Do I need to wash shelled walnuts before eating?

Do I need to wash walnuts?

Shelled walnuts are no fundamentally different from almonds, cashews or hazelnuts. And it is imperative to wash them before eating. This also applies to products sold in shells. The need to wash peeled kernels is due to the following points:

When selling a product, it is constantly in the open air and remains unprotected from airborne dust and dirt particles.
Not only bacteria or viruses, but also parasite eggs can get onto shelled nuts from people present in the immediate vicinity.
To ensure long shelf life, nut tree fruits can be treated with special chemical compounds that prevent food moths and other pests from eating the product.

Composition and benefits of walnuts

Walnuts are extremely beneficial for health. Moreover, this applies not only to fruits, but also to bark, leaves, and green peel. They ripen in September-October. It is easy to determine whether the nuts are ripe - the outer shell cracks, exposing the kernel.

The outer shell of a mature walnut cracks

It is the fruits collected at this stage that contain the maximum of substances needed by the body:

carotene;
fiber;
tannins;
quinones and sitosterols;
fatty acids (linoleic, oleic, palmetic);
vitamins C, PP, group B;
iodine, cobalt, iron.

Walnuts are widely used in cooking - they are not only healthy, but also very tasty.

Thanks to this composition, walnuts are a powerful antioxidant, and they are also an effective prevention of cancer. They also help cleanse the body by removing cholesterol, radionuclides, and heavy metal salts, and improve sleep and brain activity.

Not only the fruits of the walnut, but also its shell, green peel, and even the leaves and bark of the tree bring benefits to the body.

All this with a very high calorie content - 100 g of walnuts contains more than 600 kcal. The recommended daily intake is 4–5 fruits (20–25 g).

The shells and internal “partitions” left after cleaning walnuts can also be put to useful use. They are in demand in folk medicine due to their high concentration of iodine. Decoctions have a bactericidal effect, help cope with dermatological diseases, stomach and intestinal disorders, remove parasites, restore immunity and hormonal levels.

How to wash shelled walnuts

Typically, inshell nuts are not treated with chemicals. Therefore, everything is simple with them: just rinse them in running water, thus getting rid of dirt and dust that will settle on the kernels during the splitting process.

Therefore, it is worth washing walnut kernels more carefully if the product was sold peeled:

poured into a colander;
rinse thoroughly under running cold water;
additionally rinse with bottled or cooled boiled water.

The described method is relevant for shelled walnuts purchased from a trustworthy seller. If the purchase was made at the market, you should scald the fruits with boiling water - this will kill most of the microbes.

It is important not only to properly wash walnuts before eating, but also to correctly remove them from the water. So, if the water is drained only by holding the kernels with your hands, the dirt particles that have settled on the bottom of the dish will most likely stick to the clean product again. To prevent this from happening, you should use a slotted spoon.

How to wash shelled nuts and peeled fruits

A person believes that if he buys kernels in shell, like walnuts, then they are automatically protected from dust, dirt and harmful bacteria, as well as the negative effects of various chemicals with which the product was processed before it went on sale in the market or store. But this opinion is wrong. Walnuts and other types that are in shells should be washed before use. You don't need a soap solution for this. This is done as follows:

Place all the fruits in a colander.
Place the dishes under running water.
Stir several times to thoroughly wash all the nuts.

If there are too many walnut fruits, then in order to process the product more efficiently, you can use a pan of suitable size. All the nuts are placed in it, and then water is poured in.

It is very important to stir the fruit thoroughly. After this, the dirty water is drained, and the nuts are again filled with a portion of clean liquid.

It is recommended to process the fruits at least 3 times in this way. When the cleaning activities are completed, all the nuts are evenly distributed on a towel so that they can dry naturally.

Reference!

A nut shell can become covered not only with dust invisible to the human eye, but also with quite obvious dirt. To remove it from the surface, it is better to use a regular dishwashing sponge. On one of its sides there is an abrasive structure that will quickly and thoroughly clean the shell from dirt and plaque.

Many sellers bleach nuts in the same way. After processing with a sponge, the shell acquires a lighter shade.

