How to choose chopped nuts. How to choose the best nuts? Heat treatment in a pan

As you know, walnuts are a unique food product containing a huge amount of substances useful for our body. These nuts contain a huge amount of vitamins, protein, trace elements and fats. It must be said right away that this product is quite high-calorie, so its use should be limited to those people who are on diets, are actively involved in sports or lead, on the contrary, a sedentary lifestyle.

To clean or not to clean?

Of course, we all know what kind of product, how to split it is sometimes difficult, how much time it takes. Why not buy shelled nuts right away? Many, of course, do. But doctors and culinary specialists agree on one thing: it is better not to buy peeled nuts, because it is not known what quality they are, how long they are stored in warehouses in a store, how long they lie on its shelf, whether all the conditions for their storage and transportation were observed.

In this case, if you do not trust stores, then we advise you to buy an unpeeled walnut. How to properly split a walnut so as not to damage the inner nucleolus, we will tell today. Also, by the way, the option with home peeling nuts is also suitable for those who grow them on their own in their backyard. What kind of purchased nuts are there, and even peeled ones, when at home in the kitchen there is always a plate of self-grown delicacy.

knife

Perhaps the most common method of shelling walnuts is using an ordinary kitchen knife. How to split a walnut without damaging the kernel with a knife? We take a nut, we find a hole in its shell (more often it is called a "tail"). We insert the tip of the knife there and turn it a little. The fruit is quickly and easily divided into two parts, the inner part is not damaged.

Pliers

This option is suitable for those who need ground walnuts, say, to decorate a cake or to marinate meat. How easy it is to split a walnut with pliers, but how sloppy! Of course, you can very carefully bite off the shell in parts, but for sure such a long method will not suit everyone.

baking sheet

A fairly common method is to heat a walnut. How to split it with a baking sheet? No way. The oven and the preheated baking sheet just help soften the in-shell partition a little. Keep the nuts in the oven for about ten minutes, remove from the oven, cool slightly and use any of the methods above (knife or pliers).

Under the influence of high temperature, the constriction that binds the nutshell will be so soft and pliable that the process will take you a minimum of time.

Boiling water

This is also a "temperature" option. In the Caucasus, nuts are cleaned in this way. So, walnut. How to split with boiling water? They take a large saucepan, spread the nuts there and pour boiling water over it. Leave for twenty to thirty minutes. They take out the nuts and easily clean them with a knife.

Unusual ways to peel nuts

Among the popular and proven options that help clear walnuts, there are methods from the Kulibins. They can be called funny, unusual, original or stupid, but the fact is: people use them. We will share with you, tell you how to quickly crack walnuts using non-standard methods.

The first method is a champagne bottle. Here you will need accuracy, accuracy and skill. The main thing is that, as they say, the hand does not tremble. So, take a walnut, put it on the table. As you know, many bottles of sparkling wine have a small notch at the base. It is with this very notch that you will need to hit the nut when you strike. Moreover, the “eyewitnesses” claim that this is far from the first time, and this method is rather “bloody”, because the shell and the nut itself scatter throughout the room.

Doorjamb. Did you think that only teeth can be removed with a doorknob? And here it is not. You can also use the front door to chop walnuts. The method tested by many, but, again, rather "dirty". After you place the nut between the door and the jamb, pull it well on it, you will have to collect the nut on the floor.

First, always try to give preference to nuts that have a darkish shell color. Green nuts (forest or wild) also taste good, but peeling them will be very, very problematic for you. The shell and partitions inside such nuts are so strong and dense that neither the oven nor boiling water will help here.

Secondly, remember that the most delicious nuts are large ones. Try to buy these. If there is an opportunity to choose from a pile on the counter, then by all means do it, and do not pour everything into a bag.

Third, never buy wet and cold nuts. It doesn’t matter if they are in the shell or already cleaned at the factory.

Fourthly, the shell must be clean. That is, it should have “grandmother's” wrinkles characteristic of it, but there should not be any white deposits, spots, defects and damage.

One last thing: check the nuts by sound. Are you laughing? But in vain! Ripe and tasty nuts with a large and juicy kernel will always sing. Hit one nut against another. If you hear a dull incomprehensible sound, then it is better not to take such a nut. And if the nuts answer you loudly, then they are tasty, fresh and of high quality.

The complexity of the use of walnuts lies in the fairly dense and difficult to crack the shell. This moment largely prevents the sufficient use of this useful and accessible product for many of our readers. The question of how to quickly and correctly chop walnuts at home becomes more acute before the holidays, when it is necessary to prepare a sufficient number of kernels for the celebration. Harvesting of nut fruits has always been a profitable and guaranteed income, however, industrial enterprises prefer to purchase ready-made and already peeled raw materials.

