How to open coconut at home. How to extract coconut water

For us, coconut is an exotic product, although they are often found on store shelves. Not all people know what kind of fruit it is and, moreover, they don’t know how to open a coconut at home or how to properly split, open, break it.

A little about the fetus

Inside, the coconut has dense white flesh and clear juice. The outside of the coconut is protected by a hard green skin. Beneath it is a nut-like seed wrapped in a hairy brown husk. It is the raw material for fibers that are used in the manufacture of clothing and ropes. Coconut milk is a great thirst quencher. And the pulp contains fatty oils and vitamins.

How to open a coconut at home

This does not require brute force. It is enough to follow the advice, and by repeating the opening process several times, you can pleasantly surprise your friends with skillful actions.

To get started, prepare the necessary tools, you will need - a hammer, a nail and any towel.

Using a nail, well, or any other sharp object - a corkscrew, a screwdriver - make small holes in these places.

By inserting a tube into one of the holes, you can drink juice directly from the nut. Or you can turn it into a cup or jar and wait until all the juice flows out.

Now the nut is empty and you can proceed to the next step - how to open a coconut to get to the pulp? To do this, the coconut must be placed in a towel or any other soft cloth.

After that, hit the towel with a hammer. If the first time did not work, then you need to repeat these steps several times.

Without opening the towel, it will be clear whether the coconut has opened or if you still need to hit.

The shell will crack and at the same time, and the pulp will fall apart into pieces.

The next step is how to cut the coconut. Insert the handle of a teaspoon into the resulting crack, press down and separate the shell.

There is another more complicated trick, how to open a coconut at home. It is so effective that it is better to do it with friends or family to impress. Take the coconut in your left hand and start tapping with a mallet (you can use a kitchen hammer) in a circle in the widest part. Soon a crack will form. By inserting a knife into it, you can easily split the shell in half. In this case, the coconut will not be damaged, and you will get two halves of the shell. From them you can make interesting crafts with children.

How to eat coconut

Milk and pulp can be used in pastries, salads, smoothies, desserts and soups. The grated pulp goes well with chicken and fish. Often, cakes and cookies are sprinkled with dried coconut flakes.

Application of coconut

Drops are made from its pulp for instillation into the ears, the ashes of the shell quickly heal inflammation on the skin. Coconut milk improves the functioning of the kidneys very much and has a super diuretic effect. With the constant and portioned use of pulp, immunity to viral and fungal infections increases. Coconut flakes perfectly cleanse the body of toxins and harmful toxins. Coconut oil is very useful in the prevention of osteoporosis - it promotes the absorption of calcium. It has long been used in cosmetology in the preparation of creams and ointments.
They are also made from coconut.

Coconut products such as milk, shavings, butter or flour have long ceased to be a rare exotic on our tables. Coconut butter is actively used in cosmetic skin and hair care. Shavings are added to baking. On the basis of vegetable milk, nutritious cocktails and cereals are prepared. And yet, despite the availability and variety of derivative products, sometimes you want to pamper your household with a fresh tropical nut. This is where the question arises of how to split a coconut at home.

How is a coconut

Coconut is the fruit of the palm tree Cocos nucifera, erroneously called a nut. According to the botanical classification, it is a dry drupe. The fruit of the coconut palm is round. On average, it reaches 15–30 cm in diameter, weighs 1.5–2.5 kg. A coconut plucked from a palm tree looks like a large green walnut. The top layer of the fruit is a thick, fleshy, fibrous shell. In the process of primary processing, it is peeled off. The dried fibers, called coir, are usually used to make mattresses.

How to split a coconut? This is easier to do when you know the structure of the nut. Under the outer shell is the seed of the fruit. That's what they sell in stores. From above, the seed is covered with a stiff, hard shell. It, although it seems monolithic, consists of three lobes, at the junction forming convex faces. At the blunt (upper) end of the coconut there are three dark dots - ovules, through which the sprout of the future palm tree should break through. Under the shell is a thin brown skin. It covers a white, oily pulp (copra) 6–12 mm thick. A colorless, slightly cloudy liquid with a characteristic sweetish odor is splashing in the cavity of the coconut - coconut water.

Advice. From coconuts of the same size, choose the one that is heavier - it has more pulp. The shell should be free of mold and damage. Be sure to shake the fruit at the ear: if there is no characteristic splash, the nut is old and dry.