If we are talking about shelled nuts, which are sold packaged from a reliable manufacturer with a good reputation, then they need to be poured into a colander and then rinsed under running water. After this, they should be rinsed with regular drinking water to wash away any remaining harmful compounds. When loose nuts were purchased at the market, it is better not only to wash them, but to additionally scald them with boiling water. This will help completely get rid of harmful bacteria and germs.

Fresh nuts are quite a heavy food for the human digestive system. Therefore, many people soak the kernels before use. In this case, there is no need to scald with boiling water for disinfection. It is enough to place the fruits in water with soda. An alkaline environment is fatal to most types of parasitic microorganisms, as well as their eggs, various viruses and infections.

The only downside to the process of washing nuts is the loss of the peculiar crunch that most people love to eat nuts for. To return this feature, you will need to place the kernels after cleaning in the oven for further drying.

Which is better: wash or soak?

There is a point of view that it is not enough to simply wash shelled walnuts - they should be soaked.

There is no particular difficulty in the procedure. Unroasted peeled kernels are placed in a container, filled with drinking water and left in this form for several hours (or overnight). The product can be stored for up to three days in the refrigerator. After the specified period, they begin to deteriorate, and their taste characteristics deteriorate.

It is better to use hot water for soaking. But when using baking soda, cold soda will do. An alkaline environment will no less effectively kill all viruses, bacteria and eggs that parasites have managed to lay.

The soaking process is often used by raw foodists. It is generally accepted that placing a raw product in water for a while helps to revive it. The taste of peeled walnuts becomes sweeter and more delicate after soaking. If there was some bitterness in it previously, it disappears. The nut stops crunching, but many people even like it.

Pros and cons of the decision to wash or soak

Washing and soaking are two fundamentally different procedures. When washed, dirt, dust and possible pathogens are removed, and when soaked, the nut comes into a fundamentally different state.

However, both procedures have common points, which have their pros and cons.

The benefits of flushing are:

Cleaning of nut raw materials.
Nuts “awaken.” Even if there is no embryo in the nut mass, the endosperm of the walnut (exactly the pulp that we all eat) responds to moisture, becoming more tender and tasty.
Unnecessary substances are removed: tannins, essential oils, tannins, etc.
Soaked nuts have a similar taste and consistency to fresh ones, just picked. This point is significant if you need to eat nuts that have been stored since last season.

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The disadvantages include:

Reduced shelf life for shelled nuts. Washed kernels are saturated with water, accelerate germination - and can no longer wait for the next season, like properly dried and aged nuts.
Change in taste. Many people like the bitterness in walnuts that washing and soaking removes.

Many argue that walnuts that have already been purchased without shells should not only be washed under running water, but soaked. It is believed that soaking will better help remove dirt from their surface. Moreover, this process itself is not as complicated as it may seem at first.

First of all, the kernels need to be placed in some container, then filled with ordinary water, which is used for drinking. That's all. This completes all actions. All you have to do is wait a few hours. The ideal option is to leave the nuts to soak overnight.

It is recommended to use hot water for soaking, as it will help destroy all harmful microorganisms.

You can also add baking soda to the water in which the nuts are soaked. This substance will also kill bacteria and viruses.

One of the main benefits of nuts that have been soaked is that they have a sweeter, more delicate flavor. And if earlier you could feel some bitterness when consuming it, then after soaking the unpleasant aftertaste disappears.

Moreover, the content of useful substances in the product approximately doubles. Food that does not contain heavy substances will be quickly digested in the stomach. True, nuts become less crunchy after soaking. But many people even like it.

How to properly dry nuts after washing

Having figured out how to wash shelled walnuts, it is worth learning about how to dry them. There are several ways.

Natural drying

Natural drying does not involve heat treatment. The washed product is laid out on a cloth or sheet of paper in a well-ventilated area for 2 - 3 days. The fruits should be stirred periodically to ensure even drying.

In an electric dryer

When drying using a specialized household appliance - an electric dryer - it is important to set the correct temperature, which is intended for heat treatment of fruits and nuts. The procedure will take about 5 - 6 hours.

