which brings out the delightful flavor.

Cooking with Nuts and Seeds

There are fresh nuts, stale nuts and rancid nuts. Then there are raw nuts and roasted nuts.

You find all five classes in grocery stores and on kitchen shelves. Once they are stale or rancid,

the nearest trash can is the place for them. Because of their high oil content, fresh nuts stale and

eventually turn rancid as the oil oxidizes. Stale nuts may still be refreshed but rancid nuts are

beyond hope. Just like you cannot reverse the action of fire, you cannot reverse rancidity—both

are oxidation. Nuts need to be absolutely fresh to be good—just like meat, fish, vegetables and

dairy products—no matter what you use them for. To use stale nuts in the kitchen is like using

wilted vegetables or over-the-hill meat. To use rancid nuts is like using spoiled fish or moldy

cottage cheese. Don’t risk your food, discard them.

Most fresh nuts have excellent flavor, but heat enhances it so much that it should be

considered a sin to eat them raw. The flavor change is truly drastic. Test it for yourself by

comparing half a batch of fresh-roasted nuts with raw nuts. Roasting activates the browning

reaction (see discussion under Browning reaction in the Meat chapter) and converts scores of

flavor components into new compounds to orchestrate more pronounced, more pleasing, deep,

three-dimensional flavors. Some nuts are almost bland without roasting. Roasting seeds is also a

good idea, since compositionally the two are so similar.

When nuts or seeds are part of a recipe that you bake, roasting is not necessary—the oven

heat activates some browning and flavor development.

Walnuts and pecans are very flavorful when raw, they benefit the least from roasting yet

the flavor improvement is enough to justify the extra roasting time, especially if you use them in

salads or in cooked dishes. Coconuts are the only nuts that we don’t roast.

Roasting nuts and seeds

Are you particular to have the best nuts and seeds in your cooking and baking? Then

always purchase them raw and do the roasting yourself. Packaged pre-roasted nuts cannot

compete with your fresh-roasting even if vacuum-packed with a label that guarantees them to be

fresh. Nuts and seeds are somewhat like bread—as soon as they are out of the oven, they start to

stale.

Roast nuts and seeds in a medium-hot oven (350°F or 180°C), and use the chart below as

your guide only, for roasting time varies with each nut and seed. Nuts vary in size and age

(moisture content) and ovens vary in temperature. Start checking a few minutes before the end of

the roasting time. When you roast nuts in small pieces, they roast faster.

Roasting at lower oven temperatures increase time but the end result is the same. Stir the

nuts or seeds once or twice during roasting for uniform results, particularly if your oven is

blessed with uneven heat (as many older ovens do). As soon as they begin to brown and the

kitchen smells divine, they are done. Once you remove them from the oven, they continue to

brown for a few more minutes with the residual heat. That is why it is best to slightly under-roast

instead of over-roast. It is easy to put them back in the oven for a little longer if you find they

haven't yet developed full flavor after a few minutes of cooling.

Deep-frying or sautéing in small amount of oil also brings out the flavor, but adds more

oil to the nuts. You can also roast nuts and seeds in a heavy sauté pan on top of the stove. This

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