How to extract coconut water

If there are no improvised means at hand, the coconut can be broken with a strong blow to the ground. With such splitting, the nut will shatter into pieces, and the liquid will naturally spill. That is why it is better to express coconut water first. To do this, you need to find a weak spot on the nut shell and make a hole in it with a nail, knife, scissors or a Phillips screwdriver. It is easiest to make a hole in the ovule. And although there are three dark dots on the coconut, only one will be pliable - the one through which the sprout was going to break through. As a rule, such a seedling hole is located on the widest lobe of the shell.

This is interesting. In nature, there are coconuts with three impenetrable ovules. The germ of "blind" nuts, unable to break through the shell, dies. Gradually, lime from coconut water accumulates around it. This is how a solid formation is formed, resembling pearls in structure and appearance.

After making a hole, the coconut must be turned over and placed on a glass. If the liquid does not flow out well, you can make another hole in the adjacent ovule. The drink in the glass will be translucent, salty-sweet in taste. Many mistakenly think that this is milk. No, the liquid inside the nut is water. Milk is obtained artificially - by soaking dry shavings or freshly grated coconut pulp.

How to get coconut meat

Cracking a coconut at home is easiest with a hammer. If you need to cut the shell carefully, it is better to use a hacksaw. It is necessary to cut along the entire circumference, trying not to go deep into the pulp. This method is suitable for those who want to make a craft out of the shell: a stand or a souvenir. In other cases, it is better to resort to the help of a hammer.

Instructions on how to properly split a coconut:

• Lay the coconut on a cutting board and secure with your hand. Take a hammer in your free hand.
• For a minute, evenly tap on the surface of the nut. Do it easily: your task is not to split the coconut, but to beat the pulp from the shell.
• Turn the nut from time to time to go over the entire surface with a hammer.
• Then, stepping back a third of the distance from the top, apply one or two strong blows to make a crack.
• Remove part of the shell with a knife. Take out the copra.
• Peel off the brown skin with a vegetable peeler or knife. Next, use the pulp for its intended purpose.

Copra does not always completely separate from the shell. How easy is it to extract the pulp? In an oven preheated to 150 degrees, place the broken nut. After 5 minutes, remove it from there and remove the shell without much effort.

How to quickly break a nut without a hammer? Use a large kitchen knife. Gradually turning the nut, tap on the entire shell with the blunt side of the blade. After a few seconds, a crack will appear on the surface of the coconut, which will need to be expanded with a knife blade. Now take out the pulp.

Until relatively recently, the vast majority of the population of our country saw coconuts only on TV screens and enthusiastically dreamed of trying coconut milk, reading about how delicious it is in the novels of Mine Reed and Jack London. Some of the curiosity was quenched after Bounty chocolate bars began to appear on sale. Their unusual taste gives an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcoconuts, but this is still far from the same.

With the development of supermarket chains, coconuts appeared on the shelves, from where they naturally moved first to carts, and then to the homes of Russians. And this is where the problems started. About that, at home, few people have a clue. Having first tried to pick the shell with a knife, you can quickly come to the conclusion that such a delicate tool cannot be opened for anything in the world, even if you donate this very knife. The next tool that logically comes to mind for every Russian person is an ax. Knowing how to open a coconut at home, we can safely say that an ax is quite suitable as a “opener”. But using it in a city apartment can cause partial damage to the floors, and, more sadly, to the limbs.

Skillful Russians suggest using a drill, followed by a saw, then a chisel and a hammer. Desperate to find out at home, many unlucky buyers simply beat them with all their might on the floor or on the wall. As a result, the coconut can actually crack, flooding floors and walls with its famous milk, and particles of hard shells will scatter throughout the house.

But there are also more gentle methods. Let's find out at home quickly and without losing expensive content.

First you need to learn how to choose coconuts. Let's start with the fact that in fact the fruit has nothing to do with nuts. It is called so simply out of habit. Since Europeans are simply not used to such a hard peel of fruits. The coconut shell is actually the skin, the milk is the endosperm, and the flesh is the seed. The longer a coconut lies on a supermarket shelf, the more it dries out, and if stored in a damp room, it can become moldy. In order not to acquire such a spoiled fruit, before buying it, you must carefully examine it from all sides in search of traces of mold, smell it and shake it a little. If splashing is different inside, then feel free to buy.

Now about how to open a coconut at home. Examine it carefully. See the three dark spots on its surface? This is where you need to start taking action.

Try poking them with a knife or a large nail. You can do this quite easily. Two holes are enough and the third spot can be left alone. It drains through them. Do not be alarmed if, instead of a thick white stream, a transparent liquid pours into the cup. That's exactly what it looks like. It would be more logical to call it coconut juice by analogy with birch juice, but it just so happened historically.