When drying washed, peeled nuts in the oven, it is necessary to set the temperature in the range from 70 to 90 degrees. A higher figure is not acceptable. Before placing the nuts in the oven, they must be laid out on a baking sheet (preferably in one layer). The drying process will take 2 to 3 hours. After the designated time has passed, the fruits must be removed, laid out on a flat surface and allowed to cool.

In the microwave

Drying washed, peeled nuts in the microwave is not the most common method, but it is sometimes used. It will take literally 1 - 2 minutes to dry the fruits. In this case, it is important to set the time mode correctly: if you make a mistake, the walnuts will burn.

Alternative to washing: roasting nuts

Not everyone decides to wash fruits before eating, fearing about their taste. In such cases, it is worth considering another way to make the product not only safe to eat, but also more tasty. We are talking about frying in a pan.

To obtain tasty and safe nuts by roasting, you will need to follow these steps:

Heat a skillet over medium heat.
Place the kernels in it in one layer, previously cut in half or into 4 parts. There is no need to use oil or fat: the fruits themselves are quite fatty.
Keep it on the fire, stirring constantly, until it turns brown. On average, the process takes no more than 5 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Let the nuts cool.
Serve.

Practice shows that roasted walnuts have a brighter and richer taste.

How to store walnuts in shell

It’s very good if you have your own walnut tree.

In this case, dry, settled weather is chosen for collecting nuts.
Nuts are shaken off the tree. Ripe fruits fall easily to the ground.
Peel the skin, as it causes the nuts to become moldy.
Scatter them to dry on the mat. Ideally, the nuts take 5–6 days to dry. If the weather does not allow this to be done outside, they are dried at home, scattered on the floor covered with cloth or paper.
If the nuts need to be stored for a long time, it is recommended to place them in a warm oven and heat them for about an hour to get rid of excess moisture.
Store nuts in linen bags or boxes in a dark, dry place. The room temperature should be no higher than 10–15° (room temperature is an extreme case).
Some housewives store nuts on the balcony. But this should not be done because of the high humidity, at which the nut kernels will begin to mold.
High temperatures are also contraindicated for walnuts. After all, they contain a large amount of oil, due to which they quickly become rancid.

Do I need to wash nuts before eating?

Nuts must be washed before use, especially if they are bought in bulk from the market or somewhere else. Moreover, you need to wash both shelled and shelled nuts.

Firstly, due to the fact that the nuts were lying in the open air, they are simply covered in dust and particles of dirt from the surrounding area, even though this may be completely unnoticeable. They can also contain viruses, bacteria, and even parasite eggs, after all, from people who were near them, breathed on them, touched them with their hands.

Secondly, in order for the nuts to be stored longer, and also to prevent them from being eaten by food moths and other pests, of course, they can be chemically treated in some way.

Therefore, be sure to wash the nuts. And even those that are sold packaged in a store are better, and not just loose from the market. Salted ones fried in oil, of course, should not be washed, and perhaps also those produced by some foreign or our premium brands. But all the rest, which are cheaper, need to be washed - judging by their appearance, these are the same nuts that are sold by weight on the market, just distributed in packages.

How to properly wash nuts before eating: shelled and in shell

It’s unlikely that the nuts in the shell were sprayed with any chemicals (except that walnuts, I heard, are sometimes bleached with something), so I think it’s enough to just rinse them thoroughly with water to remove any dust so that it doesn’t get on the kernels after cracking. If there are only a few of them, then hold them in a colander under a stream of water, and at the same time I still stir them. If there is more, you can pour it into a saucepan, add water, and stir it well. Then drain the water, add fresh water, stir again, drain, then wipe the nuts from moisture or let them dry on their own.

If there is not just dust on the shell, but traces of dirt are visible (this sometimes happens on walnuts, for example), then I use a dishwashing sponge - I go over each nut with the abrasive side.

