Coconut is always edible, used in different ways at different stages. Having spent time in Brazil, I am quite familiar. very young: drink the transparent water with a straw, then scrape the soft flesh (the "cream") off the nut walls to eat everything. It is a great drink. As the coconut ages, the water disappears and the flesh becomes bigger and tougher. This is the one you have. The flesh, cut off the wall and grated, goes in all sorts of sweets, including ice cream. It is the taste usually associated with coconut. Coconut milk (for south asian stews and soups) is also obtained at this stage, basically by boiling the grated flesh with some water.

I can answer a bit about what Coconut Milk (Cream) is. The raw coconut meat is ground and compressed and the juice from it is the Coconut Milk. (The locals (Samoans, Tongans, other Polynesians, etc.) call it Coconut Cream.) The first pressing is the best, of course. (Think of the different types of Olive Oil.) Then the coconut meat is run through the pressing machine again, this time adding some water ... and that product is labeled Coconut Milk. Most all the Coconut Milk we can purchase now is from SE Asia, where tin is cheap, so the product can be produced, canned, exported and sold very reasonably. The Coconut "Cream" is not allowed to be labeled such in the US, because of the USDA definition of what constitutes "cream", so it's called milk. Many companies have two or more different products or labels, indicating the quality, the fat content, the amount of water added, etc. You probably have a favorite brand, and you might prefer a more expensive brand and that's probably because it has less water added, so the flavor is more intense. Incidentally, there's a youtube video showing a Samoan fellow gathering, cracking, and grating a coconut, then squeezing the cream out of the grated meat. (You'll notice he has a New Zealand accent, as most Samoans from Western Samoa do -- because up until the early 1960s the country was a NZ protectorate, and that's the English they were taught. American Samoans speak with an American accent.) In 1997 Western Samoa changed their name back to Samoa, kind of regaining their original status prior to 1914 when it was renamed. My father's Cannery in Apia had men and women husking and peeling the coconuts much the same as the fellow on the video. The fellows used machetes to chop the husks off (which were saved and sold as copra), they used the same machetes to hack off the brown coconut shells (which were saved and sold for charcoal), and the women peeled the dark skin off the coconuts. Buckets of the white coconut meat was carried to the machines and dumped into them, and the coconut cream was squeezed out, and the cans were filled. Then the meat was run through a second time with water, and cans were filled -- and these were labeled differently. Now you know more than you ever wanted to know about Coconut Milk/Cream. Sorry, but I rarely ever get to tell anyone about my experiences there! My father's been gone 5 years now, and he sold the company to the workers, which pleases me. The people in that country have so little -- so this is something big for them. Kathy in Washington Here is a link that might be useful: A Samoan fellow showing How to Make Coconut Cream

Thanks everyone... after posting here, I went to Wal-mart (right across the street and open 24 hrs, thank goodness) and got some Benadryl. I also checked their price on scallops (just for "fun") and realized that Publix raped me on that price... Wal-mart 3 difference sized scallops and none of the bags were over 10 dollars! Of course these were probably from China... the Publix ones were from Canada. Of course I won't ever worry about that again... I can't eat those things anymore! It's no fun to itch all over at the same time, but at least the reaction wasn't more severe. Rob333, don't feel bad. Who knew this was going to happen? The only other thing I'm allergic to is salmon, which is OK since I don't love it. Guess it's crab cakes and shrimp for me from now on! Thanks for your concern everyone. I'm OK this morning (or afternoon), and finally got to sleep. Last night when it happened, I took a hot bath with oatmeal because I didn't know what was going on. I was so confused and I thought that would help the itching. I thought I got something on my skin or something! I promise I will not start a thread asking for scallop recipes! I still have half the bag left that I've got to throw away or give to someone... I even vacuum sealed the extra so they wouldn't get freezer burn!

I happen to like Thai and Indian food, so I use a lot of coconut milk in those but if that's not you, how about using it instead of milk in a smoothie? Hubby does a mean mango-banana-coconut milk smoothie :) I've also used it to marinade chicken legs and thighs for a couple of hours before throwing them on a bbq. I sometimes replace some of the water with coconut milk when I cook rice. Beyond thst, there are a zillion recipes for desserts - cakes, cookies, pies etc, - and pancakes, too.