As a small digression, we will reveal a few secrets of farmers who are professionally engaged in harvesting. With their help, you can better understand the features of this type of activity or provide yourself with a high-quality food product at home, since kernels are an integral part of many confectionery products and are considered one of the best ingredients in cooking.

There are a number of ways in which you can easily, quickly and efficiently crack walnuts at home, with or without various tools available. However, in order to put this work on stream, you need to understand the varieties that are used for harvesting. The thickness and rigidity of the peel depends on the variety, respectively, the choice of cleaning method.

Varieties of walnuts: features of choice

Walnut refers to cultivated trees cultivated for growing fruits. The walnut family, growing in temperate latitudes, has at least 20 species of trees that differ in the consumer properties of the fruits obtained. The tree bears fruit with sipkar drupes, so before harvesting and purchasing, you need to take into account the size of the fruit and the characteristics of the peel. It is recommended to choose large-fruited varieties with a rather fragile fruit rind, they are most in demand by the confectionery industry and are usually easy to process.

On sale you can find rock nuts, Volzhsky, Toporovsky, Pridnestrovian, undersized early-growing varieties. The most popular variety is Ideal, which gives fruits the size of a matchbox, and Tien Shan, whose fruits, when properly cultivated, reach the size of a chicken egg. The most common and unpretentious, at the same time very useful for the treatment of a number of diseases, is Black Walnut.

Unripe fruits have long been the raw material for tasty and healthy nut tinctures. For the preparation of medicinal and cosmetic products, waste that is not used for food is also used.

Harvesting walnuts

The choice of how to peel walnuts depends on the availability of tools and the quantity you need to process. The gold standard is the whole form of the fleshy and slightly dried core, which is purchased at a higher price and is also a favorite product on the home table. We recommend preparing chopped nuts with whole kernels, and after that, take steps to grind for personal purposes or hand over the product to the harvesters.

Stage 1: preparation for cleaning at home

The first step is the sorting of raw materials. Usually it does not take much time, the harvesting of fruits comes from one tree or from planting, respectively, they have similar characteristics. The main task is to separate the raw materials according to the size and structure of the peel. Separately, small fruits, large fruits and nuts with a “muscular” and very dense shell should be processed.

Large walnuts

A hard crust requires additional preparation; it is not so easy to split it. The "trifle" is also quite difficult to split due to its small size. These fruits will have to be further prepared before cleaning. The more fragile peel of those nuts that were peeled after harvesting by heating in the oven, roasting or drying. It is also better to peel the fruits in the season with warm and hot August, in which case they reach maturity, and the peel remains dense, but acquires the necessary fragility.

Stage 2: preparation of raw materials

The preparation of raw materials includes its cooking or drying in the oven. This step is necessary in the following cases:

• small-fruited and hard large-fruited raw materials;
• large volumes of workpieces in the absence of a specialized tool; to increase cleaning speed.

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Natural sun drying

Preparation options:

• natural drying in the sun;
• pouring raw materials with boiling water for 10 minutes;
• heating the fruits in the oven for 10 minutes at a temperature of 200C (in small volumes, in the summer kitchen, you can dry nuts in large pans);
• soak in hot salted water for 30 minutes (salt is added by eye, as in cooking, 1 tablespoon or dessert spoon per 2-3 liters of water, it is better to use rock salt).

Stage 3: splitting the shell

The third stage and the choice of the method of splitting the shell at home depends on the volume of the workpiece and the availability of a specialized tool.

Nuts can be cracked:

• with a sharp knife;
• hammer;
• with the help of a nutcracker;
• bottles and hammer.

Method 1: splitting with a knife and with a hammer

Using a sharp knife, the raw materials are cleaned after preliminary preparation (boiling, roasting or soaking), piercing between the halves in the middle. Splitting with a hammer is a relatively quick and easy cleaning method with a fairly high quality. In the evening, you can clean up to 6 kg of finished raw materials, 35% of which will be kernels. In other words, it takes 5-6 hours of work to obtain 2 kg of nut kernels using the hammer cleaning method. You can clean them a little faster when using a knife after preliminary preparation.

Method 2: splitting on the bottle

One of the most interesting and affordable ways to get whole nut kernels, which are raw materials of the highest quality, is splitting on a bottle. For this, a bottle of beer or champagne is used. In this case, the choice of neck depends on the size of the fruit. For a regular size, bottles from imported beer are chosen. For large-fruited - a bottle of champagne, for small - bottles of water.

