Hot answers tagged nuts
15
Yes, nuts are very fatty, and they will eventually go rancid— if this is the case, they will taste very poor. They can also dry out, or in more rare cases (especially if stored improperly) be infested with insects or molds.
Generally, they should be good for six months to a year at their best flavor, depending on the variety (in the shell).
Five ...
14
It's not even necessarily a substitution, as pesto is just a type of sauce made from a pounding up herbs and other stuff in a mortar & pestle.
It's just that most pesto that people see is the traditional 'basil pesto' aka 'pesto Genovese' which is garlic, oil, salt, basil and pine nuts, so they assume that it's the only 'pesto' ... you can find plenty ...
12
Peanut butter is just ground roasted peanuts essentially. The american style peanut butter tends to be sweetened, as well as having extra oil and salt. But they are only slight flavour/texture enhancers (not that I think sugar enhances it, UK peanut butter is unsweetened usually).
Satay sauces are essentially just peanut butter sauces, roast some peanuts, ...
12
I've always heard the "meat" of the nut, or "nutmeat". Alternate terms include "kernel" or "seed" or, well, "nut".
If you were to ask a botanist, the edible part is the embryo and the endosperm, though it varies depending on which type of seed you're referring to. Also, for a few seeds—not sure if any of them are called nuts—we eat the seed coat as well ...
11
Don't eat it as-is. It contains cyanide.
Bitter almonds are the definitely poisonous thing you've probably heard of; they contain enough cyanide that just a few could kill a small child (according to On Food and Cooking). The poison is released when the kernels are broken, as defensive mechanism. The variety we eat is a "sweet" safe version which doesn't ...
11
An oven is the way to go.
Toasting on a frying pan is a pain because you have to stand there shaking it for so long and it is far to easy to scorch if you pause.
I have seen some recipes call for low oven temps but I use 350F (175C) for 10 to 15 minutes stirring a few times. Some sources online recommend as low as 5 minutes but I personally have not ever ...
10
i usually use half of a previously-opened pistachio shell! use the tip of it as a bit of lever: slip it into the opening of the one you're working on, and rotate it, and it will open it as easy as pie. the downside is that you will be able to eat many, many more pistachios this way. i usually end up with a mouth raw from all the salt, haha.
10
First, I'm assuming by "pesto" you mean "Pesto alla Genovese", given your question about pine nuts. Basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, and cheese is a delicious combination, but it's only one of many "pestos" (peste, actually), since pesto refers in general to any sauce which is made from crushed or pureed ingredients. Mix and match to your heart's ...
9
You may have luck just tossing them in popcorn salt. Popcorn salt is ground much finer than regular salt, and should stick to the surface much easier than the larger grains in table salt or kosher salt. If you don't have popcorn salt, you can start with kosher salt and pulverize it into a fine powder in a food processor, spice/coffee grinder, or mortar and ...
8
The natural colors for pistacio meats are green, yellow-green, purple and/or red. Shells are beige. The Kerman variety, which account for 90% of the pistachios grown in California, are yellow-green to deep green. Pistacios from Iran tend to be more in the red-purple spectrum, and are alleged by their partisans to be superior to California pistacios. ...
8
Beyond obvious downsides like a rancid taste or textural deterioration, both tree nuts and peanuts are in a category of foods particularly prone to molds that produce aflatoxin, which can cause liver failure or liver damage in sufficient quantities.
When I was importing a product from Asia that contained peanuts, it was one of the things that was considered ...
7
The more liquid texture is a result of the oils in the nut being released as it is crushed. To avoid releasing the oil, start with cold nuts and shred or grate rather than crushing. Any kind of blunt trauma will squeeze the oil from the nut, making it gloppy. Keeping the nuts cold will cause the oil to solidify, keeping the final product fluffy.
7
Of course they would be appropriate, the taste wouldn't be the same though.
Have done a bit of experimenting with pesto. Have used pistachios instead of pine nuts. Parsley instead of basil is good too. Expect that many of the green fresh herbs would make interesting pesto.
From Wikipedia:
The name is the contracted past participle of the Genoese ...
6
Peanut sauce is one of my very most favorite condiments, I practically consider it a major food group, and I moved from the US to live in another country where peanut butter is not available. Roasted & shelled peanuts are however bountiful and cheap, luckily, so I just learned to make my own peanut sauce. Here's how I make a simple and fast peanut ...
