Brazil nuts come from Tibet. Are pecans walnuts? Interesting facts about nuts

Nuts are a favorite snack for most people. Everyone knows that nuts are delicious, but not everyone knows these interesting little facts about nuts.

The nut family is thriving, and if we talk about who is the elder in this family, it is probably the pine nut. Pine nuts are gymnosperms, the earliest plant group on Earth to evolve "seeds". The nut family has a common feature, that is, it is difficult to eat, but pine nuts are relatively easy to obtain, because after natural drying, the "fruit scales" of the pine cones will open by themselves, and the pine nuts will be exposed. Generally speaking, there are two types of pine nuts we eat, one from red pine and the other from Pinus armandii, and the two types of pine nuts are not easy to distinguish in taste.

In addition to these two common pine nuts, there is another kind of pine nut that tastes better, the Brazilian pine nut.

Judging from the name alone, this pine nut seems to have come from Brazil, so it is natural that it is sold at a higher price. But in fact, Brazilian pine nuts have nothing to do with Brazil. They are native to Tibet, my country, and are the seeds of Tibetan white pine. In this case, why is it called Brazilian pine nut? Because this kind of pine tree is rare in my country and is protected, and the Brazilian pine nuts we eat are basically imported, and the western part of Pakistan is one of the production areas of this pine nut, so there is the saying of Brazilian pine nut.

Among the nut family, the most down-to-earth one may be the walnut. When it comes to walnuts, three kinds of nuts come to our mind, namely walnuts, pecans, and pecans.

Let's talk about walnuts first. When walnuts grow on trees, they have a layer of green skin on the surface. If you bite them with your mouth, you will have a distinct bitter taste. This layer of green skin is not easy to peel off. After peeling it off, there is a hard shell underneath. When I was young, I usually used a door to crack the walnut shell, because this would not affect the people downstairs. However, over time, a pit appeared on the side of the door. Next is pecan, which is mainly produced in Zhejiang, my country, and is a specialty of that area.

The surface of pecans also has green skin, but the shell under the green skin is much harder than that of ordinary walnuts. It cannot be pushed open with a door. If you use too much force, you can even feel the door panel deforming.

If you want to crack pecans, it is best to use a special tool: a nutcracker. However, the nightmare does not end after the shell of the pecan is cracked. The kernel of this thing is small and fragile. It is still difficult to peel the kernel after the shell is crushed. It makes people feel that the energy supplemented by eating pecans is not as much as that consumed by peeling pecans. But then again, the kernel of pecans is indeed sweeter than ordinary walnuts. What if you want to eat pecans but don’t want to work hard to peel the shells?

Perhaps you have discovered that there is a nut that tastes very similar to pecan, that is pecan. Is pecan a pecan?

Pecans can be regarded as foreign relatives of pecans. They are native to North America. They are actually American pecans. As for the name of pecans, it is actually the result of transliteration. In the nut family, some nuts are dangerous. The most typical example is almonds. Remember An Lingrong in "The Legend of Zhen Huan"? She finally ate a plate of bitter almonds to send herself away. Are bitter almonds really so powerful? Bitter almonds contain amygdalin, which will produce hydrocyanic acid after hydrolysis. Hydrocyanic acid is toxic and will affect the gastrointestinal system, nervous system and respiratory system of human body.

But we don't need to worry. The almonds we eat now are not bitter. They are all varieties that have been cultivated and improved. The content of amygdalin in these sweet almonds is extremely small.

The most delicious almond in the almond family should be the big peach kernel, which is the seed of the almond. Many people think that this almond is produced in the United States, but in fact its origin is in Central Asia, and Xinjiang, my country is also one of its production areas. This big almond also contains amygdalin, but only in a very small amount.