How to properly store pine nuts at home, methods and places

Pine nuts are a nutritious product that has a number of beneficial properties and has excellent taste. The fruits are collected in the first autumn months. Nuts are sold in different forms - shelled, in shells or in cones. However, not every person knows how to properly store pine nuts. This can be done in a variety of ways.

Why do nuts spoil?

Any nuts can lose their properties.Moreover, they can be in purified form or in pine cones. Nuts spoil because they contain oils that oxidize.

The rate at which this reaction occurs at home is affected by ambient temperature and lighting. The warmer and brighter the room, the faster this process occurs.

Determination of spoiled product

To identify a spoiled product at home, you should pay attention to the following features:

1. Smell – sometimes just smelling a product is enough to determine its quality. Oil that has gone rancid has an unpleasant aroma.
2. Taste – spoiled nuts are bitter and sometimes have a moldy taste. Fresh kernels have a sweetish taste and spicy notes of resin.
3. Color – greenish-gray spots on the shell should alert you, indicating the appearance of mold. High-quality shelled nuts should be yellow in color. They will have a bitter taste.

How long do nuts stay fresh?

Not every person knows how long pine nuts remain fresh. Cleaned kernels are stored for no more than 3 months. They can stay in the shell for 5-6 months. Storing pine nuts in the freezer or refrigerator has the same timing.

Even if pine nuts have been stored for more than 6 months and retain their attractive appearance, it is not recommended to consume them. After 3 months, the kernels will lose their benefits, and their taste will become less intense.In addition, after a few months of storage, bacteria invisible to people will appear in the kernels. Their entry into the body can cause negative health effects.

How to choose a product in a store

To preserve nuts for a long time, it is important to choose them correctly. A high-quality product remains fresh much longer and does not lose its properties. When purchasing it, it is recommended to take into account the following features:

1. Fresh pine cone seeds have a brown skin. The lighter and yellower its color, the older the nuts are.
2. Cleaned grains from a fresh harvest are distinguished by a light creamy hue, which is as close as possible to milk.
3. The structure of the nut kernels is of great importance. It is important that they are intact and not crushed. If the seeds are flattened, it means that the oil has been partially squeezed out of them, but not to the pulp itself. Sometimes unscrupulous manufacturers try to sell such a product as a whole. However, it is not very suitable for storage.
4. Seeds from cones immediately after shelling have a pleasant resinous aroma. Grains in the shell and peeled kernels have a weaker, but still the same typical aroma. If a product has an intense chemical odor, this indicates that it has been treated with a flavoring agent. It is used to mask musty odors.

According to the rules, it is required to collect cedar cones in early autumn. This means that it is better to buy new harvest nuts from the end of October. When buying pine nuts, it is recommended to be interested not only in the time of harvest, but also in the region. You can often find Chinese pine nuts on the market, which in terms of their taste and nutritional properties are significantly inferior to their Siberian counterparts.

Preparation for storage

In order for pine nuts to retain their properties for as long as possible, it is important to pay attention to preparatory measures. In this case, the seeds must be properly shelled. Careful selection of container is also important.

Proper shelling

It is most convenient to have a product on hand that is ready for use. That's why many people prefer to buy already shelled pine nuts. If you store the product in a shell, it will have to be cleaned from time to time. There are a variety of ways to do this:

1. Roasting. It is recommended to heat the seeds in a frying pan, stirring them constantly. In this case, the fire needs to be higher than average. When using the oven, the nuts should be heated at a temperature of +110-120 degrees. Heat treatment should take about a quarter of an hour. As a result, it will be possible to make the shell more fragile and easily peel the kernels with your fingers.
2. Steaming. Pine nuts can be poured with boiling water for half an hour. After which it is recommended to drain the liquid and dry the kernels. As a result, the peel will steam and be easily removed. It is important to consider that this method has a very significant disadvantage. The fact is that moistened kernels cannot be stored for a long time.
3. Temperature effect. Walnut shells are highly sensitive to temperature fluctuations. When the nuts are roasted and abruptly immersed in ice water, the skin will become covered with cracks. Peeling nuts prepared in this way will not be difficult.
4. Freezing. To use this method, cedar seeds in a bag must be placed in the freezer for 6 hours. The grains in the bag should be distributed in a thin layer and rolled using a rolling pin. With a little force, the fragile peel will crack.It is important to take into account that this method has a significant drawback. When it is used, not only the shell is crushed, but also the nucleoli. Therefore, you will have to choose fragments from the crushed nut mass.

It is important to consider that peeled seeds have a short shelf life. Nuts that have been subjected to heat treatment can be stored for a maximum of 2-3 days. Therefore, you should not peel a lot of nuts at once.

Preparing containers

The shelf life of nuts depends on suitable conditions and the correct choice of container. It is important to consider the storage method:

1. Room conditions - you should give preference to a sealed and light-proof container that has a tight-fitting lid.
2. Refrigerator – the best option would be a plastic or glass container that will reliably protect the nuts from moisture and unwanted aromas.
3. Freezer – It is best to use thick freezer bags for storage. They should be small in size. Also an excellent solution would be to use the same containers as for the refrigerator.

Where to put the nuts

To keep pine nuts fresh for a long period of time, it is important to follow these recommendations:

1. It is forbidden to keep the product in an overly humid place. The optimal air humidity should not be more than 60%. Otherwise, the nuts will become moldy and rot.
2. Only fully ripened seeds can be stored for a long time. Nuts that are not ripe enough will quickly begin to rot. To keep nuts as long as possible, they must be kept in an airtight container that is protected from ultraviolet radiation. The fact is that under the influence of light the process of oxidation of cedar oil begins.It is actively released from the nuts and evaporates. Also, nuts should not be kept in an open container, as they will begin to oxidize and quickly lose their properties.
3. Before storing nuts, they need to be sorted. It is important to remove spoiled or split fruits. If this is not done, the remaining nuts will also spoil.
4. It is important to remove nuts with deformed skins. Also, fruits with green or yellow spots should not be stored for storage. It is best to give preference to large seeds that reach the size of your little fingernail. It is recommended to use smaller fruits immediately. They are unripe seeds that will not be able to retain their properties for a long time.
5. Dry, wrinkled, overly wet or oily in-shell nuts should not be stored. Cleaned seeds can be stored in a sealed vacuum bag for several days. This must be done in the refrigerator. It is also permissible to freeze peeled fresh kernels for six months. Roasted nuts must be consumed immediately.
6. Seeds in the peel can be stored at a temperature of no more than +20 degrees. Peeled fruits are kept in the refrigerator at a temperature from -15 to +5 degrees. This must be done in an airtight container.

Fridge

Under the influence of low temperatures, all chemical reactions slow down. Therefore, the refrigerator is perfect for storing pine nuts. Cleaned kernels can lie in this place for 2 months. If condensation accumulates in a container with nuts, they need to be dried, as this is fraught with mold growth.

Freezer

Fatty foods are stored well at subzero temperatures. Oxidation in the freezer stops and shelf life increases.The kernels should be frozen in small portions, placed in tight bags. It is important to avoid re-freezing. Because of this, the product quickly deteriorates and loses its taste and aroma. Peeled kernels can be kept in the freezer for six months.

In order for pine nuts to retain their taste and beneficial properties for as long as possible, they need to be provided with suitable conditions. It is important to choose the right storage container and buy a quality product.