The Secret to Successful Nut Cracking

By: Aaron Robbins

I love pecans. A few weeks ago my brother-in-law’s dad gave me two gigantic bags of these delectable little nuts. I knew right away what my wife and I would be doing later that night.

It would be a cheap date reminiscent of our first years of marriage. We’d hang out in the kitchen, shell all the pecans, put them out on a baking tray, throw some salt on them and give them a light roast. When the house smelled all nice and nutty we’d turn down the lights, unscrew a cheap bottle of white wine and eat the fruits . . .err, nuts of our labor. It was a great plan and would have gone off with out a hitch if those darn things weren’t so hard to get out of their shells. I broke the first dozen or so into tiny pecan fragments. My wife was able to shell out quite a few whole pecans but her technique required a steady hand and lots of patience. Unfortunately, this technique was not something I had the skill or time for. There had to be a better way. Enter Alton Brown.

A few days after our failed date I was watching Alton Brown’s “Good Eats“. Early in the show I happened to see Alton quickly shell a walnut. He didn’t say anything about his technique and the whole process was over before I was able to devote my full attention to it. Thank goodness for Tivo. After a more careful inspection I noticed Mr. Brown was using a C-Clamp to crack the walnuts. Brilliant! I raced out to the garage, grabbed a 1 1/2 inch C clamp and headed for my bags of pecans. I stuck the pecan into the C-Clamp and began to twist causing the vice to squeeze the shell tighter and tighter. With just a turn or two the shell popped. I quickly peeled away the shell and found a whole pecan inside. I loaded up another and experienced the same results. A few dozen unbroken pecans later I realized why Alton Brown loves multi-taskers. I’m not a scientist but I suppose the reason this gadget works so well is that it squeezes the shell causing it to crack outward. Normal nut crackers smash the shell which causes it to crack inward. The inward cracking greatly increases the likely hood of damaging the nut. While you still need a careful hand with the C-Clamp method, the outward cracking of the shell yields more whole nuts.

I know this discovery of mine is not particularly Tahoe’y but I’m sure a lot of you will be heading out to Christmas dinners and party’s this holiday season. Some of those engagements are bound to have a holiday nut bowl (actual nuts, not your relatives). Take along a C-Clamp this year and give this technique a try. It’s a quicker, better way to crack a nut and may just steer a boring conversation in a better direction.

Merry Christmas from Blog Tahoe.

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