Nutcracker

A nutcracker system comprising in combination:

• a base having a bottom interconnecting two similar sides, a back and a front, all interconnected with each other, to define an open top base chamber, said front having a medial slot extending vertically therethrough, and
• a bottom plate formed of hard rigid dense material having a substantially planar upper surface and a peripheral configuration to fit upon the upper surface of the bottom and in immediate adjacency to inner surfaces of the back, front and sides defining the chamber;
• at least one spacer having a peripheral configuration to fit on the upper surface of the bottom plate and in immediate adjacency to the inner surfaces of the back, front and sides of the base defining the base chamber, said at least one spacer defining a medial cracking chamber orifice, having a vertical dimension of from eighty percent to ninety percent of the average vertical dimension of a batch of nuts to be carried within the cracking chamber to allow cracking of the nuts by impact of a striker plate thereon, and having a tab-like protuberance extending outwardly from the periphery to fit in and through the slot defined in the front of the base;
• and
• a striker plate formed of hard rigid dense material and having
• a lower substantially planar surface with at least one dimension greater than the greatest dimension of the cracking chamber orifice defined in the at least one spacer, and
• carrying a medially positioned upwardly extending handle to aid manual manipulation of the striker plate to impact upon the upper surface of the at least one spacer and nuts carried in and projecting above the medial cracking chamber orifice of the at least one spacer.

The process of cracking a plurality of configurationally similar frangible shelled nuts in a cracking system having a peripherally defined open top base defining a base chamber with a bottom supporting a hard rigid dense bottom plate and at least one spacer defining a medial cracking chamber orifice having a vertical dimension of from eighty percent to ninety percent of the average vertical dimension of a batch of nuts carried within the cracking chamber, comprising the steps of:

• placing a plurality of nuts to be cracked in the cracking chamber in loosely packed array with at least some nuts in immediate contact with adjacent nuts;
• manually manipulating a striker plate, formed of hard rigid dense material with a peripheral configuration smaller than the base chamber and larger than the cracking chamber orifice, from above the cracking chamber to impact on nuts projecting upwardly above the upper surface of the spacer defining the cracking chamber orifice and on the upper surface of the spacer;
• removing the striker plate and the at least one spacer from the base chamber;
• manually separating nut meats from shell debris in the base chamber and removing the nut meats from the base chamber;
• removing the shell debris from the base chamber for disposition to allow reuse of the base chamber.