BUNYA NUT SHELLS: How to break quickly

[Shalem]

does anyone have a quick way of removing bunya nuts from their shells?

or how do most people cut their way through theirs?

I usually get hubby to do this for me but it's really tedious and hard work to do it by hand with a knife, and he's got a whole bag of it to do for me.

One of the authors from my cookbook said her son made her a guillotine type device to help chop hers quickly, but I don't know anyone with welding experience to make one up for me.

[eataust]

Nope. They're buggers, hey??

I've previously bought the frozen bags of nuts and they're already halved. Even so, scooping them out of the shells is a bit of a pain!

I wonder if you can boil them in the shell to soften up the shell and make it easier to open?

[Shalem]

I've read 2 cookbooks now that say the nuts sometimes pop out of their way shells during boiling....huh no way for me!!

One of the books says you can use the shells as smoking chips for a bbq...that'd save a few bucks wouldn't it. I think I bought a small bag of smoking chips for nearly $20.

Also I'm curious to know how in this cookbook (Dining Downunder) did they get such a beautiful perfect half bunya nut with no shell on the plate?!! All the ones we've removed from the shells break and split.

[eataust]

Boil whole, let cool or even freeze, then split?

[RedP]

I've only ever boiled them (at least 30 minutes), and I find that they're best split while still hot. Still pretty hard going, and dangerous if the knife slips! But if I let them cool, they re-harden.

Apparently you can roast them in the shell (or is it a husk?), and then do it, but I haven't tried this.

Never seen them sold pre-halved - where was that, eataust?

[roughbarked]

Methinks that history shold prove that the traditional method would be roasted.

Traditional peoples would not have had steel knives either. Not until steel knives arrived by boat anyway.

[Shalem]

That's a good point roughbarked!

Never occurred to me, even after reading that the indigenous people ate the bunya nuts at Bunya Mountains years ago.

I've only ever boiled mine for about half hour.

I have bought ready split shells but they seemed to be much smaller than the ones I bought whole from Bunya Mountains.

Must be several species of Bunya trees producing different sized nuts....I know there's at least 2 people who have shared their qualified, extensive botanic & scientific knowledge of these trees, so I'm sure they or others can enlighten me briefly as to why those ready halved shells were tiny. (By the way, I always thought a bunya tree is just a tree....not so!).

[roughbarked]

Each scale holds a nut or seed and some are larger than the others.. and there is more than one Aracuria but only one Bunya Bunya.

They may be a distinctive group but they are trees.

[flora]

i dry roast them in a pan with the lid on, or you can even add a little water , (just the same way i do chestnuts). then after cooling down, bite on the shell which is now soft and get into it. scrape the nutty tenderness out with ur teeth

[Shalem]

well that's interesting. First time I've heard that. Seems to be in line with what Roughbarked was suggesting.

I think I'll have to give the biting it with the teeth bit a miss though. I've got dental tooth caps on 2 of the front biting teeth, and it'd be expensive to keep them replaced!

[flora]

gosh no, id never bite something hard with the front teeth, thats what molars are for!
but the shells arent hard really, when roasted. i never have had trouble with bunya shells. although i havent had them for a while, and its about time i did...

[Shalem]

Split boiled bunya nut shells

Sorry this is my first image post and I don't know how to make it smaller or rotate the photo.

[Shalem]

[Thomas B]

It's bunya season in Sydney right now, three years since the last big crop. I've just pinched every cone within ten km of my house from trees in parks and road verges.

I find that if you use the pinching type nut crackers, with two rods joined at the end with a hinge, gently and repeatedly pinching near the tip, gradually cracks develop from the apex and extend backwards. Stick your fingers in when it reaches this stage and tear it open the rest of the way.

[bunyanuternie]

I have a 'Bunyashucker' it is made by an oldfella up here and we pump em out by the bucketfull . They are designed so the blade never touches the board , My Kids can use it safelyand I reckon it would be easy to make one . I don't know how to put a photo in a thread yet but .... it's in the gallery in the people photo's http://www.bushfood.net/gallery/display ... m=10&pos=6
The 'locals' up here reckon the 'proper' way to eat them is raw , and I agree . but I have some good recipes and fried patties are choice blended with onion and a couple of eggs then fried in a hot pan .
I am boiling them as I type because it's been such a prolific year this year ,
Raw "bonyi-bonyi" is the 'proper' way to eat them . If you get them fresh you'll know what I mean.
This year has been full on because of all the rain Mmmmmmm bonyi-bonyi