The basic principle used in this cleaning method is to evenly distribute the impact force. Also, the recoil effect from the neck on which the nut fruit is installed has a significant impact. The base of the nut is installed on the neck. If everything is done correctly and thoughtfully, even a dense peel will be easier to prick, keeping the core intact.

Method 3: splitting with a nutcracker

There are a number of tools for cleaning nuts on the market. The most effective is the Nutcracker nutcracker or bottle V-shaped. The high efficiency of this device consists in the distribution of the force transmitted from the handles to almost the entire surface of the nut peel, as a result, even with a slight pressure, it splits while maintaining an intact core.

Nutcracker Nutcracker

The effectiveness of such nutcrackers may differ due to the shape. It is worth choosing a model that “covers” the entire nut. Due to this, less effort will have to be applied during work, it is possible to chop the fruits in less time.

Step 4: Sorting the cracked nuts

Split nuts are cleaned from jumpers, which are a separate procurement product, and peel. Some manufacturers accept not only the core and lintels, but also the peel, it is used to produce various eco-fillers and make scrubs. Split nuts can be stored at home for at least a few months until the next season.

Conclusion

One of the proposed methods, you can choose for yourself how to properly and quickly chop walnuts. Also watch the video for the step by step process. This will help you to make your own food richer, keep your spirits and sharp mind until the most respectable age.

Walnuts help to avoid Alzheimer's disease, protect blood vessels from atherosclerosis and preserve vision. This product is a natural energizer, and in combination with prunes, it allows you to protect yourself from the effects of radiation, which is especially important for owners of private houses with poor-quality underfloor ventilation living in areas with uranium deposits.

Nuts are a storehouse of vitamins and minerals, a nutritious product, and just a great treat. But all this wealth is not so easy to get, because nature has safely hidden it behind solid and powerful armor. We will tell you how easy it is to deal with this wooden box with a secret and get whole, beautiful nuts.

Peeled nuts deteriorate much faster than their counterparts in natural armor, and even lose some of their vitamins during storage. Therefore, it is better to chop nuts immediately before use. If you want to have a small supply of cleaned ones, then you need to store them in a dark sealed container in a cool room or refrigerator.

The most popular types of nuts that are widely used in cooking are walnuts. They have excellent taste and useful properties. But their cores are reliably protected by solid. It is required to find out in advance how to peel walnuts correctly so that the separation of the nucleoli does not drag on for a long time.

Cleaving with a pouch

It would seem that it is difficult to peel nuts? All you need is a wooden board, a hammer and cloth. The fruits are wrapped in cloth - so their shells will not scatter around. Now they need to be put on the board, and you can start stabbing with a hammer. Finally, open the bag and start choosing the edible inner parts. But where whole halves are required as a decoration for culinary masterpieces, such a splitting of a nut is not at all suitable.

This article may also be useful for lovers of another way of quickly splitting the fruit, when the latter is placed in an ajar door between the door leaf and the jamb on the side where the hinges are hung. All that remains is to close the door. In this case, the one-piece door structure acts as a kind of nutcracker. As a disadvantage of this method, it can be noted that the aesthetic beauty of the door runs the risk of suffering greatly. Still, you can adopt and use alternative methods of how to beat a walnut correctly.

Several options for how to properly chop walnuts

Familiar from childhood Nutcracker

One of the easiest ways is to crack nuts with tongs designed specifically for this purpose. They are inexpensive and can be found at any hardware store. But here you need to practice not to pinch your hand.

If you want to avoid possible damage, then buy immediately exclusively the Nutcracker, which is the latest modern device designed for splitting the hard fruit of the "tree of life". It is arranged as follows: two cast halves are interconnected by a spreading spring. This nutcracker is considered an almost ideal tool that allows you to crack nuts with little effort. In this case, the core is maximally preserved during extraction. In addition, the room will not be littered with shell fragments after the splitting process, because when using the nutcracker, the shell does not fly apart.

Use the power of hot water

After the nuts lie in boiling water for about half an hour, it will not be difficult to open them without any effort, it will be enough to use a fork or knife with a dense blade. Under the influence of boiling water, the dense shell becomes softer, while all the partitions of the nut swell, making the kernel more accessible. At the top of each nut on both sides there is a small slit. It is here that a knife with a strong tip is inserted and slightly rotated. This movement will make it easy to divide the fetus into equal parts. The nucleolus remains absolutely dry, and it is easy and simple to get with your fingers.

