As anyone who has perused raw food websites, raw food cookbooks, or raw food books for more than about 5 minutes knows. young coconuts (mostly marketed as “young Thai coconuts”) are a fantastic source of all kinds of healthful goodness, and not only are they great for you, but they taste great as well. The liquid inside them, known as “coconut water” (as compared to the thick milky stuff you get with older coconuts) is incredibly good for you, low in calories, and tastes divine.
And the tender meat of a young coconut..only 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, and almost like Jello in consistency. It tastes fantastic, and is the basis for all sorts of yummy recipes, both main dish and dessert (like Annie’s Tropical Mousse).
You’ve probably seen them in the produce aisle, and maybe not even realized what they were, as they don’t look like the coconuts you are used to. That is because they are still covered with their outer fiber – the shell you are used to seeing is encased within that fiber, with the tender meat and coconut water housed within the still-thin shell.
Usually the fiber housing has been shaped, and so the young coconut looks something like this:
With all the great nutrition, taste, and versatility packed into one young coconut, they are a bargain at the $2.00 to $3.00 they cost.
But opening them is nearly as difficult as opening a more mature coconut, and because they are so wonderful, you will want to do that much more frequently than you probably open mature coconuts.
But it doesn’t have to be difficult.
Here’s how to open them, and it’s quite simple:
First, you need to have a nice big heavy cleaver. Not the thin-as-a-razor kind you can get in so many shops, but a big meat cleaver meant for hacking through bones – one with plenty of heft. Henckels has a fantastic one that I use, and I’ll show it to you in a bit.
Now, put that coconut on a cutting board, on it’s side, and give it a really good whack with the cleaver, straight down into one of the slopes which leads to the point at the top of the coconut.
Hopefully that whack broke through into the inner shell enough so that you can now turn the coconut upside down over a bowl, and let it rest and drain out all the wonderful coconut water. (If it didn’t, give it another good whack, and another if necessary, until you can drain out the water.)
A small young coconut can contain as much as 1 1/2 cups or more of coconut water.
Once all of the coconut water is drained out, if you have the right cleaver for the job, like my Henckels, you can turn the coconut back on its side, insert the cleaver back into the slit you made, and actually just work the cleaver down, straight across the top of the coconut, neatly slicing off the tip, and opening up the coconut straight across – it will now look like a cup (in fact many Asian restaurants do exactly this, serving a coconut-based drink in this ‘cup’).
Inside the coconut, along the walls of the shell, you will see the tender young coconut meat. The best way to get this out is to take a rubber scraping spatula, and gently pry and scrape the meat away from the sides. Try to keep the pieces as large as possible, because lots of recipes call for cutting the meat into strips, and using it like a pasta.
But even if you can’t extract it in larger pieces, it’s wonderful for all kinds of recipes, including my Tropical Mousse.
This is the Henckels cleaver I have (click on the picture for full info, including pricing from Amazon):
I would like to let you(and anyone else that may be interested)know that I have invented a simple and safe tool for opening young coconuts. It is a hand tool that is no more difficult to use than a paring knife. If you would like to know more, contact me at, [email protected].
I am interested in opening green coconuts
Have searched for utensils used to extract the meat out ot the coconut. Something that is all stainless steel would be preferable. Can you help me locate such a device? Jim
I had my first tender young cocnut yesterday. The cocnut water had a very slight pink hue. Does that indicate spoilage?
I just tried my first tender young cocnut and the ” water” and flesh had a slight pink hue. Does that indicate spoilage?
The purple/pink color of the coconut water and flesh indicates a super young coconut. They usually do not have much meat on them, but they are very sweet and delicious. They are definitely “not spoiled.”
I’m having trouble to find the right kind of Young coconut. I do not know how can I tell if that young coconuts meat show thick or thins. I cannot see and how I can tell. I wanted thicks meat not thin meats Once I purchased the young coconuts. I poked that water out and drain into measure cup approx 1 1/2 cups and open the shell. notice that meat was very thin. like jellyfish. I was looking for the right young coconut thicks meats. Have you done that expernices on two kinds of thins or thicks meats???