How to Open a Coconut Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn

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Holding the coconut firmly, use a cleaver or chef's knife to whack into the dome. Turn the coconut and repeat whacking until you have cracked the shell around all edges. You should be able to now peel or pull of the top of the shell.

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From the sweet coconut water hidden inside to the soft pulp scooped straight from the shell, fresh coconut is a treat like no other. But if you've ever succumbed to the allure of one of these coconuts at the store, you know that cracking it open and getting your treat can present some challenges. Here's how to do it in a few easy steps.

One thing that will make your life much simpler is to buy a coconut with the husk already removed. Once that's out of the way, all you need is a cleaver or chef's knife to crack it open.

How to Open a Coconut

What You Need

Ingredients
1 young coconut, husk removed

Equipment
Small knife
Cleaver or chef's knife
Blender
Ice Cream Scoop (or stiff spatula)

Instructions

1. Trim Away the Outer Skin: Start by trimming away the soft skin from the top of the coconut with a sharp knife to expose the hard shell. The shell of the coconut is round, and you want to fully expose that hard, rounded dome on top of the coconut.

2. Open the Top of the Coconut: Holding the coconut firmly, use a cleaver or chef's knife to whack into the dome. Turn the coconut and repeat whacking until you have cracked the shell around all edges. You should be able to now peel or pull of the top of the shell.

3. Pour Out the Coconut Water: The coconut water from inside the coconut can be drunk on its own, used in baking, or blended into smoothies.

4. Scoop Out the Soft Coconut Flesh: Using an ice cream scoop or stiff spatula, scoop all the soft coconut flesh from inside the coconut. This can be eaten on its own, added to stews and sauces, blended into smoothies, mixed into oatmeal, used in baking, and countless other cooking applications.

Additional Notes:

• Saving Fresh Coconut: Keep fresh coconut water and flesh refrigerated in separate airtight containers for up to a week.

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(Images: Chris Perez)

Comments (6)

In the days before you could find directions like this on the internets, my mom and I bought a coconut on a whim with no idea how to open it. After several tools failed us, we threw it out a second story window a couple times. It turned out to be a bad coconut -- stinky and sour. It sort of put me off buying coconuts forever, but my mom and I still laugh about it.

Yeah, we usually just took a hammer to it in the driveway...

My dad used to use an ice pick to start the process and pour out the milk, then we'd use a hammer on the back of a big knife to crack it. In Ecuador I bought coconut milk from a roadside guy who used a hand-cranked drill to make a hole for the coconut for milk and then a machete to chop it up.

This is a daily treat for me. To cut down on the mess, I keep the coconut sitting up, make three whacks with a cleaver to make a triangle at the tip of the coconut and one whack with the bottom tip of the cleaver at one of the corners of the triangles. Pry off the tip of the coconut with the blunt end of the cleaver or your fingers. Insert glass straw, close eyes, experience mini tropical vacation.

that looks beautiful! i used to use a long knife from brazil to pierce the top and then just pop in a straw... but this is another level.

This is what the machete is used for. Well, at least in my country. The guy I buy coconuts from hacks away the top and bottom end of the coconut so he can have a stable part to balance it on his butcher block. Then he'll proceed to hack away at the sides until you get the coconut in picture no.1.

PS. That's the only way to enjoy coconut water. Fresh and straight out of the coconut.