This section is from the book "The Epicurean", by Charles Ranhofer. Also available from Amazon: The Epicurean, a Complete Treatise of Analytical and Practical Studies on the Culinary Art.
Break a cocoanut across in two, exactly in the center; slip the blade of a thin round-tipped knife between the nut and the shell, push it in with the right hand and turn the cocoa with the left; detach and take out the entire half nut; remove the outer skin covering the nut with a vegetable knife (Fig. 150), and when it is all peeled, throw the nut into cold water; drain and scrape it on a coarse grater. Use a part of it for roasting by putting the grated nut on a sheet of paper into a moderate oven and keep the remainder into a stone jar in the ice-box mixing it with an equal weight of sugar.
 
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