Opening Green Coconuts

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pict

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Green Coconuts

Opening a green coconut demands three tasks from a survival knife, cutting across the grain of the fibrous husk, piercing the hard inner shell, and splitting the nut in half. I have found the best way is to shave off slices from the top of the outer husk until the center core begins to be exposed. I keep a wide mouth cup, like a canteen cup, handy while I pound, drill, or carve through the inner core to catch the liquid inside. How you split the nut in half varies according to the tools you have.

Street vendors in South America often hold the nut in their left hand and deftly chop off the top with a machete. They then use a special coring tool to open a hole in the top. Add a straw and you’re sipping on a green coconut.

In a survival situation hacking at a coconut is not recommended. They tend to roll around. Often the liquid inside is under pressure and squirts out with great force. You can easily loose half the liquid content from a rolling, squirting coconut. More controlled methods are best both for safety as well as hydration.

Today I picked up five green coconuts at the market, for a total cost $2 USD. I decided to test five common survival knives against them. The knives selected were a Frosts Mora SWAK, Cold Steel Mini-Bushman, Air Force Survival knife, Becker BK-7, and a 12 inch Ontario Machete.

Frosts Mora Swedish Army Knife, SWAK

The SWAK did surprisingly well. Before starting to open the coconut I shaved off a slice of the outer husk to use as a spoon for eating the meat. The SWAK, razor sharp from the factory, sliced the spoon off in one easy sweep of the blade.

I then shaved off several half-inch thick slices from the top of the nut. Once the inner water-filled portion of the nut was in easy reach I used the point to carve a cone shaped hole out of the top. The short blade was very easy to control. This operation opened up a one-inch hole allowing the water to be drained into a canteen cup. It filled the cup to about ¾ full, 400 ml.

Placing the knife blade into the hole I then cut around the nut from the inside forcing the blade straight down and around the circumference splitting the nut into two even halves.
My three kids then devoured the meat and drank the water.

I found the SWAK very easy to use to open coconuts. The thin, sharp blade required very little force. The procedure was very safe and allowed complete use of the nut. I was surprised how efficiently the SWAK opened the nut. I had expected to work harder at it.

Cold Steel Mini-Bushman

The Cold Steel Mini-Bushman handles coconuts very well. The blade is very sharp and is also thin, which greatly reduces the force necessary to shave slabs of husk off the top of the nut. I had to pound the point downwards through the nut to open a drain hole, as this nut was also very hard inside. To save my hand I placed the top slice of husk on top of the handle and pounded down on this with my palm. It worked very well; three smacks and I had a neat triangle hole in the nut.

To spilt the nut in half for eating I used the technique of turning the nut onto it’s flat top and pounding the knife through from the bottom. I had to repeat this operation several times but got the nut in half very quickly. Using a large slice of husk to pad the knife you can do this all day with no damage to knife or hand.

One note. The handle on my Mini-Bushman is wrapped in rubber tape then wrapped in 550-parachute cord. The wrapped handle is much safer for hard cutting tasks than the slick metal on an unmodified knife.

Ontario Air Force Survival knife

The Air Force Survival Knife was a mixed bag. The blade is very thick with blunt geometry. I found it more difficult to shave off slabs of husk but by no means impossible. My AFSK is very sharp and the edge geometry has been lowered on my Lansky sharpener. Even modified like this it was the most difficult of the bunch as far as cutting was concerned. It was an exercise in the patient application of brute force.

Opening the drain hole was another story. The AFSK has a very strong point and a hammerhead as a pommel. Pounding the knife down after padding the handle with a slice of coconut husk was extremely easy. Likewise splitting the nut was very easy putting that thick blade to use as a pry bar

Becker BK-7
The seven-inch combat utility knife was able to easily slice one-inch thick slices off the top of the nut exposing the inner core quickly. This was a tougher nut to crack with a much harder inner core. It was necessary to hammer down on the point to break through. This nut held 450 ml of water.

I started to use the “blade inside the nut” technique to open the coconut. This proved unwieldy. Laying the nut on its side I forced the blade down under my body weight against the outside neatly cleaving it in half. The wide spine of the Becker allows you to place your hand against it to add force to the cut. The BK-7 was very effective at the task when used properly.

12 Inch Ontario Machete

The 12-inch Ontario machete was reserved for the largest nut we had. No real surprises here. Rather than chopping at it I used the same method of slicing off the top. The machete was very sharp and the center core was exposed with three easy, cuts. Since the machete lacks an efficient point I used the curved portion of the blade to gently chop the drain hole. The first chop resulted in a face full of water. Rotating the nut several times making several more chops opened a nice drain. This nut held a half-liter of water.

Since the coconut now had a wide flat surface I laid it upside down on the end of a log and chopped it in half with one chop from the machete. By far this is the easiest way to spilt a coconut!

Since not everyone lives in a tropical paradise I thought you might like to hear how these common knives stand up to a valuable survival resource. Mac
 
Gotta be care full o' too much coconut juice (milk)... its a laxitive and will definately keep you regular if you drink more than you should. It is good though.
Excellant report, I have mostly used a machete to get into 'em, had to use a sharp rock once though. (I was wishing for any kind of large knife befor I got into the nut).
Enjoy!
 
