Last updated on February 8, 2019
For the longest time the nutcracker sat unused in my kitchen gadget drawer. Sturdy mahogany and shiny metal, inherited from my mothers’ kitchen, it sat dormant for a decade; maybe even two. It wasn’t that nuts weren’t eaten in our home, oh no! They were always front and center in the snack cabinet and baking pantry. And I regularly used them in my main course fare as well: ground nuts in my lentil loaf, whole cashews and peanuts in stir fries. But somewhere along the line I got lazy about my nuts, reaching for the cellophane bag of shelled nuts at the supermarket, and freely pouring from it at home. In the far recesses of my mind I recalled cracking nuts as a child, and even hand-chopping them for recipes. However, I admit the advance of pre-chopped was a convenience that I relished. What could be easier…and neater, too?
While nuts naturally grow in their own little packaging, at some point cracking the shell off became a lost ritual and the shelled, packaged nut industry really began to take off. Nuts began to appear in cans, jars and cellophane bags, to the delight of the consumer and the baker, who no longer had to crack them by the dozen. Cashews were always an exception to this trend; they always were and will be sold shelled. This is because the cashew shell itself is toxic, which is why it must be removed before it goes to market. Pistachios alone continue to hold the allure of being cracked open as part of the ritual, although they, too, are now being marketed as shelled, and the trend is catching on, with the unshelled pistachio nut called a kernel. However 80% of pistachios in America are still sold in-shell, this opposed to approximately 10% of walnuts and just 2% of almonds! According to The Almond Board of California, in-shell sales (as the industry refers to it) only rise slightly around the Christmas holidays. Conversely, 17% of export sales are in-shell, mostly to India and China.At home in most diets from vegan to paleo, the health benefits of nuts are manifold. Depending on the specific nut, you have a wonder food providing protein, with a host of micro-nutrients such as magnesium (almonds), phosphorus (walnuts), copper and manganese (pistachios), to name a just a few of the minerals nuts contain. A source of “good” fats, such as coveted omega-3’s, nuts are naturally gluten-free, high in fiber and anti-oxidants, and low on the glycemic index. The Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Study cited nuts as one of five food categories associated with weight loss over time, as they contributed to an overall feeling of satiety. |
The state of California grows 90% of the tree nuts in the United States. This includes almost all almonds, pistachios and walnuts. The states of Georgia, New Mexico and Texas produce about 75% of the U.S. pecan crop. These four nuts together are the most popular in the U.S., with overall annual nut consumption at an average of 3.97 pounds per person. Almonds, however, hold the largest market share by far. Surprisingly, organic nuts only account for 1% of the nut market, except in California where the organic market share rose a whooping 44% between 2008 and 2011. California accounts for 85% of all U.S. organic nut sales. It’s in this category that almonds shine as well, accounting for 45% of all organic nut sales. Talk about your health nuts!
While shopping for a recent family dinner, a display of mixed nuts – still nestled in their shells – captured my eye at the local market. I scooped up a pound, brought them home and put them in an ornate china nut bowl, also inherited and never used for its true purpose. Searching for my nutcracker, I prayed that I hadn’t disposed of it in one of my occasional “oh, I never use this!” expeditions through my jam-packed kitchen gizmo drawers. But there it was, wedged beneath a clunky ravioli cutter and old shish-ka-bob sticks. I pulled it out and rested it atop the nuts in the pretty china bowl, then set it on the sideboard, waiting to be noticed.
In came the grandmothers. “Ooh, filberts!” squealed one, “I haven’t had one of these in years!” Such excitement hadn’t been expressed since the birth of the last grandchild. My teenage and young adult children and their significant others hung over the bowl with the old-timers, as if seeing something new for the first time. That’s hard to do these days. “What’s that one?” they each asked in turn, and the guessing would begin. Brazil nuts, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts. There were nuts they’d never heard of or even tasted before, as well as a new technique to be learned for the cracking of each different variety. A macadamia cracks quite differently from a pecan, after all.
A new tradition had been born, or reborn, in our home. Try in in your own, and relish the sound of cracking and laughter that occurs around the nut bowl. Who knew an age-old gadget could teach us some new things?
(Previously published in Edible Orange County, California)
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