How to open a coconut. How to properly open a coconut

What thoughts do you have when you look at this photo? Probably, such: “Where is the anvil with a sledgehammer? After all, without them it is simply unrealistic to split a coconut!

Don't worry, friends, to open a coconut, you don't need to drill, saw or hit it with a huge hammer - just use two knives: large and small. Nothing else is required! Don't believe? Then we will demonstrate it to you with a real example.

Make a hole in the coconut and drain the liquid

So, first we need to make a hole in the coconut and drain the liquid that is inside it. Find three “eyes” on the nose of the nut - in these places the fruit was attached to the palm tree and received nutrients through them. One of the eyes will be softer than the rest, usually closer to the base of the coconut.

Many sites recommend making holes with huge slate nails or powerful drills. Most likely, these guys opened some "wrong" coconuts. As an option - the ancient fossilized remains of coconuts of the primitive era. In fresh fruits, holes are made easily and naturally with a small knife.

	Look closely at the photo. Do you see a centimeter-thick white wall inside the hole? This is the flesh of the coconut. Here, mainly in it, we “drilled” a hole with a knife. In the pulp, which itself is soft! Why drill it with a powerful screwdriver or pierce it with slate nails? Perhaps this will remain a mystery to sane people.
	Carefully pour the liquid into a container (we took a regular glass). By the way, coconut water has a nice sweet taste that you can enjoy right away.

So, the liquid was drained, now you can safely prick the coconut. Do you want to know how it's done? No problem - now we will tell and show everything!

How to split a coconut and cut it at home

There are many ways to split a coconut on the Internet. Some suggest wrapping the nut in a bag and hitting it with a hammer, others suggest throwing a heavy stone at it, others suggest cutting it with a hacksaw, and still others suggest running it over with a caterpillar tractor (just kidding). In general, there are a lot of hot heads on the Web, friends. We will not go to extremes - we will simply take a large knife in our hands to carefully split the coconut, and then cut it into two halves.

	First, you need to mark the place of the split. Usually, a coconut is split in the middle or a couple of centimeters away from the middle towards the “eyes”. We decided to stick in the middle. To do this, we take a knife and apply precise accented blows to the indicated place. This should be done with the blunt side of the blade - it will be safer.
	After a few hits, our coconut cracked. True, for some reason, the crack appeared not in the place where the blows were made, but a little higher (just a couple of centimeters closer to the "eyes"). At this stage, we complete the procedure for splitting the coconut, and proceed to cut it.
	We insert a knife blade into the crack, and applying force, cut the coconut into two parts.
	Friends, you can congratulate us - we split and cut the coconut!

Now it remains to get the pulp and enjoy its impeccable taste. Let's get started!

Separating the coconut pulp from the shell

We will separate the pulp with the same large knife.

	We insert the knife deeper between the pulp and the shell, and then remove the pulp from the nut. You can pre-make small cuts on the pulp so that it separates into even slices.
	We did not make any cuts, but as you can see, the first piece turned out to be quite even.
	But the second is not as successful as the first.
	With deft movements, we extract the last piece. By the way, pay attention to the brown peel, which covers the flesh from the side of the shell (it is clearly visible in the photo). This peel must be removed with a knife or vegetable peeler.
	We have an empty coconut shell in our hands! From it you can make some decorations or a cup for a bra. If you are too lazy to do it, then you can give it to someone or just throw it away.

It used to be that coconuts were a kind of exotic that still had to be hunted. Today, coconuts can be smoked in almost any supermarket at very affordable prices. Despite the wide distribution of coconuts in the markets of our country, not everyone knows that not the coconuts themselves are brought to us, but only their cores. That shaggy brown something that we all used to think of as a coconut is actually just a part of it. The fruit itself is not brought to us, since it has the appearance of a rather dense pulp that will not withstand long-term transportation. Coconut cores are transportable and do not require special storage conditions.

Interestingly, coconuts are named so by the Portuguese because of the resemblance of a nut to a monkey muzzle. Coco means "monkey" in Portuguese. Inside the coconut is a rather dense white pulp with a characteristic smell and taste, called copra, and coconut water or juice, which has a salty-sweet aftertaste.

Benefits of coconut

Coconuts are very healthy because they contain a lot of B vitamins, vitamins C, E, macronutrients (potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, chlorine) and micronutrients (iron, iodine, manganese, copper, selenium, zinc, fluorine) . Coconut juice (or coconut milk in other words) can quench your thirst more effectively than plain water, as it replenishes the mineral salts lost with sweating. Coconut meat is rich in copper, so if you are prone to early graying, eat coconut meat regularly (100g equates to 50% of your daily intake of copper). Coconut milk can also help with sore throats by reducing pain in the throat. Coconut juice is effective in the treatment of kidney diseases due to the high amount of potassium required for their normal functioning.

