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I’ve been told that the ones with the slightly purple flesh are SUPER young and that’s why they tend to have very little meat what-so-ever. The white ones are just a slightly older young coconut. I’ve experienced both before, and yeah they taste slightly different, but to me it never seemed like a “bad” difference so I trust the info that was given to me :-)
Hi Did you open yours a particular way? I haven’t gotten that down yet.
Well, I wish I had one of those big cleaver knives, but I don’t so I use my big chef knife… A cleaver would make it a piece of cake… a few good wacks and you’re in!
Anyway… I take the knife and try to shave off some of the point til I can just start to see the shell. I then put it in a large bowl and start firmly tapping around the top of the coconut with the knife, and as you go around it will start to give, and form a crack. Once it looks like you got a nice circle cracked, just take the tip of your knife and pry off the top. It’s really quite easy once you get the hang of it. I have yet to make a big mess, but I do it in the bowl just in case! Hope that helps you out :-) Happy coconut cracking!!!
I have to laugh, just did a demo last night showing 2 ways to open them last night :) The clever works better only because it’s heaviest, but any heavy knife will work (you can buy cheap ones $2 and less). As coconutty said, shave the top of the tee-pee first. The trick we’ve found is when you hit the coconut with the knife, make sure you hit the coconut with the back 1/4 of the knife, not the center or front of the blade, so the back point (near your fingers) is hitting the coconut and 1/4 of the blade. You can either hit a square shape then hit one of the corners of the square with the back point of the knife (not the tip) and pry it open (blade away from you always) or tapping firmly but not too hard, do little hits in the shape or a circle on the top of the coconut…your back point of your blade will find a “soft spot” where it will go into the coconut shell. At that point you can either keep on knocking with your knife or put in the blade and twist it open. There’s a good demo of that here on youtube.com by Chocolate Goddess Dore (you can also search for Chocolate Goddess Dore if the link doesn’t work):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkJJZuf2Voc&NR=1
I do it this way:
Get a screwdriver, a hammer and a big machete type knife.
With the crewdriver and hammer make 2 holes at the pointy end of the coconut – the one without the stalk on it, and drain the milk out of it.
The get the knife and lay it across the two holes, so the knife is sitting on top of one end of the coconut, with the hammer hammer the knife so it sinks into the coconut. Carry on hammering, one end of the knife will stick out and keep hammering deeper and deeper until you’ve cut it the whole way through and the coconut breaks open.
You can find Chocolate Goddess DOre at Rawfoodmedia.com..she does some great chocolate demos + how to open a coconut….I use a serated knife and shave the point and then with the corner of my cleaver i crack a little circle and place a straw in the hole….
I opened my first young cocnut yesterday. I did it the same way as Zoe – but then it was her husband that showed me how to do it. It was great and whats better one of our major supermarket chain has started selling young coconuts.
i also use a screwdriver :) i have started keeping it in a drawer in the kitchen.
WOW Rawmama! What a great video! very informative and quite simple actually as apposed to how i have been doing it .. im lucky i havent chopped my hand off by the cleaver yet lol .. thanx alot for posting the link!! :D
I just watched the video reco’d by rawmama – great! i like choco goddess dora’s style, you know, sugar vs vinegar, etc. approach – there were really some hilarious other videos on youtube on how to open a coconut. . . dora’s apprach makes it look so easy i think i’ll try it tomorrow.
I read that young coconuts can have formaldehyde in them if they have been shipped a long way. They treat them with formaldehyde to keep infestations from occuring. Local young coconuts are best or from a reputable source. You can do an experiment by soaking the coconut in colored water before opening and then open it and the water will be colored. Also, formaldehyde has been used in wines to make them sweeter. There’s not fda regulation against this. SO the coconut would taste even sweeter and better not like a chemical per say.
rawmama—I just watched the youtube video, then immediately trekked to the grocery store, and just opened my first young coconut in the most elegant way. This had always been a mystery to me. Thanks!!!!
BTW—I saved the liquid, scooped the coconut flesh out with a spoon, and put everything into the blender with a frozen banana & raw almonds (made into flour first in a food processor), then served the delightful treat over a bed of romaine lettuce. Yum!!!
As far as I’ve heard (and experienced myself), the ones with purple flesh and colored water have gone rancid…so find yourself a different coconut to crack. :) The water should be very clear and the flesh should be white for a super fresh young coconut. Tasting the water is the best test IMO, but if the flesh is pink or purple it goes in the waste bin for me anyways.
Opening them, though, is a whole ‘nother deal. ;) I haven’t lost a digit yet at least! Woot!
I use a big meat clever to open my young coconuts. I first cut off the white outside and then do one big wack and pry it open. It’s so quick and doesn’t make a mess. I agree that video posted above is awesome! Mmmm this is making me hungry for a coconut shake. I used to eat one every day for breakfast.