Both freezing and notching macadamia nuts before cracking were found to be effective in improving kernel recovery. A device was designed and fabricated to form a circumferential notch on nut shells. The notch reduced the need for excessive deformation to be applied to crack nut shells and improved kernel extraction. Results showed that, on average, 98% of the extracted kernels were either whole (88%) or in halves (10%), and that only 2% of kernels remained in partially cracked nuts.