As you can see, coconut is a healthy fruit. However, to maximize the benefits of coconut, you need to know how to choose a coconut. Here are our recommendations, following which you will easily find the best fruit:

1. Never be guided by the size of the nut. The most important thing is that the coconut is not large, but ripe. In order to determine whether a coconut is ripe, you need to bring it to your ear and shake it. If you clearly hear the splash of liquid inside - you can take it!
2. Smell the fruit. It should have a subtle characteristic aroma, then the coconut is fresh. Sometimes, during long-term storage, coconuts can deteriorate, then they acquire the smell of sour milk.
3. Last but not least, do not forget that coconuts are quite high in calories (100 g - 335 kcal), so if you are on a diet or prone to rapid weight gain, limit your consumption of coconuts to reasonable limits.

How to open a coconut

You have chosen and bought a ripe fruit. Now the question arises before you, how to open a coconut? It seems to be very difficult to do so. After all, the walnut is quite dense. Yes, and I want to know how to open a coconut so that the juice does not leak out? We will try to answer all your questions.

In fact, opening a coconut at home is very simple, you just need to stock up on the necessary knowledge, the necessary tools and patience. Read our recommendations - and everything will definitely work out for you!

First of all, it is necessary to carry out preparatory work. The coconut itself must be washed under running water and dried with a towel. Then prepare a cup for coconut milk, a waste container, a small mallet and something sharp such as a knife, scissors with narrow blades, a Phillips screwdriver, or, for example, knitting needles.

Before you split the coconut completely, you must first find three dark spots on the surface of the coconut - this is the thinnest part of the coconut shell. Found? Great! Now take a sharp object and dig holes in them. We insert a tube into one of the holes and you can enjoy coconut milk.

How to break a coconut

Now that the milk break is over, let's think about how to break the coconut and scoop out the coconut pulp. Of course, you can just hit the coconut with all your might on something hard, this is effective, but the output will be dirty lumps of pulp and a bunch of garbage, which then have to be removed. We offer you a more rational way to break a coconut at home. There is a weak point in the coconut, it is about one third of the distance from the dark spots to the other end at the junction of the two surfaces of the coconut. This is exactly where you need to hit! We take a hammer, aim and begin to slowly tap this place until a crack appears in the shell. Now carefully turn the coconut, continuing to tap, do this until the nut is surrounded by this crack. We drive a nail or, say, a screwdriver into any point of the resulting crack, and carefully divide the nut into two halves along the line of the broken crack. That's all! Do whatever you want with the resulting pulp - you can grate the coconut or cut the coconut into pieces to add to salads.

Despite the fact that coconut is a fairly popular attribute of the festive table, not everyone manages to open it the first time. If you do not know which side to approach a nut bought in a store, the following instructions will help you.

Based on the arsenal of tools that you have at home, you will be able to choose the most suitable option for opening a coconut.

smash with a hammer

If there are knitting needles in the house, before opening the coconut, it is necessary to pierce the “eyes” of the nut with them to the very core. For lack of knitting needles, you can use an awl or a fruit peeler with a thin end. Then drain the “milk” through the resulting holes.

As soon as the coconut is completely empty, it must be placed on a wooden surface (preferably on a stool or chair), take a hammer and hit with a sharp end, aiming at the very middle of the fruit. It is better to beat with moderate effort, holding the coconut with the other hand.

If it didn’t work out the first time to break the coconut, then the next blow should be applied a little harder. When the nut shell cracks from a blow with a hammer, you need to take a medium-sized sharp knife and carefully “cut” the nut with it.

If the coconut is not intended to be used to decorate the table in the future, then the knife can not be used. It is enough to break it with a hammer into small pieces and then separate the pulp from the shell.

You will learn another way to easily open a coconut by watching the video.

Clean with a kitchen knife

At home, you can open a coconut with an ordinary knife with a heavy handle. To do this, you need to make deep notches along the “equator line” of the coconut with the tip of a knife, and then try to cut the shell along the already prepared marks with it.

If everything was done correctly, and the coconut still does not open, it should be carefully tossed so that the impact on a hard surface falls on the cut. At the moment of impact, the nut should split into 2 parts.

After the coconut is opened, it is necessary to clean it from the shell fibers, and even better - rinse well with water. The thing is that bugs are often planted in coconut fibers, which, when cutting coconut, can get on the edible pulp.

With a screwdriver

Men who have a screwdriver at home can easily open a coconut without damaging the pulp of the fruit.

To do this, it is necessary to drill holes in it at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other according to the following scheme:

• clearly along the "equator" line (if you want to end up with two equivalent halves of a coconut with smooth edges);
• along the "equator" in a checkerboard pattern (if, in accordance with the idea, the edges of the coconut should be sharp).

