Learn how to open a coconut the coconut color way. You can crack a coconut to make your own coconut milk, enjoy the raw coconut meat, or use it in recipes.

Ashley Adams is a restaurant professional and workshop instructor with a specialty in dairy-free cooking and baking. You’ll need to drain and collect the coconut juice before opening the coconut if you’re planning to prepare your own coconut milk, which entails blending the meat with the juice and adding water. Test each eye with a knife to find the softest one. Use the knife in the softest eye to create a half-inch hole. Invert the coconut over a bowl to drain the juice.

Although you can open the coconut directly over a bowl to catch the juice, the process can be a little messy. Use the poke-the-eye-and-drain method to reduce the cleanup. Hold the coconut in your non-dominant hand. Look for the imperfect “equator” line that runs around the middle of the coconut. Take a hammer and whack along the equator line with swift hard hits—keeping the fingers of the hand holding the coconut well out of the way.

Turn the coconut and continue whacking the equator line until the coconut splits open. You’ll probably end up turning the coconut all the way around three or four times. Use your fingers to pull the two halves apart and place them cut side down on the counter. You can use the blunt edge of a heavy butcher’s knife instead of a hammer, but be careful not to cut yourself. Not all coconuts are created equal.