The oven will save us

Peeling a walnut is possible without boiling water. Instead, the fruits are placed on the sheet in the oven for about ten minutes, which also makes the process of peeling them much easier.

Which walnuts are hard to peel

For fruits from a wild tree (their peel is much denser), not all methods may be effective. So hard - you should not buy either in the store or on the market. They differ in their appearance. Their shape is slightly elongated, and the size is small. Between the wings of a wild walnut there is not even the smallest crack. To break it, you need a hammer.

How to wash nuts

Before using walnuts, they must be processed - washed, split the shell and remove the core, peeled. Even unpeeled nuts should be thoroughly washed in warm running water or pour boiling water.

1. Pour boiling water over nuts for half an hour.


2. Rinse in running water.


3. Lay out on a towel and wait until dry.


4. Remove the kernels.

Always wash unpeeled walnuts

How to peel nuts

To peel walnuts from the shell, you can choose one of the following methods:

In no case do not try to crack the shell with your teeth, it is dangerous and harmful to the teeth.

Pouch and hammer

For work you will need:

• a hammer;


• towel or cloth;


• wooden plank.

Care must be taken to use a hammer so as not to damage the fingers. Calculate correctly the impact force so that the shell cracks, but the core remains intact.

1. Wrap the fruit in a towel or place it in a cloth bag so that the shell does not scatter around on impact.


2. Put on the board, hit the side surface of the nut with a hammer. Do not overdo it, otherwise you will crumble the core.

How to crack nuts with a hammer

You can crack a nut in an even simpler way, using only a hammer. However, it should be noted that cracking nuts with a hammer is not safe. In addition, without a bag, the shell will scatter to the sides.

An interesting way to remove the soft shell is to put the nut on the neck of the bottle and use a wooden mallet to detach the peel. The core will not be damaged.

Video: how to remove the soft shell, do not damage the core and divide it into two butterflies

How to peel walnut fruit

A simple and quick way to crack nuts is a nutcracker or, as it is also called, a nutcracker. It is a metal tongs with which it is convenient to chop nuts. You need to carefully work with the tool, practice first, otherwise you can pinch your fingers. It is easy to split the shell with a nut splitter without much effort. If you do not squeeze the nut strongly, then you will get the kernels almost whole. The undoubted advantage of the method is that the shell does not scatter around the room.

As a rule, the nutcracker is often replaced with other improvised tools:

• pliers;


• pliers;


• gas key;


• garlic press.

The principle of splitting is the same as with the help of a nutcracker. But tools not intended for splitting are much more dangerous to use, it is much more difficult to extract the whole core with their help. A garlic crusher, in general, may not withstand the load and break, so weigh the pros and cons when choosing a cleaning method and tool.

Nutcracker quickly and easily peel nuts from the shell

How to peel nuts quickly and accurately - video

An easy way to split nuts into two halves - soaking in boiling water

Boiling water makes the shell pliable. If you hold the fruits in it, then they can be easily split with a fork or knife.

1. Insert a knife or fork into a small hole in the nut.


2. Rotate it in different directions.

So you can split the nut and successfully get the whole halves - butterflies. Be careful when working with sharp objects. A nice bonus of the method is that the nuts acquire a milky aftertaste.

Soaking in boiling water is great for shelling nuts.

How to prepare a brine to soften the shell

You can also soften the shell with brine: 1.5 tbsp. l. salt per 1 liter of water.

1. Put the nuts in a deep bowl, fill with salted water.


2. After half an hour, put on a napkin and dry.


3. Carefully split the nut in half using a knife or fork.






Salt water solution softens the walnut shell

Oven and pan frying

Drying in the oven will quickly get rid of the shell.



1. Place the nuts on a baking sheet or other dish intended for the oven.


2. Place in preheated oven at 200°C for 10 minutes. You should not subject the nuts to a longer heat treatment, otherwise the kernels will dry out and become hard and tasteless.


3. Cool the fruits and with a gentle hammer blow, crack the pliable shell.






Drying nuts in the oven will help crack the nuts




Another way to remove the shell is to dry the nuts in a heated frying pan. The principle of operation of the method is similar to drying in the oven. High temperatures will make the shell more pliable. Do not exceed the recommended processing time to preserve the flavor of the kernel.



1. Place the nuts in the preheated pan and fry for 20 minutes, stirring constantly to evenly distribute the heat.


2. Cool and peel off the shell.






By frying walnuts in a pan, you can easily peel them from the shell


Door

There is another, very controversial way to crack walnuts - with the help of a door.