Once the necessary holes have been drilled, the next step is to crack open the coconut shell. Then you can finally open the coconut with a regular knife according to the previously proposed scheme.

How to make a cocktail glass out of a coconut?

If you plan to use the coconut in the future as a cocktail glass, then when you open it, you will need to cut off only the very top. Coconut milk must first be removed from the nut. This can be done easily through the special "eyes" in the coconut, breaking through them with any sharp object.

After the milk has been drained, visually determine where the cut line will pass, and carefully cut the shell along it with a knife (or make several holes with a nail and hammer). The last action will be a strong blow to the "intended" area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe nut with the butt of a hammer. After that, the top will have to separate from the base of the coconut.

Before pouring a cocktail into the resulting container, you should clean the coconut from the fibers under running water. Before serving, a tube is placed in the finished cocktail and decorated with an umbrella or a toothpick with fruit slices - an exotic drink is ready!

How to make a cocktail in a whole coconut?

If coconut milk is planned to be used as one of the components of a cocktail, then the coconut can not be broken or cut off the top, but the necessary liquids can be mixed inside it using a cooking syringe.

To do this, it is necessary to make a hole in one of the "eyes" of the coconut with a sharp object so that the tube eventually fits into it.
This method of preparing a cocktail allows you to protect the internal contents of the nut as much as possible from the ingress of shell fibers.

For the inhabitants of our latitudes, coconuts are exotic and interesting fruits. Few people, having watched a beautiful advertisement or a movie about life on the island, did not think about what a coconut tastes like.

Some, satisfying curiosity, buy "bounty". But if the famous bar is sold at every step, then where and how to get coconut milk is a natural product.

In fact, it is also sold, however, only in large stores. But the fact is that an ordinary tetrapack and an ordinary candy kill all the charm of the moment. Therefore, the day comes when a person decides to buy the treasured fruit. Joyfully brings it home and ... realizes that he has no idea how to open a coconut.

All available materials are used. An unfortunate nut (a dry drupe, to be more precise) is drilled with a drill, sawed with a hacksaw, thrown on a grand scale and beaten with a hammer. Knives, axes, chisels, chisels, nails, screwdrivers, scissors - everything is used. It happens that the ill-fated coconut cannot be opened, or the result of efforts is pieces of shell scattered throughout the kitchen, neighbors angry with a roar and splashed juice. The desire to contact this fruit disappears forever.

To prevent this from happening, let's look at the simplest ways to get to delicious pulp.

Extraction of coconut water

Yes, that's right, not milk. Milk is an artificial product that is made from ground pulp and water.

Any method describing that always starts with pouring coconut water. Otherwise, when opening it, it will splatter, and you will not be able to try it. However, if the nut is very old, it may not be. But such a coconut should not be eaten at all, since the lack of liquid inside means that it is of little use for consumption.

So, wash the coconut and find three dark spots on it. It is necessary to make holes in two of them. These are the most vulnerable places, but it is still not easy to make holes in them, so be very careful not to hurt yourself! One of the spots, by the way, is softer than the others, but it’s still more convenient to make holes in two so that the juice flows out faster.

You can use a knife, a large nail and a hammer, a corkscrew, in extreme cases, a drill. After making a hole, turn the fruit over and pour the liquid into a glass. Or you can insert a straw and drink some water straight from the coconut.

Now that we have deprived our fruit of "life-giving moisture", we will figure out how to open a coconut.

Method number 1

The most civilized. Take a good knife, measure about 1/3 from the side of the coconut where the "eyes" are, and separate this part with an imaginary line. Holding the coconut in one hand, strike along this line with the knife, gradually turning the coconut around its axis. Sooner or later the shell will crack. If it doesn't come off right away, just make a few more tapping movements and carefully peel off the shell.

Use the method only if you are confident in your coordination! You can put the coconut on a cutting board. Instead of a knife, you can try to knock with a hammer.

Method number 2

You will need a knife, a hammer and Put the fruit on the board, measure 1/3 again, as in the previous method, attach the blade of a large, strong knife to an imaginary line and hit it with a hammer. There should be a crack. Repeat the procedure by rotating the coconut in a circle.

It turned out two neat halves (someone is not very neat, but everything comes with experience). Now we extract the pulp. As a rule, it fits very tightly to the shell, so you have to pry it with a knife or spoon. To make this process easier, place the split nut in the refrigerator for an hour or two.

Method number 3

You will need a towel (bag, plastic wrap) and a hammer.

