Hi JL,

>I confirm that macadamia shells are very hard. I succeded in cracking a
>few with a pair of pliers, but then it broke. So, I tried with 2 different ordinary
>nut-crackers... which broke too.

There are special Mac nut crackers around. We have one where a threaded
bolt is screwed down until the nut cracks and it comes out whole. I have
seen a variety of homemade ones as well--the premise is to apply force
which doesn't "follow through" and smash the whole shebang.

The wild pigs here on the big island are known for coming down into the Mac
orchards and feasting on the fallen nuts. One gains a certain respect for
an animal which could crack Mac nuts in its teeth, no? I hope to taste a
Mac-fed wild pig one day...

>Any tips to shell Brazil nuts? I usually do it with pliers: I try to control
>them, so that I crack the shell but not the nut; and I repeat at different
>points of pressure until the shell goes away easily. But that method is
>only 75%  efficient, and the rest of the time the nut is broken into 2 or more parts
>and I need to remove bit by bit with a sharp knife... Very tedious.

As I remember it, I've had the best luck with the cheapo nut crackers (two
"poles" without any "claw") and cracking off the outer edge of the nut.
Imagiine that several brazil nuts are forms into a roughly spherical
cluster. The edge of the nut which is on the outside of the sphere is what
I'm calling the "edge".

Cheers,
Kirt

Secola  /\  Nieft
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