Now let's move on to how to open a coconut. The photo shows that you need a hammer for this. Also, grab a towel. In a towel, you wrap the coconut so that the shell fragments do not scatter all over the house.

Place the wrapped fruit on the floor and hit it with a hammer. Coconut will open for sure. You can choose juicy pulp from it, and make exotic saucers or ashtrays from large fragments of the shell.

Many people don't buy fresh coconut just because they don't know how to open it. In fact, there is nothing difficult in this, but you still have to make a little effort. Previously, people generally broke coconuts using only a couple of hands, and at best a stone, but now we have a whole arsenal of various items in our homes with which we can do this as efficiently as possible. Read the most popular methods for splitting coconut at home in this article.

How to open a coconut at home

When wondering how to break a coconut at home, you should know that the fruit consists of three parts: an outer fibrous layer called coir; coconut (shell), on the inside of which white pulp (copra) is attached; and a cavity that is filled with liquid (coconut water).

All parts of the fruit, even coir, have found widespread use, but for most people, the flesh of the fruit and coconut water are of particular interest.
Coconuts with already separated coir usually get on store shelves, but it may happen that you first have to peel the fruit from the outer layer. In exotic countries, the locals have many cleaning methods, but the most common and commonplace of them is to separate the fibrous part with your hands. In ripened fruits, the outer layer is easily separated from the shell. However, even a decoated nut still contains an outer layer that must be removed to open the fruit.

How to peel a coconut often depends on the type of fruit and how ripe it is. In green fruits, to open the top layer, they simply cut it off with a knife, getting to the nut and cavity, but with brown it is more difficult. Here you will need some kind of opening tool, such as a knife. Some people recommend draining the coconut water first, but this is not necessary. You need to tap the surface of the coconut well with the blunt side of the knife until cracks appear. Then, using the same knife or fingers, separate the top layer from the shell at the cracks. After you have removed the remnants of the coir, proceed to the opening of the fruit.
Thus, it turns out that the use of this fruit consists of four stages:

• Clean the fruit from fibers.
• Pour out the liquid.
• Break open the shell.
• Separate the pulp.

Opening a coconut at home with a hammer

Each owner has a hammer at home, with which you can both remove the top layer from the fruit and open the nut.
Before you can properly split the coconut, you need to drain the coconut water. This is done with a sharp object such as a knife or Phillips screwdriver. On the surface of the fruit there are three round spots, or as they are also called "eyes". The hole for draining the liquid is best done in them. You can make two or three holes to empty the fetus faster and easier. After that, hold the nut firmly in your hand and gently tap on its surface with a hammer, turn the fruit, without ceasing to tap on the circumference. With due effort, the nut will soon split into two halves. Moreover, if you stick to a clear line, then you may be able to open the fruit by dividing the shell into two even parts.

How to split a coconut with a knife

There are two options for how to properly open a coconut with a knife. With the first method, the nut can be opened into two symmetrical halves, while with the second, the coconut can split unevenly.
To open a coconut into two symmetrical parts, you need to use a sharp knife, preferably with a wide blade.

1. Approximately in the center of the shell, make several notches in the same plane.
2. Then cut the fruit around the circumference, connecting the notches. Since the shell of the nut is hard, it will take some time to open.
3. Cut the coconut carefully, holding it firmly in your hand and resting it on a hard surface, such as a wooden cutting board.
4. It is important that before cutting the coconut, empty it from the liquid. If you have cut through the shell sufficiently, but the nut has not cracked, you need to lightly tap it on a hard, preferably wooden, surface to open it.

After correctly following all the instructions, you will get two uniform hemispheres of the fetus, which will become the original decoration of the festive table. Please note that with this method you can open a coconut without a hammer.

With holes

As it was written above, there are three spots on the surface of the fruit, through which it is most convenient to pour the liquid contained in the fruit, having previously made holes in them. Also, with the help of these holes, you can quickly open hard fruit using only one knife.
Insert the knife with the tip forward into the holes formed, and then hit the knife handle several times so that it plunges into the core of the nut. For blows, you can use a hammer, but sometimes a fist is enough to open a strong fruit. After the blade has sunk deep enough and cracks have appeared on the surface of the shell, open the nut with a knife, loosening and turning it.
The disadvantage of this method is that the fruit may open unevenly, but in this case, you will quickly split the coconut at home.

Opening a coconut in the oven

Coconut can be opened in other unusual ways, for example, using a conventional oven.

