Coconut is a delicious fruit protected by a hard, difficult to crack shell that can stop us from enjoying the good parts; the coconut pulp and coconut milk. It can be difficult to crack open a shell, especially without smashing the coconut up completely or losing the valuable contents. However with a little skill and patience you will be able to easily crack open a coconut shell with or without certain tools. In this OneHowTo article we explain some of the most effective ways to easily crack open a coconut.
The first thing you will need to get in order to open a coconut and use the contents to eat or prepare coconut oil are the right tools to open it. The best combination is a screwdriver or sharp object (large nail), a hammer, a knife and a bowl to hold the juice in. As we already know, we are dealing with the brown shell of the coconut, which are really tough on the outside.
When looking at the coconut shell closely, we will see that on the bottom it has 3 dimples. We can nail the tip of the nail into the largest of these dimples with a light hammer, or use a brace and bit to pierce the shell. Then pour the juice from inside the coconut juice into a container to drink as it is a source of beneficial substances for our body.
Once you've collected all the juice, you can open the coconut. There are various techniques to do this. One way is to hold the coconut by placing a hand on each end, find a kerb or step and give it a rap in the middle so that it breaks into two roughly equal halves. If we don't trust our aim, before hitting the coconut we can cover it with a cloth.
Another common method is to give a few taps with the blunt edge of a large knife, although you will need to do this technique while holding the coconut over some kind of container as you will lose the coconut milk otherwise.
To do this technique, hold the coconut in one hand and strike the blunt side of the kinfe blade across the thickest part of the coconut rotating it slowly. After several hits the coconut should start to crack, and eventually split into two parts. With a little practice you will easily be able to open a coconut down the middle in this way.
Another good technique is, after you have made a hole and drained the juice, place the coconut standing upright on the ground. Find the seam in the shell between its two halves. Stick the knife in the seam and give the top of the knife a gentle blowwith the hammer. The coconut will almost open in half, and now we can put the knife in this slit and cut it easily. You need to be careful and quite skilled to do it this way.
As well as being a delicious ingredient, coconuts are rich in many important vitamins and minerals, and you can also use the extracts for a wide variety of cosmetic purposes - so don't let the hard shell put you off!
If you want to read similar articles to Proper Ways to Open a Coconut Easily, we recommend you visit our Food & drink category.
- If you use a knife to open it, be extremely careful not to hurt yourself.