Quicker Coconut Cracking

The last post on coconut cracking offered a how-to method to prepare a nicely presented, table ready coconut. In this method, I'm gonna show you something that doesn't give a nice looking final product, but gets the job done in a fraction of the time. I saw a small little lady with a big ol' meat cleaver give three coconuts four whacks each, and we were drinking in seconds. With four mighty chops, you'll get to the real juice faster than someone can open canned juice with a can opener.

Same as before, the first step is to cut the bottom off.

The flat-bottomed coconut will be stable for chopping.

The object is to make two parallel pairs of cuts deep enough to break the inner shell.

Give the coconut a good hard whack at about 70-80 degrees from the perpendicular.

Make the three other cuts, and then pry out the wedge and remove the pieces of the broken inner shell.

If the inner shell didn't shatter, dig the knife into a crack and pry it open. Cut a hole in the meat. Pour into a pitcher.

 
Now that's the stuff right there.