I wash the peeled nuts as follows: pour them into a colander, rinse them under a stream of tap water, and then rinse them with drinking water. This is if the nuts are from a pack from a reliable manufacturer. And if you bought them at the market, then it’s better to pour boiling water over them, or keep them in it for at least 5-10 seconds - this is to kill germs.

If you then soak the nuts and are going to do it with soda (I’ll tell you more about this later), then I think it’s not necessary to pour boiling water over them, since an alkaline environment is already destructive for parasites and their eggs, as well as for many viruses and infections.

And if the nuts have a chemical taste (this often happens with cashews and shelled pine nuts, and simply washing them does not help), then keep them for half an hour or an hour in water at room temperature or 10 minutes in hot water - the surface of the kernels will soften and the chemicals will come off. After this, drain the water, rinse the nuts again with drinking water - and you are ready to eat. The chemical taste disappears.

After washing, the nuts, of course, lose some of their crunchiness, which many people love about them. Therefore, after washing, you can dry them in the oven or in a dehydrator.

How to wash nuts correctly: shelled or left in shell?

It’s unlikely that the nuts in the shell were treated with any chemicals (the only thing I’ve heard is that walnuts are bleached with something). For this reason, it seems to me that it will be enough to wash them thoroughly from dust so that it does not settle on the core when splitting.

How to properly wash nuts?

You can simply rinse a small amount in a colander under running water. If there is quite a lot, then you can pour it into a saucepan, pour water into it and stir it properly. Next, pour out the water, pour in new water and do the same thing. Then wipe the wet nuts or you can leave them to dry naturally.

I wash the shelled nuts like this:

I pour some of it into a colander,
wash under running water,
Then I rinse them with bottled water.

This method is relevant for packaged products from a trustworthy manufacturer. I also advise you to pour boiling water over the ones you bought at the market or leave them in it for 5-10 seconds. - this is how the microbes die.

If you are going to soak the nuts after this and will use soda (there will be detailed information about this below), then it is not necessary to use boiling water. Since an alkaline environment can in any case kill harmful bacteria, viruses and eggs laid by parasites.

Roast or soak nuts

Be that as it may, before eating, the nuts must either be lightly fried, sprouted, or soaked. It is not recommended to eat them raw.

This is explained by two main factors:

Inhibitors are found in the cores of raw foods. They are special substances that prevent their germination. Penetrating into the human body, inhibitors slow down the process of food digestion, interfering with the synthesis of enzymes.
Nuts themselves put a significant strain on the liver, and raw nuts in particular.

They end up being hard to digest and difficult to absorb. For this reason, they must be processed in order for their consumption to be beneficial. Both soaking and frying help break down the inhibitors. It’s difficult to say which option is more effective.

Roasting nuts

Thus, the most accessible methods of releasing inhibitors (maybe not entirely, but at least partially) remain treatment with high temperatures and soaking.

During roasting, nuts, like all other products, reduce the content of nutrients. How are things going in this regard when soaking? There are different points of view on this on the Internet, so my advice is to try it yourself and go by your feelings.

I both roast and soak the nuts. With the latter method, they seem softer to me, and at the same time, fried, they taste better to me. Let's look at the method of using high temperatures below.

Roast or soak nuts?

In any case, before eating them, the nuts need to be either fried, sprouted, or soaked. It is better not to eat them raw. Why? There are two main things at play here:

Raw nut kernels contain inhibitors - these are special substances that prevent them from germinating. Once in the human body, inhibitors inhibit digestion by blocking the production of enzymes.
Nuts, in principle, create a large load on the liver, and especially raw ones.

As a result, they are difficult to digest and poorly absorbed. Therefore, they must be processed in order to be consumed beneficially. Both soaking and heat treatment help destroy the inhibitors. I don’t know what is more effective in this regard. By far the most effective thing is to germinate nuts , but this is difficult to achieve, the process itself is long and, perhaps, only nuts in the shell are suitable for it, since only they are unlikely to have been heated and are therefore capable of germination.

In general, the simplest ways to get rid of inhibitors (perhaps not completely, but at least some) are heat treatment and soaking. During the frying process, nuts, like any other product, reduce the amount of nutrients. But how well are the nutrients released by soaking? There are different opinions on this matter on the Internet, so, as usual, I recommend trying it and relying on your own feelings.

