Oh, pine nuts! We do love you so! Pine nuts bring crunch to our favorite salads and make our batches of summer pesto even more irresistible. At least until we look at the shopping receipt. Or wind up with a case of pine mouth. Wait, why do we love pine nuts, again?
Pine nuts really are harvested from the pine cones of evergreen trees, though the nuts of most backyard varieties are too small to be worth anyone's while. The seeds grow under the scales on the pine cone and take three whole years to reach maturity. Cones with mature nuts are harvested, dried, and then winnowed to remove the nuts. This time-consuming and labor-intensive process at least accounts for their high ticket price once they reach bulk bins and store shelves.
Pine nuts are very high in oil, giving them an almost buttery texture. Crunch a few on their own and you might be able to detect a slightly resinous pine-like flavor. Once mixed with other ingredients, their flavor is more mild and sweet.
This is an ambidextrous nut, equally at home in savory dishes and in sweet preparations. Pine nuts are a classic ingredient in pesto. Also try them scattered over salads, tossed with pasta and pilafs, or folded into wilted greens for a simple side dish. On the sweet front, pine nuts can be ground into cookies, used in biscotti, or added to cakes.
Pine nuts can be eaten as they are, but a little toasting will bring out their flavor. Keep a close eye on them as they toast: since they are so small and high in oil, they can easily scorch and burn. Their high oil content also causes them to go rancid very quickly. If possible, smell your pine nuts before buying them and then store them in the fridge or freezer in a tightly sealed container.
And sadly, pine mouth is no joke. This bizarre affliction, caused by eaten certain batches of pine nuts, makes everything you eat taste bitter or soapy for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. The exact cause isn't known and there's no way to detect if you have a bad batch. It's the luck of the draw, unfortunately.
Do you love pine nuts? What's your favorite way to use them?
Try These Recipes with Pine Nuts!
• How to Make Perfect Pesto Every Time
• Pasta with Butternut Squash, Sage, and Pine Nuts
• Couscous with Raisins, Pine Nuts, and Capers
• Spaghetti Squash with Ricotta, Sage, and Pine Nuts
• Couscous with Sour Cherries and Pine Nuts
• Garlic Greens with Pine Nuts and an Egg
Related: Croutons to Pine Nuts: 10 Favorite Salad Add-Ins
(Image: Emma Christensen)
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I love them but since ever since I read about the "pine nut mouth" scare a few years ago, I haven't bought any. All I can find at the stores are pine nuts from China and so I am loathe to spend that much on something only to find they leave a bad lingering taste in my mouth. So nowadays, I substitute with a wide variety of other nuts: walnuts primarily, but pumpkin seeds, almonds, cashews, etc.
I have found pine nuts much less expensively at an Asian supermarket. They were maybe not as plump as the expensive ones, but still very good.
I love pine nuts!! To me they have almost a bacony flavor. I don't buy them very often, but when I have them in the house I put them in everything! (They don't stay good as long as other nuts, I think.) My boys love them, too, and they'll eat them one at a time off the plate.
I love greens and pine nuts (greens, pine nuts, garlic, and raisins is a perfect combination).
I recently made a beet and goat cheese roulade and filled it with beet greens, chard and pine nuts.
I made this lovely goat cheese and caramelized onion tart with tall thin hazelnut crust, which I used as a bowl for baby arugula, pine nuts and fresh tomatoes.
And I recently made a sort of ratatouille with olives, chickpeas and pine nuts, which we ate with crispy rounds of cornmeal-crusted eggplant.
And they made the perfect additions to this salad of arugula, crispy fried trumpet mushrooms and smoked gouda.
I love pine nuts and luckily I never have to buy them. My family lives in Nevada--where pinion pines can be found in abundance--and my mom & aunts forage for them every year. I don't think I've ever made a recipe with them...we just eat them straight up!
I got pine nut mouth a few years ago. I was a poor college stupid who liked pesto. My mouth tasted like metal when I woke up, and it lasted about 3 days no matter what I did to try and get rid of it. I eat a lot fewer pine nuts, but I always buy the non-Chinese nuts.
They THINK the cause may be from pine nuts P. armandii which are primarily from China: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21559093. For the consumer, it takes some effort to be able to tell the difference between the 'good nuts' and the 'bad nuts.'
Thought this was interesting and worth looking at: http://pinenutsyndrome.wordpress.com/pine-nut-species/
Re: Pine Mouth. I've had excellent results using warm water/salt (like a neti pot or something) to clean out my nose/back of my mouth.
I'm with CINDY-HUNGRY. There are two pineneuts in my life. THe ones I use for most cooking like pesto etc. But my true love is the Pinon pine nut from the Sierras! They are so fresh, soft and fatty and tasty and somewhat pricey. I have used them in pesto, but it is tough shelling them yourself. They are the best thing to add to Thanksgiving stuffing!
love me some pine nuts!
I got Pine Mouth from Trader Joe Pine Nuts. AVOID!