1. Preheat the oven to a high temperature of 150 to 190 ᵒС.
2. Then place the fruit, previously emptied of water, into the chamber.
3. Wait ten minutes until cracks appear on the shell. Sometimes cracks may take longer to appear.
4. Take the cracked fruit out of the oven and wait for it to cool,
5. Then wrap it in a towel and hit it hard on a hard surface.

This method is quite laborious and does not guarantee a symmetrical opening of the nut. But as you may have noticed, the use of a knife in it is minimized, if not completely eliminated, if you make holes for draining with a screwdriver or a nail. In addition, heating the coconut in the oven will make it easier for you to further work on separating the pulp from the shell.

Making a coconut glass

You can open an exotic fruit in such a way that an original glass for drinks is obtained from the shell. To do this, you need to follow the same procedure as when opening a coconut with a knife around the circumference, but this time choose a cut location closer to the “pole” of the nut. Also in this case, it is necessary to completely clean the shell of coconut fibers (coir), or rinse it thoroughly under running water. This should be done in order to avoid the possibility of bugs, which periodically settle in coconut fibers, getting into the dish. Read above for methods of cleaning the fetus from coir.
The resulting exotic glass is suitable for any drinks, and with decorative decorations, such a container will be the perfect addition to any tropical party.

How to get the flesh out of a coconut

Of greatest interest are coconut water and pulp. And if there are no problems with extracting the liquid, then you will have to work hard to separate the copra from the shell when opening the fetus.
The easiest way is to cut off the pulp particles from the shell with a small vegetable knife or just pick it off with a spoon. This is a laborious process and still part of the pulp will remain on the inner walls of the shell. But in order to separate the edible inside as efficiently as possible, it is necessary to heat the devastated and cut nut in the oven at a temperature of about 190 ᵒС. The high temperature helps to separate the copra from the shell without damaging it. Warm the fruit for up to five minutes, then let the fruit cool. Next, insert a knife or flathead screwdriver into the spot where the flesh attaches to the shell and loosen the copra with a loosening motion. Tap the surface of the nut first to help the copra separate better. The layer of pulp that was attached to the shell is best cut off with a potato peeler.

The resulting copra can be eaten fresh, or grated, made from it coconut milk. You can dry the pulp and get coconut flakes. In addition, coconut flour is made from the white inside and very useful coconut oil is extracted.

But sometimes, a pair of hands and a hard surface are enough to feast on the contents of the fruit, although it is not the best option to open a coconut at home against the wall. It is better to apply the tips on how to cut a coconut at home, described in this article.

The question of how to open a coconut inevitably arises before those who first decide to try it. In tropical countries, where it is constantly present in the diet, it is opened with a special device that looks like both a drill and a corkscrew. In the northern latitudes, the coconut is considered exotic, and such a tool is hard to find commercially. Therefore, you will have to use what is at hand.

Coconut water is often mistakenly referred to as "milk". Actually, coconut water (juice) and coconut milk are two different things. Water is what is inside the nut, and the so-called coconut milk is obtained from the crushed pulp with the addition of water.

Before splitting a coconut at home, it is necessary to remove the liquid from it. Otherwise, such a useful product will not only go to waste, but will also splatter everything around. They take a thin screwdriver and insert it into the holes (sprout pores) on the shell, piercing the skin that covers them. You may have to make an effort to do this, for example, hammer a screwdriver into the hole with a hammer. To speed up the process, you will need at least two such holes. Juice will flow out of one, and air will flow into the other. You can understand that the hole is ready by cotton, reminiscent of the sound heard when opening a bottle of soda.

If there are small eye sockets, the milk will drain slowly. To speed up the process, use a drill and drill a hole in the opposite side of the nut. Place the coconut over the container, if necessary, blow air into the cavity. The liquid drains much faster.

If the fruit is green and unripe, its flesh is inedible. This . Its main value lies in the liquid inside, and the shell is comparable in hardness to a ripe pumpkin. To open a young coconut, it is enough to arm yourself with a knife and cut off the top. Even a small penknife will do. Then the juice can be poured into a glass or immediately begin to drink through a cocktail tube.

How to open a coconut

There are several ways to carefully split a coconut using household items available in any home. Each of them is chosen depending on what result is expected to be obtained: peel the shell, keeping the pulp intact, get a semblance of a broken watermelon and cut off the pulp from it, gently break the shell along with the copra into two halves.

After opening the coconut, pay attention to the smell. Milk should have a characteristic pleasant and fresh aroma. Otherwise, the fruit has a sour smell, and the taste will be bitter.

