The Bulletin. 39 



HOW TO CRACK PECANS. 



The cracking of a nut to get the kernel out unbroken depends 

 really more on the nature of the nut than on the skill of the cracker. 

 Some nuts are simply poor • crackers, and it is next to impossible, 

 even with great care, to get them out whole, while others will almost 

 roll out of their shells and say "Eat me." A good pecan nut should 

 be easily cracked and the kernel should separate readily from the 

 shell without breaking up. The shell should be so thin that it will 

 break easily when two nuts are squeezed together in the palm of the 

 hand. The term "paper shell" has been much used with pecans in 

 this connection. The word is probably too expressive, ^ and it is cer- 

 tainly overworked by some propagators in the exploiting of their 

 own varieties. Pecan shells vary in thickness from T % millimeters to 

 2 millimeters. A hammer should not be necessary to crack pecans. 

 A shell that is brittle is much to be preferred to one that is tough. 

 The shell and the kernel should be as free as possible from con- 

 volutions that make one adhere to the other. If the kernel is smooth 

 and its sutures shallow the bitter septum and linings of the shell 

 will fall away from it when the nut is cracked. 



There is no greater lover of pecan nuts than the ubiquitous small 

 boy, and none more expert in robbing, them of their toothsome stores. 

 Fig. 19 shows one small boy's method of getting the kernels out 

 whole. With his front teeth he bites the nut evenly about the equator, 

 rotating it on its polar axis and biting until the crack completely 

 encircles the shell. Taking a firm hold of each half of the shell he 

 wiggles and pulls at the same time, and in a few moments the half- 

 shells are drawn off like two thimbles, leaving the kernel whole. 

 With any ordinarily good nut this method will be found quite suc- 

 cessful, even with grown-ups. In the more conventional atmosphere 

 of the dining or drawing room pecan kernels can be best removed 

 from their shells by the aid of the kind of cracker pictured in Fig. 20. 

 There are many sorts of hand crackers, but I have found this best, 

 because it has square, cutting edges that can be used to nip off the 

 ends of the nuts. This cracker will do the trick even when the 

 ends of the nuts are blunt or rounding. By nipping off the ends and 

 rolling the nut lightly between the jaws of the cracker the shell 

 can be easily taken off, so as to leave the kernel in two unbroken 

 halves. Fig. 21 illustrates this method of cracking. The right side 

 of the cut shows a nut, the kernel of which has been broken to bits 

 by attempting to crack it out without observing the foregoing pre- 

 cautions. 