1. Place the walnut in the gap between the jamb and the door.


2. Close the door and open again.



By peeling the fruits in this way, you can end up with crumbled kernels and shells scattered across the floor. There is also a risk of pinching fingers and damaging the door surface. It's better to choose an alternative.





Cracking a nut with a door is not the best way

Three ways to peel a walnut: pliers, boiling water, oven - video

Peeling nuts from husks (skins, skins, films)

You can remove the bitter thin shell from the nut in different ways:

• hold the nuts in salted water (for 1 liter - 1.5 tablespoons of salt) for 12 hours, and then rinse and dry;


• put the fruits in a deep bowl and pour boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then drain the water, put the nuts on a hard towel and rub your hands through the material;


• fry without oil over low heat for about 5 minutes, wrap the fruits in a cloth and roll in your hands - the husks will come off already in the process of frying.

Soaking nuts in salted water, you have to wait several hours, but the express method with boiling water can be adopted, especially in emergency cases. In addition, this way you can return the taste even to slightly stale fruits. Experts agree that heat treatment is preferable, as it simplifies cleaning and reveals the quality of nuts. If the smell of rot or mold is felt during processing, do not eat the product. Bad smells indicate a violation of storage rules. Even if the fruits look attractive, they are dangerous to health.

How to disinfect peeled fruits

There is no need to wash the nuts bought in the shell after cleaning again with water. And if you have already purchased peeled fruits, then you need to disinfect them in one of the following ways:

1. Rinse in warm water, but in no case with boiling water, dry on a towel. You need to remove nuts from the water with a slotted spoon or ladle. Do not drain the water, otherwise the dirt will rise from the bottom of the bowl and end up on the nuts again.


2. Rinse and dry in the oven.


3. Ignite in a pan.

Useful properties of the shell and partitions of the walnut

The shell and husk of the walnut is used for peeling the body, from tartar, for the preparation of folk medicines. Infusions and decoctions are rich in vitamins, so they are taken with a decrease in immunity and for the regulation of hormonal levels. The popularity of the nut is due to the content of tannins in its shell and husk. They help fight diseases such as:

• diabetes;


• mastopathy;


• myoma, fibroadenoma, prostate adenoma;


• polyps in the intestines and indigestion;


• joint diseases.

Folk remedies from the shell and skin of a walnut

1. Decoction of the shell from tartar: crush the shell and measure 0.5 cup, boil in a glass of water for 20 minutes, place a toothbrush with hard bristles in the decoction for 20 minutes. Brush your teeth with a decoction-soaked brush. The stone will stop bothering you if you brush your teeth like this 3 times a day. A decoction of the shell kills bacteria and heals wounds in the mouth.


2. It is easy to prepare a tincture of shells with alcohol (or vodka) at home and take it in case of skin diseases, and also to cleanse blood vessels of cholesterol: take 15 nuts and pour 1.5 liters of vodka into them, insist in a dark place for 15 days, and then take it on an empty stomach 1 st. l. 1 per day.


3. For high blood sugar, take the tincture of alcohol according to the recipe above: dilute 10 drops in a tablespoon of water at room temperature, drink on an empty stomach. The course of treatment is 5-6 weeks, then a break is required. For the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, take it differently: dilute 7 drops of tincture in a tablespoon of water and drink on an empty stomach / empty stomach 2 times a day for a month.


4. For the treatment of the thyroid gland: fill 20 partitions with 100 grams of 70% alcohol, strain after 2 weeks and take 10 drops per spoonful of water 3 times a day.


5. Tincture on water has an anti-inflammatory effect in case of skin diseases: chop the shells of 20 nuts, pour boiling water and leave for 2-3 hours, soak a cotton cloth with the product and apply on the inflamed area.


6. You can take an aqueous tincture internally to improve the quality of the skin. Dosage 50 ml three times a day.


7. Tincture from the shell on kerosene relieves pain in sciatica and in the joints. The mixture will keep for up to 3 years. Preparation: pass 10–12 nuts through a meat grinder, pour green walnuts with 3 cups of purified kerosene and put in a dark place for 12–15 days, then for a month in a bright place. Before use, the liquid should be filtered. Rub on the spine for sciatica or rub locally for sore joints.


8. Green walnut tincture is mainly used in the treatment of diseases of the genitourinary system and intestines. Ingredients - milk walnut 52%, calendula 18%, sage 18%, echinacea 12%. Pour all components into a glass jar and add purified kerosene to them.

There are a lot of recipes that use walnut shells and husks, their universal properties are amazing. However, always remember that folk remedies are good for an integrated approach to solving health problems.