the lot. Biona Organic Creamed Coconut is around 68% fat, with 16 g of fibre per 100 g, and its only ingredient is organic coconut.

How to use it. Grate or chop what you need straight into a simmering curry or soup, and it melts into the sauce as it cooks. To make a quick coconut milk from the block, dissolve 50 g in 100 ml of warm water and stir until smooth.

Use it for: curries and stews where you want coconut flavour without adding more liquid, and for baking, fudge and coconut ice.

Because it keeps well in the cupboard, a block is handy to have in reserve for the evening you discover you've run out of tins.

Coconut milk in a carton

The coconut milk sold in cartons, often in the chiller or next to oat and almond milk, is a drink rather than an ingredient. It's much thinner than tinned coconut milk and is made to be poured over cereal or into tea and coffee. Many brands add calcium and vitamins, as Koko does.

It won't give you a rich curry. Keep it for the breakfast table.

Cream of coconut and condensed coconut milk

Two more to know about, because they're sweetened and a mix-up can ruin a savoury dish.

Cream of coconut is a sweetened coconut cream made mainly for cocktails. It's a different product from coconut cream, despite the near-identical name.

Sweetened condensed coconut milk is the dairy-free equivalent of a tin of condensed milk: coconut cooked down with sugar until thick. Biona's version is made from organic coconut and organic cane sugar. It's brilliant in banoffee pie, fudge and iced coffee, and a disaster in a Thai green curry.

If a tin says "sweetened" or "condensed", it belongs in pudding.

Coconut milk vs coconut cream vs creamed coconut at a glance

• Coconut milk: pourable, around 11 to 12% fat. The everyday choice for curries and soups.
• Coconut cream: thick, around 24% fat. For richness, desserts and satay.
• Coconut whipping cream: thick, around 30% fat. For whipping and topping cakes.
• Creamed coconut: a solid block, around 68% fat, with the fibre left in. Grate it into sauces or dissolve it into a quick milk.
• Carton coconut milk: thin and drinkable. For cereal and hot drinks, not cooking.
• Cream of coconut and condensed coconut milk: sweetened. For cocktails and desserts only.

Can you swap one for another?

Mostly, yes. Here's how.

Coconut cream instead of coconut milk. Mix the cream with roughly the same volume of water. Since the cream is about twice as rich, halving it with water brings it close to milk.

Coconut milk instead of coconut cream. Harder, because you can't take water out easily. Use the milk and simmer the sauce for longer to reduce it, or stir in a little grated creamed coconut to make up the richness.

Creamed coconut instead of coconut milk. Keep to the ratio of 50 g of block to 100 ml of warm water and scale it up to the amount the recipe needs. The result is a little thicker and more textured than tinned milk, because the fibre is still in it.

Carton milk instead of tinned. Only in a pinch, and expect a thin, pale sauce.

Why is my coconut milk solid in the tin?

Nothing has gone wrong. Coconut fat is solid below about 25°C, which means a tin kept in a cool British cupboard will often have a thick white layer on top and thin liquid underneath when you open it. It's a sign of real coconut, and there's no harm in it.

Either shake the tin well before opening, or tip everything into the pan and stir as it warms. It will come back together within a minute or two.

Coconut milk with no added thickeners, like ours, separates more readily than one with stabilisers, for the same reason.

Cooking tips that make a difference

Simmer, don't boil hard. A rolling boil can make coconut milk look split or curdled, with oil pooling on the surface. It's perfectly safe to eat, but a gentle simmer keeps a sauce smooth and glossy.

Add it towards the end if you want it fresh. Coconut milk added in the last ten minutes keeps a brighter, sweeter coconut flavour than one that has cooked for an hour.

Try the Thai trick. In many Thai curries, the thick cream from the top of the tin is heated first until its oil begins to separate, and the curry paste is fried in it before the rest of the liquid goes in. It gives a deeper, more aromatic sauce.

Store opened tins in the fridge. Decant what's left into a clean container, keep it chilled and use it within about three days. Leftovers freeze well in an ice cube tray, ready to drop into a sauce or smoothie.

Where to start

If you only keep one thing in the cupboard, make it a tin of coconut milk. Add a tin of coconut cream for puddings and richer sauces, and a block of creamed coconut as your backup.

For a ready-spiced shortcut, the Wild Elephant Organic Green Curry Coconut Milk has the paste already stirred in.

And for the rest of the coconut, including why virgin coconut oil behaves the way it does, see our guide to raw organic virgin coconut oil.