How to Open a Coconut: Five Easy Ways to Crack a Cococut

So you've bought a coconut and now your wondering how to get to the sweet, refreshing juice and meat inside. Unless you want to track down an expert at your local Asian market, you'll have to learn how to open a coconut yourself. Fortunately, you have several options, depending on the tools you have at home and your personal taste for the use of force.

In case you're just now planning on buying a coconut, but want to make sure you'll know how to open it before you do, understand that freshness matters. A fresh coconut is easier to open, which means methods one through three should work fine. If you have a mature one, you may end up resorting to method five.

Before you get started, consider draining the juice before you open the coconut. It can make things a little less messy. Just poke through two of the coconut's three eyes with a screwdriver or similar object. Making two holes lets the juice drain from one eye, while air escapes from another. Tip your coconut over a bowl and collect the juice.

Method One
This is the most common method used by those who actually know what they're doing. All you need is a heavy knife like a meat cleaver or machete. Set out a bowl you can crack the coconut over so you can catch the juice when the nut splits. Look at the coconuts eyes and find the seam that runs between them. Follow that seam to the center or "equator" of the coconut. Hold the coconut in one hand with the equator in your palm, the eyes facing to one side. With the blunt edge of the knife (not the blade), firmly tap around the equator, turning the coconut as you go. Keep tapping and turning until the coconut splits open. It will probably take two or three turns, but if you do it right, you'll have two equal halves. Just be aware that coconuts tend to crack open and then snap such again, so make sure you don't get your fingers caught in the crack.

Method Two
Method two is actually a utilitarian variation on method one. If you don't have a heavy knife, any hard edge will do. The corner of a concrete wall, the edge of steps or a patio, a street curb or even a large, sharp rock are all options. Firmly grip the coconut and hit its equator on the solid edge you've chosen. As in method one, keeping hitting the equator as you turn the coconut, going all the way around the nut several times until your coconut splits open.

Method Three
Another simple and easy way to open a coconut requires only a hammer. Hold the coconut in one hand and picture a line going around the top third of the coconut. Lightly hammer in a circle along that line, going all the way around. Start out with gentle blows because you can easily hit too hard and smash the coconut. After you go around a few times, the coconut will begin to crack open just under your hammering mark. Make two or three more rounds and the top of the coconut will pop off, giving you a lid you can open to get at the milk and meat inside. Knowing how to open a coconut this way is also handy when you don't have a bowl to catch the juice.

Method Four
Method four tends to be quicker, but requires some physical strength. Note that when you look at the coconut's three eyes, two will have ridges over them. Grip the coconut in one hand with the tips of your first two fingers just above these ridges. Imagine, if these were eyes on a human face, where the chin would be. Give that chin spot a really hard smack against any of the solid edges mentioned in method three. The coconut should immediately crack in half.

Method Five
This is the desperate method. Maybe you don't have a sturdy knife, hammer or even any good concrete edges nearby. Just put your coconut in a heavy plastic bag and hit it hard against a solidly built floor or wall. You can even throw it if you're not able to hit hard enough. You'll lose the juice (unless, of course, you drained it first), but can still get to the meat inside. A variation on this method is to wrap the coconut up in a towel and hit it with a hammer, brick, or large rock until the nut cracks.

Knowing how to get a fresh coconut open is a must for anyone who loves the taste of this tropical fruit. When you know how to open a coconut yourself, you'll no longer have to rely on not-so-fresh canned coconut pieces and juice.