How To Open a Pesky Pistachio Nut

Step 3: Eat the Conquered Pistachio Nut Meat and Enjoy Your Victory

You did it. Sure, anyone can open a pistachio with a LeatherMan, hammer, or laser cutter. But without using any of those traditional pistachio-opening tools, and without risking injury of your fingernails, teeth, or your pride, you beat the pistachio at its own game. You got to the prize. Now eat it. Savor the morsel that was previously unreachable by humankind.

Next time you're sitting around with friends eating pistachios, show them this trick...and remember that you learned it on Instructables.

Comments

[coconutstudio]

Wow, it saved my fingernails! Thank you. I almost bought a pistachio opener. Now, to enjoy more pistachios...

[TechShopJim]

Hi CoconutStudio...

Please try to find a way to support the pistachio nut opener industry, even though I have taught you this secret. Thousands of Americans in that industry lose their jobs each day.

Won't you help?

[mattlscc]

Best instructable yet... works great!

[jereza]

This is really useful. I'm sitting in a hotel room right now and have a whole pile of barely opened pistachios. I knew there was a trick but didn't remember it. Thanks, TechShop Jim!

[TechShopJim]

I'm just glad I could make a difference!

[cappie82]

First: OMG!! People, they are just nuts, just use your brain!!! Anyone with even half of one would eventually have found someway to efficiently open them, I'm sure. It's a nice tip of course, but I didn't realize there were that many people in this world that can't open a pistachio.
Second: Yes, nice manicured hands are preferable, but come on, not every guy is a "metro-sexual"..
And Third: To TRIPLEC...Yes, the nut does look like some kind of computer chip...Hmm, Oddness... :)

[bobcash]

Snaps! This is an excellent idea for gals with false nails too. Bravo!

[diesel45645]

ooooh a laser cutter is so traditional these days? Lol :P

[Cacophonix]

This is a useful instructable :)

[chipscolaman]

oh yes, indeed.Yes, please wash your hands ;)

[oruiz2]

hahaha

[TechShopJim]

Yuck, I agree!

I did this Instructable back when I was actually making a LOT of things. My fingers were permanently stained with oil and dirt, like a mechanic's hands.

Now days, I'm unfortunately not making as many things so my fingers are clean all the time and no longer stained.

[bugg-]

Excellent Job !!! Thank you very much...!

[hoshichii~]

YES! THANK YOU!

[fmcdogg66]

Dude: next time when you take close up pictures, ensure that you WASH YOUR HANDS before taking pictures. otherwise great tip.

[yopauly]

fmcdogg66, some people's hands never look clean because of their work environment. My bud is a GM certified mechanic and his hand look nasty right after a scrubbing with bleach and soap! When I intensive farmed a acre and a half, my hands looked like I never washed my hands. In reality I washed them 30 times a day!

[static]

So true, I used to work in the oil field, never found anything that would clean off iron sulfide residue. Had to put up with the look until time wore it away.Not long after that to you a job to do that started the process anew.

[ulpetie]

very cool only thing is like deskules said what about the ones that don't even have a crack in them.

[davebijoux]

Yes! The hand-washing. And you should have had a crash helmet on and safety glasses. I will assume you WERE wearing a high-vis vest. Nice little instructable!

[dsekules]

It's good as far as it goes...

What about those really pesky ones that aren't even opened a crack? Let's see you get into one of those with anything short of a diamond-tipped drill...

[Metalcaster14]

Yes! haha, lucky for me I already knew this, but besides a hammer there's no waay to open the sealed ones

[The Lightning Stalker]

You could use a tiny band saw.

[helifino]

As I noted elsewhere, "I get out my always-handy needlenose pliers and stick the big end of the nut in the round hole for the wire cutter - give it a little squeeze, and Pow! A separated shell." However, Alton Brown noted in an episode of Good Eats: if the shell isn't cracked, the meat isn't ripe.

[thepelton]

A guy I know uses Vice Grips to crack nuts. They can be adjusted to stop just inside the diameter of the outer shell so as to prevent mutilating the nut meat.

[The Lightning Stalker]

Be sure to get genuine Vise-Grips®

[thepelton]

Sorry, forgot the tradmark stuff.

[skidoo]

That's clearly a job for your Dremel and a cutoff wheel.

[HaTOkaD]

i love instructable folk <3 can always count on awesome threads here :)

[kevlardude]

Wow. All these years of using my nail or pliers, and all I needed was just an empty shell? Amazing! Very nice.

[qorlis]

As rmcalist said, I've been doing this for years. Great minds, right? For the unopened nuts, various "traditional" tools still do the trick. I found that, for most nuts with a seam (the ridge around the edges of the 2 halves of the shell), controlled pressure usually keeps them from crushing the nutmeats into dust and shrapnel and the two halves remain mostly intact. By the way, if the nuts are roasted, the unripe or immature nuts still taste good.

[paulpcc]

LOL - ive been reading the text you said, and what other said, and the image rollover text... "LeatherMan", "Raw Fingers", "Nut-Meat" LOL just where is this conversation going :o) just kidding, thanks for the advice will give it a go

[thecapper]

Now this is an Instructable I might actually get around to doing! Very well written and clever. Thank you! You have saved many trying minutes of nut-induced angst.

[ankilosado]

Nice that someone has the idea of writing down the ideas! My grandfather taught me this usefull trick! Thanks for posting it. By the way, You'd better wash your fingers before posting pictures here. My little daughter is in trouble as we have ever told her to wash her hands before and after eating, and she had pointed at your nail and said: Look, he didn't wash his hands! LOL

[lidzy]

This has been driving me nutz for years-so obvious, thanks so much from just another nut nut...

[everywhere]

i had that proplem to but then i figuerd out that a hammer works well

[jvangurp]

YAY! Finally a solution! The backyard squirrels will recall this day with great sorrow for many years to come.

[DjFluorescent]

Yummy!

[5kspace]

Good

[rmcalist]

I've been doing this for years. Good job with the instructable! And that is a funky looking nut meat :)

[Hegpetz]

You are awesome!!! I will never have raw fingers again! Yay!!

[wcgems]

That's AWESOME..... I never thought of that. Now I can stop throwing away all oif those barely opened nuts.

[TRIPLEC]

lol looks like some kinda weird computer chip xD lol, i love those things, im gonna go buy some later today

[superhubbardman]

on nom nom Neat trick c: