John Savage writes:

"Lorraine Holloway" writes:
Hi, found this info on a web site "Australian plants online"

"The simplest way to prepare Bunya nuts for eating is to put them in a
saucepan of water and boild for about half an hour. Remove from the water
and split open while still hot. Remove from the shell and serve with butter
(pepper and salf if required). They may be eaten cold, but are better hot."

Thanks Lorraine. The ones I saw were bigger than any boiler I'd have.
I'm surprised at the half hour cooking time. I anticipated they'd have
to be cooked for hours to get any heat through to centre of the nut! I
think I'd have to resort to roasting in the oven, simply because the
nut is so huge.

I'm shocked that I'm actually explaining this to someone; but having
grown up on a property named "Bunya Ridge" I've an unfair
advantage...

The "nut" (cone?) when ripe will break apart into a (huge) number of
thorny kernels. I suggest stripping the thorny covering off the
kernels (which will reveal a leathery inner kernel a little bigger
than a man's thumb. I expect these are most likely the "nuts" called
for in Lorraine's recipe.

Half-an-hour's cooking sounds about right; and unless the butter is
fairly salty, you will require the pepper and salt. My memory of them
may be summed up "extremely bland". The flavour is a little suggestive
of potato; but I suspect you would need to be fairly hungry to
appreciate it!

Happy Cooking!
Tim.