6
It is possible for mold to form on cashews - or any other nuts - but only if there has been moisture penetration into the container. If the moisture is at a safe (low) level, then mold won't grow.
See for example, Mycology and spoilage of retail cashew nuts, which refers to the maximum acceptable moisture content of 5.8% for retail storage/shipping, ...
5
Yes, but chestnut purée comes in sweetened and unsweetened varieties, so making your own depends on what you'll be using it for. Chestnuts are pretty versatile, but I've come across using sweetened purée in old world desserts, while the unsweetened purée is typically used with root vegetables and winter squashes (the European variety of chestnut drop in late ...
5
Well 1.5 cups is volumetric so the weight will depend on how tightly packed that cup is, if they are chopped, etc. On average though, 1.5 cups of chopped hazelnuts is about 6.08 oz (172 g) according to the USDA's averages. You can check the USDA's National Nutrient Database page for hazelnuts if you want to see estimated weights for 1.5 cups of whole, ...
5
Nutella is over half sugar by weight; peanut butter might be more like 5-10% depending on brand/style. That already sounds like enough that it won't make a good one-for-one substitution in most things, especially anything that's not already pretty sweet.
It probably also means that it'll have a slightly different resulting texture; nutella is already a bit ...
5
My recent experience with nut-toasting gave a temperature and time recommendation with the following added advice: " . . . until fragrant"
That made a world of difference because in my case (almonds), it took several minutes longer than the stated time and it was definitely worth the wait. The cookies made from the toasted almonds were voted best of the ...
4
You can either bake them in something, and typically be fine (there are lots of cookie recipies out there that use them; search on the internet for 'biscotti ai pinoli'), or you can toast them ahead of time, and then encorporate them. (often, you toast them, then mix in, and bake).
But a word of caution on toasting them -- they burn very easily. I've ...
4
We had a black walnut tree at one of the homes where I grew up. Hopefully, you're not working from this state, or you'll have to remove the husk as well, which will stain your hands for months. (wear gloves, and don't take them off, until you've cleaned everything). We'd collect them up, and let them sit for a few weeks in the garage (warning : they stink ...
4
Nuts can go rancid. I've also had stale nuts, pecans or peanuts that were exposed to too much humidity. This adversely affects the texture. They need to be fresher than that.
Cashews, however, are in a slightly different boat.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Anacardium_occidentale.html
Cashews have a toxin in their shells that resembles ...
4
This answer is a bit redundant given some of the comments on the accepted answer, but still:
Get a brand of peanut butter that's just peanuts. The one I get most of the time is Adam's, but Kraft has one, I've seen Maranatha products, but didn't know they made peanut butter until now. It shouldn't be hard to find something that will work for you.
4
You're missing an important step here: You need to use cold water immediately after the boiling water in order to halt the cooking process.
Boil them for about 1 minute, then drain. (You can pour boiling water over them, as in the case of almonds - it doesn't really matter how you do this.)
Submerge or rinse in cold water, to prevent any further cooking ...
4
To toast walnuts, pecans, pistachios, macadamias, and other nuts, follow the same procedure as for toasting almonds: spread them in a single layer on a baking pan. Bake at 325 degrees until they are light brown and fragrant, about 5-10 minutes depending on the amount of nuts. Check the nuts frequently and stir them to ensure even toasting. Always cool your ...
4
this question has also been asked here Pesto, pine nut substitute although with a different focus (his problem is not money but allergy).
Walnuts would probably taste good, but it is not Pesto alla Genovese if there are no pine nuts.
3
Truly raw cashews are not safe to eat. The "raw" cashews in stores are actually slightly steamed.
http://www.wisegeek.com/are-raw-cashews-really-poisonous.htm
Roasting the nuts should neutralize the urushiol remaining in them (I'm assuming they're not still in their outer shells).
Also, technically, cashews aren't "nuts". It's the seed of a fruit.
3
I have had some luck with other oily nuts by grinding them down into semi-large pieces, and then letting them dry out on a flat cookie sheet. Then, step-wise, grind iteratively, with dry steps in between. If you can do this one time with a lot of product, you can save some in an air tight container for next time.
3
So from this - http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=pdf&file=IAA2003131004234 - it sounds like they both share IgE-reactive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunoglobulin_E) epitopes.
Both native and recombinant nut allergens have been identified and characterized and, for some, the IgE-reactive epitopes described. Some allergens, such ...
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