I'm going to blow your mind and the DNewsing hasn't even DNewsed yet.
Cashews are a fruit and peanuts are not even nuts!
BOOOM.
So what about all those other things we call nuts?
Sometimes you feel like DNews, sometimes not so much.
Hopefully today it's the former.
I'm Trace, thanks for coming back!
According to botany, a TRUE nut is a shelled pod containing a single edible kernel.
So what is a true botanical nut, and what isn't?
Have we been doing this all wrong?!
Okay, so, nuts are single seeds.
Then there are drupes, which are like pits or stones -- that thing at the center of a
peach.
And then there are legumes… which are edible seeds inside of seedpods -- think beans, peas,
lentils and so on.
So, armed with this knowledge, let's crack this thing wide open!
My favorite alleged nut, is the cashew.
The cashew is originally from Brazil, but has spread to India, Vietnam and parts of
Africa.
These delicious snacks are actually the seeds of the cashew tree, which are attached to
the bottom of a fruit called a cashew apple!
Its the seed in the center of a fruit and is therefore not a true nut, but a DRUPE!
Cashews grow inside a shell which contains a very potent poison that causes rashes on
skin contact because the cashew tree is in same botanical family as poison ivy and oak.
This is why they're served shucked and roasted, to get rid of that oil before people handle
them.
Cashews aren't the only false nut; peanuts account for 67 percent of all nut consumption
in the U.S. and they aren't even NUTS, they're definitely a POD of SEEDS and thus a legume!
Peanuts are native to South America, though have spread across the globe.
The pod is the ovary of an 18 inch-tall oval-leaved flowering plant; and it grows horizontally
underground.
If cashews are fruit drupes, and peanuts are legumes…
WHAT OTHER DELECTABLE LIES HAVE I BEEN FED?!
Almonds are seeds of the almond tree, and are related to the peach and apricot.
It grows at the center of a fruit: DRUPE.
Coconuts are drupes!
Walnuts are drupes!
Chestnuts, *breathe* are nuts.
Pecans are also nuts! native to Mexico and the southern United States but it's now raised
in Israel, South Africa, Brazil, and Australia.
It's a hickory fruit from a pecan tree and wasn't commercially grown until the 1880s,
making it a relatively new domesticated crop!
And so are hazelnuts.
Hazelnuts also known as filberts or Kentish cobnuts, ARE actually nuts and originate along
the Mediterranean stretching from Turkey to Spain!
Nutella uses more than a quarter of the world hazelnut supply annually; because of course
it does.
In the end, it doesn't REALLY matter, though, does it.
The key difference between nuts, seeds, legumes and drupes -- is legumes commonly come from
the fabaceae or leguminosae family.
Brazil NUTS are part of the same family as blueberries, cranberries and persimmons, and
grow in a giant fleshy pod… but they're not of the legume family…
so I don't actually know WHAT athey are, but we know they're not nuts.
what a nut REALLY is, scientifically, is just what I said at the top, a hard-coated seed
that usually grows alone...
Legumes come in groups, and drupes live in the middle of fleshy fruits...
But let's be honest, Taxonomy and classification was made up by humans, but we didn't name
things very consistently in english; and it's made things even more complicated because
there's a culinary definition of "nut" too -- which is why a package of peanuts will
say, "may contain nuts," when scientifically, it doesn't contain a single one.
Do you have a favorite nut?
Is your brain driving you nuts like mine is after researching all this?
DO YOU KNOW WHAT A BRAZIL NUT IS?! answer my questions down below in the comments.
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