soluble, suspended solids, which makes it a good ingredient for desserts, and rich and dry sauces. Because thin milk contains a lesser amount of these soluble solids, it is mainly used in general cooking. The distinction between coconut cream and thin coconut milk is not usually made in western nations due to the fact that fresh coconut milk is uncommon in these countries and most consumers buy coconut milk in cartons or cans. Coconut milk is also an intermediate step in the traditional wet process methods of producing virgin coconut oil by gradual heating, churning, or fermentation. These methods, however, are less efficient than coconut oil production from copra. Coconut graters Coconut graters (also called "coconut scrapers"), a necessary tool for traditionally extracting coconut milk, were part of the material culture of the Austronesian peoples. From Island Southeast Asia, it was carried along with the sea voyages of the Austronesian expansion both for colonization and trade, reaching as far as Polynesia in the east, and Madagascar and the Comoros in the west in prehistoric times. The technology also spread to non-Austronesian cultures in coastal East Africa by proximity. Manual coconut graters remain a standard kitchen equipment in households in the tropical Asia-Pacific and Eastern Africa, underscoring the importance of coconut milk and coconut oil extraction in the Indo-Pacific. The basic design of coconut graters consist of a low bench or stool with a horizontal serrated disk (made of metal in Asia and Africa, and stone or shell in Oceania) attached on one end. A person sits on the bench and repeatedly scrapes the inner surface of halved coconut shells with both hands over the metal disk. The scrapings are gathered by a container placed below. More modern mechanical coconut graters dating back to the mid-1800s consist of serrated blades with a hand crank. This version is believed to be a British invention. Processed coconut milk products Commercially processed coconut milk products use largely the same processes to extract coconut milk from pulp, though they use more mechanical equipment like deshelling machines, grinders and pulverizers, motorized coconut shredders, and coconut milk extractors. They differ significantly in the bottling or canning process, however. Processed coconut milk products are first filtered through a 100 mesh filters. They are pasteurized indirectly by double boiling at around , carefully not exceeding , the temperature at which coconut milk starts to coagulate. After pasteurization, they are