I eat both roasted and soaked nuts. I feel the soaked ones are softer for the body, but at the same time the fried ones are tastier. I'll start with frying.

How to roast nuts correctly

I do not recommend frying nuts in a frying pan. Then the roasting will most likely be uneven, even if you stir them constantly. It would be better to use an oven. Also, if you roast in the oven, you can control the temperature and not let it go beyond the smoke point of the nut oil, otherwise it will begin to turn into a harmful form. And this, in general, is one of the advantages of frying nuts yourself, rather than buying them already roasted.

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How and for how long to roast nuts in the oven

I find the optimal oven temperature to be 150 degrees since nut oil smoke points start at 160 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, cashews and almonds, for example, reach a degree of roasting that suits me in 8-10 minutes.

The nuts should be spread evenly on the baking sheet in one layer. If space allows, it is better to distribute them so that they do not touch each other - they will fry more evenly.

I haven’t tried roasting nuts in the microwave because I simply don’t have one. Various things are said on the Internet about microwave ovens and their harmful effects on food. It’s not clear what to believe, but some points are alarming. I decided that I could live normally without this device. And it works!

How to dry

After washing or soaking, the nuts should be dried. There are several ways to do this.

Place the nuts on a sheet of paper or a piece of cotton cloth. Don't use newspaper. The room in which nuts are dried must be properly ventilated. Drying will take approximately 2-3 days.
If you have an electric dryer, the drying time will be significantly reduced. Set the appropriate temperature, it depends on the model of the device. Convection types operate at temperatures up to +70 degrees, infrared - about +50. Place the nuts on plastic trays (they are sold with the device) and place them inside the chamber. The procedure will take no more than five hours. Be careful and be sure to clean the electric dryer before use, otherwise your nuts will change the smell.
You can also use a microwave oven for drying. This is the fastest method, since the nuts are dried in just a few minutes, but it is also the most risky. If you calculate the time incorrectly, the kernels will simply burn out. Here even a few seconds matter.
Drying in the oven takes 2-2.5 hours. Pour the nuts onto a baking sheet (in one layer) and place in the oven preheated to 80 degrees. You cannot increase the degrees in the hope of speeding up the process!

We hope that the result of reading this article will always be washed nuts on your table. Don’t waste your time on a seemingly pointless procedure and be healthy!

How to soak nuts correctly

For those who are not suitable or do not like frying, there is soaking . You need to soak nuts, of course, in clean drinking water, in the ratio: one part nuts to two parts water. But then opinions differ.

Someone writes that you just need to soak the nuts in water. Someone writes that salt needs to be added - I came across this recommendation: for a 250 ml glass of nuts, a teaspoon of salt (of course, natural unrefined - better than sea salt, pink Himalayan or light gray Celtic, for example). And at the same time pour hot water so that the salt dissolves better. But you can, of course, use it not hot, especially for raw foodists.

In the program “About the Most Important Thing,” dedicated to lentils, a smart guy said that alkali promotes more effective release from inhibitors. That is, you need to add soda . Exactly how much was not specified, but I pour about a third of a teaspoon into a 250 ml cup of water, and in general I often do it by eye.

The talk in the program, of course, was about lentils, but I don’t see why this couldn’t be applied to nuts. Moreover, salt also alkalizes water, only less actively than soda. Well, in both substances the base is the same - sodium.

I tried soaking it with salt a couple of times. After soaking with soda, it felt like the nuts were better accepted by the body. However, I recommend that you try both options.

Now about the soaking time. It is different for all nuts. Brazilians recommend soaking almonds for 10-12 hours, or even a whole day - for me it usually works out to 12-20 hours. Hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, pistachios - 8-10 hours. The grains of apricot kernels are also probably somewhere the same. Cashews - 2-3 hours, maximum 6, otherwise they will completely lose their taste (this is why I prefer to fry them rather than soak them). About cedar I saw somewhere about soaking for 8 hours, and in another place that 15-30 minutes is enough, otherwise they say they will become tasteless.