Thanks for the info and blade comparison. I love fresh coconut and the good news is, I have 3 of the tested blades. :D They sell them already husked in a local supermarket and we buy one every once in awhile. The Becker 7 does a good job of getting to the meat of things. :cool:
 
This one sole sunga over here, was husking coconuts with her teeth. Faster than I could ever do to. :eek:

At camp, we stick a pick in the ground, point side up. Throw the nut down on it, and start prying the husk off.

Then to get the nut open, we usually take a heavy camp knife or hatchet, and lightly chop around the nut (not to split) then use the spine, pommel, or the hammer side of the hatchet to tap the nut, again around the circumference, untill it splits. Keep a cup under it, and you should catch most of the water.





After that, grate the meat, right off the shell halves. Run hot water through it, while in a strainer. Add sugar, and I forget what else. Put it over the stove/fire, add cornstarch, and let thicken. When it becomes thicker like glue, pour it into a pan, and cool. Haupia!, coconut pudding. :D
 
Underaged,

Those are some tough teeth! Opening a green coconuts without a knife seems like actual work, something I try hard to avoid. :barf:

Where I live, about five hours inland, we don't have coconut trees o fthe kind most people are familiar with. We have a palm that gives bunches of baseball sized nuts with an oily meat similar to a Brazil nut. These have to be smashed open with a hammer or rock, or nibbled open by a monkey if you happen to have one trained. Mac
 
Dry coconuts like are sold in the States are very different than the green, young coconuts. The water inside a dry coconut is much stronger tasting than a green coconut. I’m pretty sure that the laxative properties of dry coconut water are stronger than the green ones. The green “milk” is very watery and mild. I drank almost a liter of the stuff yesterday and experienced no ill effects.

The meat is also much harder. In a green coconut the meat is often little more than a gelatinous slime coating the inside. This type of “meat” is very easy to remove. In more mature green nuts it is rubbery and bland.

I don’t know if the laxative effect is cumulative or not. The nuts we get here typically hold between 400 ml and 500 ml of water. Two of these a day and you have more fresh water than anyone in a rubber raft could ever expect. The temptation would be to overindulge due to thirst and get into a softened state. The next time I need to do a general cleansing of the system maybe I’ll try to stay hydrated on green coconuts alone and report my findings. You’ll be the first to know. At $.30 apiece they’re cheaper than any laxative I know of.

I always wondered at the drawing in FM 21-76 showing a guy opening a nut over a sharpened stake. If the guy had the means to cut and sharpen a stake he certainly had the steel necessary to open a coconut! No doubt this is how the researchers saw islanders husking coconuts. Finding a sharp rock seems more likely in a survival situation. Mac
 
"By far this is the easiest way to spilt a coconut!"

I think my way is easier (albeit messier): 1) Stand on rock; 2) throw the green coconut 100' or so in the air, and let it smash to pieces as it falls on the rock; 3) Bon Apetit! :eek:

I do appreciate your knife test, though.

--Mike
 
My wife's from Costa Rica so I've hung out there a bit. In the last few years with our kids. There's cocos (coconuts) all over for free. They don't bother much with the ripe (brown) ones but the green ones are used as a source of a slightly sweet water. I learned early that you've got to have a machete to open them. Nothing works nearly as well. I bought one down there. They sell lots cheap. I got a short one for travel that works great. You need a file thought as the steel is somewhat soft and needs refiling every so often. Green coconuts have a suprisingly large volume of "water" in them. I've drank tons and never got the runs. I don't believe that story. I love to open coconuts. Once while the kids were swimming at a resort I notice a big old Lime tree near the pool full of ripe limes, so I put the "lime in the coconut" and drank em both together. :D

The proper way is to hack at the coco shaving off husk until you hit the hard wood like nut shell then carfully continue chopping off shavings of the wood until the white membrane is exposed but not penetrated. That way you don't loose the sweet water and it's still sealed and sanitary inside. All you have to do then is pierce the membrane with a straw or something and either drink it with the straw or like a cup. Once drunk, you can shape a spoon out of a peice of the hardwood shell and eat the soft meat. The meat of old brown coconuts is like eating hay. Get the small green ones.
 
Coming from a land where coconuts abound, there's an art to opening coconuts whether they be green or brown.

For green coconuts, you need a sharp flat grind blade with at least 7 or 8 inches in length. A swift, firm cut at a diagonal angle will take off a reasonable portion of the top.

An expert can cut open a coconut in about 10 seconds flat. The flesh inside usually tastes great.

There's nothing like having fresh coconut water at a beach, under the shade, looking at the waves coming in and feeling the breeze caressing your cheeks.
Come over to Southeast Asia and try it out!! :) :)
 
Just a heads up...I made some Haupai last night usign canned unsweetened coconut milk...and it was horrible. I think I added to much corn starch, but it had the density of paste...and I won't tell you what it looked like...but I knew I didn't want it in my mouth.
 
HAHAHA! Wierd!

After you stick it in the fridge, it should be harder than jello.

Did you use an actual recipe, or a go just by what I said?

It's just like a hard jello with a hint of coconut. Let me know if you need a recipe.
 
Some years ago in Panama, I ignored the advice of the locals about not eating too many very young green coconuts. I didn't get the runs, but I did have to run for the loo. I still like 'em, though the green ones are extremely hard to get in the Rocky Mountains. Are there differnt kinds of coconuts with different properties? Or are they the same world wide? (any botinists here?) The ones I have tried pretty much all taste similar, except the meat in the older ones is much dryer.
Enjoy!
 
I say down here all the itme, "Life ain't bad if your sippin' on a green coconut." Mac
 
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