Test Your Strength And Shell Pecans By Hand With One Trick

Whether you're at a ballgame, sitting in front of a roaring fire, or hiking in the mountains, nuts are the perfect portable snack that can be enjoyed at any time. That's especially true of pecans, the delicious and famously hard-shelled nuts that are packed full of vitamins, can give your immune system a needed boost and even make a quasi-crunchy latte mix-in at Starbucks.

But those pecan shells can be famously tough to crack. Sure, you can feed them through a nutcracker or crack them with a pair of pliers. But if you're looking to truly test your strength, you can shell pecans by hand. It's not always easy, but it's a tried-and-true method that's been used since before the creation of the United States.

So take a few deep breaths, get your hands ready, and prepare to do some good old-fashioned nut cracking. Once you've cracked a few of them, you can sit back with your favorite wine (we recommend red, not white) and enjoy the tasty combo of wine and nuts together.

First, a quick lesson on how a nutcracker works. A pair of metal rods is held together by a hinge and nuts are fed through to crack them open. By cracking pecans with your hand, you'll essentially be turning your hands into homemade nutcrackers!

If you're someone who includes wrist workouts in your exercise routine (or regularly squeezes a stress ball), now's your time to shine. You're going to grab two large pecans and lay them side by side in your palm. Next, you'll want to close your first and squeeze them together as hard as you can. If you've applied enough pressure, you should be able to hear a crack as the shell breaks open.

This isn't the easiest way to crack pecan shells open, so if you don't get it on the first try don't give up. You can turn the shells over in your hand and try again. Once you get the hang of it, you can make it into a game and impress your family and friends with your newfound strength and talent.