The skin (peel), if any, must be removed from nuts before eating, since it contains the highest concentration of digestive enzyme inhibitors. It comes off quite easily after soaking.

It is better to soak the nuts for one meal or one day of consumption - just so that they do not start to spoil. They write that, in principle, soaked nuts can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days, or dried in the oven, and then they will generally last for 2 weeks in the refrigerator in an airtight container. But I'm a stickler for freshness.

How many nuts can you eat per day?

The first information I received on this matter a long time ago was that you can eat no more than 100 grams of nuts per day, because they are very high in calories. I’m not inclined to be overweight, so the calorie content didn’t scare me, and sometimes I ate too much on nuts, not counting exactly how many of them went into me.

However, later I heard about an even smaller figure - 40-50 grams, and not so much nuts to eat in one meal, but for the whole day. The explanations for this were already more relevant for me: that they are difficult to digest and create a large load on the liver. I am not in perfect condition yet, and my digestion is not yet stable, so I decided to eat nuts within this amount. And indeed the liver became noticeably calmer. In addition, very quickly and in principle I stopped wanting to eat a lot of nuts - now sometimes I can’t even eat 50 grams. In general, I started using them less often; now I don’t eat them every day—I just don’t feel like it.

How to eat nuts and how to chop them

Nuts are not only poorly digestible due to inhibitors and perhaps something else, but due to their dense structure, they are, in principle, difficult to break down by the digestive system. You know, they say that food should be chewed thoroughly before swallowing. So, you need to chew the nuts even more thoroughly, literally grind them into powder with your teeth. Well, or use a blender.

You definitely need a blender with a turbo mode so that you can grind the nuts directly into that very powder. Moreover, the smaller the volume of the chopper, also sometimes called a chopper, the better. However, the turbo mode is different. You don’t need one that simply spins the knives faster (like, for example, the very cheap Vitek VT-3411), but one that also pulsates up and down at the same time - then the grinding will be of better quality.

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But I'm talking about ordinary inexpensive blenders. And then there are super-powerful, expensive ones that operate at supersonic speed, and even not the speed of light. They, of course, will turn anything into dust. But let's leave them aside. A good inexpensive option is the Braun blender.

The small chopper of this blender is just right - 350 ml, the blades twitch up and down in turbo mode. One drawback is that the plastic base of the knife is quite flimsy, so if you work frequently in turbo mode, a crack may first appear on it, and then one day the knife will simply get stuck in the chopper pin, so much so that you can’t even pull it out. I changed 3 knives, after which I switched to a 500 ml chopper - it has a different system for attaching the knife to the pin, much more reliable, but due to the larger volume of the bowl, it chops a little worse, but still not bad. And yes, it practically doesn’t pulsate, unfortunately.

I have an outdated blender model: Braun Multiquick MR 6550, no longer sold for a long time. Now there are new ones in any electronics store, including online stores. You can find out from the seller, or from the Brown company itself, which modern model has the same type of turbo mode. What is noteworthy is that the grinders for blenders are still produced the same.

Grinding dry nuts directly into “flour” or into a paste in my Braun blender, even if it is possible, will take a very long time. However, if you add moisture, then cashews, for example, can quickly be turned into cream, or into yogurt (if cooled), and denser almonds and hazelnuts can be turned into cottage cheese.

Here's how I do it: first I turn some fruits or berries into puree with a blender. And then I pour nuts into it and use turbo mode until I get the degree of grinding I want. In this case, you need to adjust the ratio of nuts and fruits/berries so that all this mass is crushed and does not stick to the walls of the chopper, or, conversely, does not turn out to be too liquid.

Then I can sweeten it with something, if the fruits or berries are sour, add something else. Then I put it in the freezer to cool, after 15-20 minutes I take it out - the nut yogurt or cottage cheese is ready! Suitable for vegans.

For the best flavors I've found for one of my most consumed nuts, check out my cashew review.

That's all I have for today. Eat nuts, but only do it for your own benefit!