After wrapping the nut in a towel or bag, start hitting it with a hammer in a circle, hitting it right in the middle (at the widest point). If all else fails, just try to “pound” the coconut properly with a hammer, brick, or other heavy object. But in this case, it is better to do it on the floor, preferably concrete. But do not expect to get two even halves, as in advertising. However, you still have to grind the coconut for consumption, so do not be upset.

These were the most popular and simple descriptions of how to open a coconut. Of course, it takes a little tweaking. But after trying a couple of times, you will see that it is quite simple.

1 year ago

Coconuts are very healthy and tasty, the pulp of these exotic fruits is part of many salads, desserts, pies and even first courses. But in order to cook these "goodies" or just enjoy the contents of the nut, you need to learn in practice how to open a coconut. This task is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance.

There are several options for quickly extracting coconut milk and pulp from the shell. But sometimes you can hear complaints that one way or another turned out to be ineffective. The fact is that only high-quality fruit can be easily opened. Buy coconut if:

• when shaking near the ear, you hear milk splashing inside the nut;
• there are no damages, traces of mold and rotting processes on the shell;
• it has three small holes at the base.

If you have a handsome coconut that meets these requirements in your hands, you can force him to "reveal his secrets" using one of the following methods.

Hammer splitting

This is the most popular way to open a coconut easily.

1. Use a nail or screwdriver to make three holes in the nut. One of them should turn out to be the widest, through.
2. Drain the liquid from the fruit.
3. Tap the coconut with a hammer from the side of the holes, without applying much force.
4. When cracks appear, split the shell in half at the split.

Opening with a knife

Using an ordinary kitchen knife will help open a coconut without a hammer, as experienced chefs do.

1. Place the fruit on a cutting board.
2. Make a hole with the tip of a nail or screwdriver and drain the milk.
3. Insert a knife into the resulting hole and hit the handle well - the integrity of the shell will be broken.

Splitting in the package

1. Screw a screwdriver or nail into one of the three natural holes in the walnut.
2. Pour the juice into a jar.
3. Put the fruit in a plastic bag and hit it with something heavy, applying maximum force.
4. Remove the broken shell and pulp from the bag.

Safety regulations

Anyone who wants to open the fetus on their own needs to remember the basic safety rules:

• when exposed to the shell with a knife, considerable physical force must be applied so that it does not bounce off the nut, otherwise you can be seriously injured;
• the crack formed in the shell may close again - do not let your fingers get into it;
• strictly follow the suggested instructions on how to open the coconut correctly, otherwise fragments may fly in different directions, threatening injury, including the eyes;
• if you decide to heat the shell to easily separate the pulp, be sure to drain the juice before heating so that the fruit does not explode.

Storing Coconut: Solving a Difficult Question

How to store an open coconut is not an idle question, because this fruit is not always consumed immediately after splitting. To prevent an exotic delicacy from becoming unhealthy, store it in one of the following ways.

In a refrigerator

Once opened, coconut can be stored in the refrigerator at + 2-5ºС for only two days. If the temperature regime is violated, expect unpleasant surprises: when overheated, the fruit begins to rot, and when it is too cold, it becomes tasteless and watery. Temperature fluctuations will also impair the flavor of the coconut meat.

Please note: if the pulp has a sour smell or has a bitter taste, in no case do not use it or milk.

To extend the shelf life of the pulp, you can fill it with water. As a result of this, the dense contents of the coconut will be usable for another 3-4 days, although, unfortunately, it will lose its normal taste. But if you are going to use coconut pulp as an ingredient in a certain dish, it is possible that the appearance of “watery” taste will not significantly affect its quality.

Coconut milk should be filled into a container that can be hermetically sealed. The vessel should be kept as far as possible from bananas, apples, pears, melons and beets: these fruits emit ethylene. Milk remains usable for 6-7 days. If a mass of creamy consistency forms on its surface, simply remove it.

In the freezer

Frustrated that an open coconut is stored very little? Use the freezer - freezing will allow you to store the pulp for about six months, and the milk will retain its characteristic flavor for another 2-3 months. The contents of the nut should be frozen in this way:

• pour the milk into molds or small jars;
• separate the pulp from the shell and grind with a blender, then lightly sprinkle with coconut juice and pack in portions in sealed bags.

Coconut pulp and juice should not be thawed. They are used immediately after being removed from the freezer. It is also unacceptable to defrost and re-freeze parts of the fetus.

Coconut drying

If you are satisfied with the taste of dried coconut, feel free to take on the preparation of your favorite delicacy: coconut flakes are stored for about a year. Grind exotic walnut pulp in a food processor and dry in the oven with the door ajar or in the microwave at a temperature of 50 to 60ºС (this will take 3.5 hours). Pack the resulting product in tightly closed containers or bags made of cotton or linen. Keep the shavings in a dry, cool room with good air circulation, as this product may deteriorate in the refrigerator.