How to split a coconut with a knife

After the useful liquid is drained or drunk, the hard shell can be split with a knife in any of the following ways.

1. How to prick a coconut, acting on the germinal hole. The knife must be inserted into the hole that was made earlier to drain the liquid, and hit on its handle with something heavy, such as a hammer. This will help to split the nut into two halves, easily open it and get to the pulp.
2. How can you open a coconut by working on the seam at the junction of two halves. The edge of the knife is methodically pressed on the seam with a cutting movement. As a result, the nut will split into two equal parts. The process is quite long, requiring skill and patience.

How to break a coconut at home with a hammer

To break the hard shell with a hammer, you need to put the fruit on a solid, flat surface and hit it with all your might. Then, insert a knife or the thin end of a hammer into the crack formed during the impact and open the nut by pressing on it and turning it in different directions. Before trying to crack a coconut at home with a hammer, it is recommended to wrap the nut in a towel. As a result, all the fragments will remain inside, which is very convenient: neat, and even safer.

How to cut a coconut with a saw and a screwdriver

Opening a coconut in this way takes only 2-4 minutes, and the result looks nice and neat. It is best to take a hacksaw for metal, it can be used to cut a shell as hard as a stone easier and faster:

• The fruit must be laid on a flat surface and sawn until a crack forms along the central seam.
• Next, you need to act with a screwdriver. It is inserted into the hole formed, pressed down and to the sides with force, and the nut is split in half.

How to break a coconut if you don't have the right tools at hand

How can you break a coconut in this case? Yes, by any suitable improvised means. For example, to open a coconut at home without a hammer, you can use a brick or stone brought from the street. In this case, it does not matter how to hit: with a nut on a stone or vice versa, but it is important to make sure that the main blow falls on the seam connecting the halves of the fruit. Naturally, there is no need to talk about cleanliness and accuracy here. Therefore, before breaking a coconut, it is better to wrap a tropical delicacy in a towel.

The next way is much easier. The nut must be thrown on a hard surface with a swing. It can be a concrete wall or floor, a thick tree trunk. Already from the first throw, a crack will go through the shell, through which it will be possible to drink or drain the milk. The second blow (ideally) will crack the nut in half. Naturally, if it is not strong enough or the surface is not too hard, more throws will be needed.

Yet another method requires some kind of convex solid corner. For example, on the wall of a house, or a brick. The fruit is applied to the corner with a seam and slowly turned, methodically pressing on it with effort. This option also requires patience and strength and, of course, has nothing to do with the story of “how to quickly split a coconut”, but as a result, a tough “nut” will split into two even halves.

How to cut a coconut

For some, the most difficult thing is opening the shell of an exotic delicacy, and someone is wondering how to peel a coconut at home. This can also be done in several ways.

How to cut a coconut If the appearance of the resulting product is not important, the pulp from the peel can simply be cut with a knife. After that, the peeled pulp can be eaten or sent for storage in the refrigerator.

The most primitive way to extract the pulp is as follows: insert the blade of a knife between the shell and the edible part, and, shaking the knife, separate the piece. Then another. And further. The main thing is not to rush anywhere.

How to peel a coconut from the shell and how to properly cut it if there is no knife at hand? In this case, you can use a spoon. This method will take a little longer, but the result will undoubtedly please.

If you need to get a beautiful whole copra, you can use the temperature difference method. First you need to drain the milk from the nut. Otherwise, it will "explode". Then send it for 20 minutes in the oven, heated to 180-200 degrees or in the microwave for 15 minutes, setting the maximum power. Then take it out and place it in the freezer for 20 minutes. The shell will crack from the temperature difference and it will be easy and simple even for a child to peel the coconut from the shell.

After such processing, the shells are removed without difficulty if they are tapped with a knife handle, and the process itself is similar to cleaning a hard-boiled egg. The result is a clean core, which also looks like a large egg. A thin brown skin may remain on it, which is removed with a knife or potato peeler. Then the pulp can be cut into pieces and put in the refrigerator.

Make a souvenir out of the shell. Most often, halves of nuts are used as a salt shaker, candlestick, plate for buttons, keys and other trifles. Small and unsightly shards will serve as drainage for indoor flowers.

You may not be able to properly cut a coconut with the help of improvised items the first time. You need to understand that this activity is not so much difficult as painstaking, requiring patience and skill. At the same time, it is important to observe basic safety precautions. After all, most of the tools used are piercing and cutting objects. And if not everything turns out perfectly, you should not despair. The second attempt will undoubtedly be more successful.

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