Nuts have become so pervasive in our food products that it is hard to imagine the prospect of having to do without them in our cooking and baking. But, in order to use them to best effect, it is good to keep certain food facts in mind.
Some foods are more susceptible to odor transfers than others. Usually, this is a trait of foods that are high in fat. Because of their fat content, nuts find it very easy to take on the odors of foods that are in the vicinity. For instance, if you leave nuts uncovered in your refrigerator with meats, they will gradually start to take on the odors of those nearby meats. In order to avoid this, don;t leave refrigerated nuts uncovered. Either, place them either in a sealed glass container or wrap them in heavy plastic wrapping. Thin plastic is not enough as odors can easily pass through a thin layer of plastic covering.
When purchasing raw nuts, many cooks wonder if they should buy nuts shelled or un-shelled. Nuts will remain fresh longer in the shell than outside of the shell. Therefore, if you are buying a large quantity of nuts and you expect to store them for a period of four months or more, you should think about buying the unshelled nuts. It is trure that you will experience a bit more inconvenience when you get around to using them because you will have to shell them. On the other hand, however, there is less chance of them becoming rancid.
There are certain rules that good chefs usually follow when cooking with nuts. For one, they will always taste the particular nuts before they put them in their food. The reason is that, unlike many foods, when nuts are bad, they don't always show obvious signs of decay. But if you bite into a stale pecan or rancid walnut, you want to spit it out almost immediately. If you put that bitter pecan or rancid walnut into your foods, your dinner guests will have the same reaction as you, because the flavor of the nuts will carry over into the cooked dish. So taste first, and only then determine if they are good enough to use in your meal.
Buy your nuts from a store with a high turnover of produce. Nuts are a perishable item and the longer they sit on the store shelves, the less time you have to store them at home.
As an example, assume that you are buying pecans from the small mom and pop grocery store in your neighborhood. Also, assume that, like most grocery stores, it has relatively little traffic. When you buy pecan, you could be buying pecans that have already been on the shelves for 4 months or more. What this means is that they are just about at the end of their natural storage life when you buy them from the store.
On the other hand, if you purchase pecans from a health food store that turns over tons of nuts a month, you have a much better chance of getter fresh nuts which you can then store for a long while yourself.
Author Resource:
If you want additional information about stainless steel products such as stainless steel grills and appliances and calphalon stainless steel cookware , please visit our website.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")