Any Clue What to Do with a Coconut?

I think it is fun, just every once in a while, to buy a coconut. But it is a lot of work to use, in my opinion. I have tried several ways of opening it. The easiest and cleanest way was this:
Place coconut on a towel. Find the "eyes" on the end of the coconut and hammer a nail into 2 of them. Drain the liquid out. Then preheat over 375 degrees. Bake coconut on a cookie sheet 15 min. The coconut should have cracked in a few places. Using an oyster knife, pry the hard shell off. Then use a veggie peeler to peel the brown husk from the coconut meet. Rinse coconut and pat dry. Break into smaller pieces and grate, using a cheese grater or food processor.

You can freeze the shredded coconut, or if you have a juicer, you can make coconut milk, which is delicious in many recipes. I recently made coconut extract (directions can be googled, it is very easy to make! you just need a glass container, vodka, water, and grated coconut). The coconut water is an aquired taste, but many people like it and claim that it is great for after a workout.

Whatever you decide to do with it, I think it is a fun activity to do with kids. :)

We drill two holes in it pour it out...hammer it open and eat! my kids love it...be careful though as others say you can get a bad one :( otherwise they are delish

I buy coconuts often (my bird chews the strings off the shell and my kids like the meat.) Place the coconut on a towel. Hammer a nail through the eyes (I don't know what they are really called). Pull the nails out and turn the coconut upside down over a bowl or a cup. This will get the milk out, which tastes good and keeps a mess from being made when you crack it open. Next, wrap a towel around the coconut and hammer it until it's cracked. Don't smash it to bits or you'll be picking shell out of everything. Sometimes the meat some out easily. On days it won't, I bake it at 350 for 15 minutes or so, you'll see the meat start to pull away from the shell. We don't usually have to worry about storage, because it gets eaten right away. We don't use the shredded coconut, so no one has ever said the fresh stuff wasn't sweet enough. Sometimes my kids like to dip it in yogurt, maybe that will sweeten it up.

cut it in half, then make a bra out of it......dance around doing a hula dance. :)

You can do lots with coconut. I loved to just eat it plain as a kid, but my son doesn't. I found the best and the most fun way to break it open. First, hammer 3 holes in the eyes of the coconut and drain out the milk/juice. Then put it in a double/triple plastic bag, find a nice flat area like the driveway or a cement basement floor, (Driveway must be black topped.) hold the bag tightly closed and swing it so that the coconut hits the pavement. Now what to make:k
1. Potato candy. (cold mashed potatoes, peanutbutter if not allergic, and powered sugar all mixed together to form little candy eggs. Put on waxed paper in refigerator. Dip in melted chocolate if desired.)
2. Put on fresh fruit salad.
3. Coconut pie.
4. Sprinkle on a vanilla cake with pudding icing. (1 scant cup of milk, 1 pkg. pudding, 6 oz. cool whip.)

I bought one just for the milk (drilled a hole in it) and it was kind of gross, so yes, I would sweeten it a bit.
As far as the pineapple, none of my daycare kids (or my 4 year old) would eat it, so you're not alone, lol.

hee hee. My oldest daughter LOVES buying coconuts! You put a big nail in one end, and use a hammer, and hammer out a hole. Then pour the coconut milk into a glass. It will taste good, but not super sweet. But definitely good. If it tastes gross, it's a rotten coconut, return it.

Then you smash it to crack it in half, and you break it up into chunks. The coconut meat can be basically pulled out of the brown shell. Put all the chunks into a ziplock bag and just eat them as a snack. They are tasty.
I would not put any sugar on it but if you want to go ahead.

http://cookingwithkrista.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-to-do-...

Heidi is right on target with the opening process. The only suggestion I would add for that is to pound 2 holes in it to facilitate quicker pouring of the milk. You should be able to just sit the coconut on a glass & the milk will all come out within about 5 minutes.

The milk itself will need to be sipped, not just gulped down, to get any happiness out of the flavor. As for the coconut meat, as long as the fruit you picked is fully ripe, it should be sweet. No matter what though, no sugar should be needed. It is a fruit, after all.

I was just at the store yesterday when I saw them and literally thought "Who in the hell buys a coconut?". Now I suppose I need to!

And my kids won't eat pineapple either.

Don't wait too long! If it smells 'rancid' like oil that has gone by, take it back. I don't know how long you have had it.

Give him a glass of water before you give him the coconut water - and don't sweeten it. It will show him the difference, but he won't crave the sweetness if you don't give it to him first.

Good luck,
M.

My daughter asked for one too! We put a metal skewer through one of the black dots on one end and tapped it in with a hammer, then made a smaller hole in another to vent it and poured it through a strainer into a glass. (will have bits of shell you just pounded through). It is better chilled! For the coconut meat, I wrapped the coconut in a clean rag towel, placed it in a grocery bag and twisted it closed, put it on the floor and pounded the heck out of it with the hammer. It is fairly easy to pry the meat out in big chunks, but it still has a thin layer of brown skin on it which peels right off with a vegetable peeler. We store it in a ziplock bag in the fridge and eat it in chunks? Enjoy!

You will get something sharp and nail maybe with a hammer. And poke a hole in one end and drain the milk out. Then you can use it to open the rest of it. They are not all that sweet but I don't know if powdered sugar would make it taist better or not but you can try it.

Good luck and God Bless!

We use nails and a hammer, on a towel or newspaper in front of the sink.

If the coconut is white, meaning young, the flesh will be gelatinous and the milk is watery. Enjoy both.

If the coconut is brown and stringy, then the coconut is mature, and the flesh is hard. This coconut can be grated or roasted for recipes and eating.