Substitute for Coconut Extract?

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Kenny Wong

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Jul 3, 2014
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Malacca
Yesterday I came across a recipe with 1/8 teaspoon of coconut extract.
But I have unexplained repugnance for anything unnatural.
What can I substitute for coconut extract? Coconut Juice? And the amount?
 
Distilled water, organic alcohol, organic agave syrup, and organic coconut milk.

Which ingredient bothers you?
 
No amount of anything coconut will give the coconut punch that an 1/8 of a teaspoon will give. They are extracts for a reason, as in, to impart the general flavor, without all the moisture that would effect the end result if you DID use coconut milk/nectar/juice.

As Andy noted, there is nothing unnatural, if it is a pure extract, it is just the result of distillation/extraction, think of it as a potent shot. Some flavors are alcohol soluble, that's why there is booze involved, but even that is not unnatural.
 
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I take this from the net. Any suggestion for substituting the coconut extract with anything in any amount without changing much the taste? Or just anything that makes this tembleque taste nice.

Tembleque (Coconut Custard)

Ingredients
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 (13.5-ounce) cans light coconut milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon coconut extract
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preparation
1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in extracts. Strain through a sieve into a shallow 2-quart dish; cover surface of custard with plastic wrap. Chill overnight. Sprinkle with cinnamon before serving.
 
You could use a real almond extract instead, that compliments coconut well. You could also just leave it out and it would have a milder coconut flavor.

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Yesterday I came across a recipe with 1/8 teaspoon of coconut extract.
But I have unexplained repugnance for anything unnatural.
What can I substitute for coconut extract? Coconut Juice? And the amount?
Usually, and I stress "usually" to be on the safe side, "extract" as in vanilla, almond, etc means it's a natural, not a synthetic, flavouring made with the thing it'd supposed to taste of. It's often labelled "Natural Extract" of whatever, "Essence" is what you need to avoid as, for example, "vanilla essence" has never been anywhere near a vanilla pod and the "flavour" is synthetically made from chemicals.

If you are having trouble finding coconut extract they do it on Amazon.
 
Well, I was going to say substitute coconut milk for any liquid in your recipe but, since coconut milk is the ONLY liquid, my suggestion would be to maybe use a very fine sieve to try to separate as many solids out of the coconut milk as possible, then cook the juice down. Obviously, you'd have to have at least another can of coconut milk and just use the solids from the 3 cans in your final recipe.

Although, I really don't understand why you don't want to use the extract. As long as you buy "real" extract and not something artificially flavored then you are still getting the real deal as noted above.
 
I like jennyema, wonder why not the extract? But if the flavor is important and the extract is repugnant, I would figure out a way to substitute coconut milk for some of the other liquid. 1/8 teaspoon will have little impact on the liquid in the recipe but apparently will impact the flavor.
 
Indeed. Good coconut extract (or even cheap extract) is not going to hurt you. It's all just whatever you're extracting and alcohol.


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