Mom’s Spiced Nuts Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you get spice to stick to nuts? ›

To get the spices to stick to the nuts, use egg whites, butter, coconut oil, olive oil or blanch the nuts in boiling water. Some recipes call for nuts to be fried in oil prior to seasoning, but this adds unnecessary fat – you can make them just a delicious without all the extra calories.

If you keep nuts at room temperature, ensure they are away from direct heat; this will maintain their freshness for up to 3 months, considered short-term storage. However, you can keep them longer, up to 6 months.

Freeze chopped, ground, whole, roasted, or spiced nuts in the shell or in an unopened can. Nuts that are salted or spiced have a freezer storage life of 6 months. Plain nuts have a freezer storage life of about 12 months. Seeds can also be frozen for up to 6 months.

Spoilage is accelerated even more in the presence of light, oxygen, and heat. Storing nuts (and seeds) in the fridge or freezer limits their exposure to all three of these, and will result in your nuts tasting less bitter and more flavorful for a longer period of time.

To get the best flavor from your spices, "toast" them in a dry skillet over low heat, stirring frequently, until they start to release their aromas. Even ground spices can perk up a bit after a quick toast in a skillet, but ones that are too old and faded are generally beyond repair.

To add salt to already cooked unsalted nuts, you can toss them in a bowl with a small amount of melted butter or oil, then sprinkle salt over them and toss until evenly coated. Alternatively, you can bake them briefly with a bit of salt for a toasted flavor. Adjust salt to taste.

Once past this date, foodstuffs may still be consumed (provided the given storage instructions have been followed), as their consumption does not represent a food safety risk, although the organoleptic properties and the aspects that distinguish the food - such as taste and smell - gradually deteriorate.

"Nuts have a wide range of fat contents," says LaMarita. Almonds, walnuts, and pistachios are lower in fat, so they'll generally last longer than nuts higher in fat, like macadamia nuts, pine nuts, cashews, and Brazil nuts, all of which will go rancid quicker, says LaMarita.

Depending on the type, they can range from six to nine months when stored in a pantry or other dry place. However, some types, such as pine nuts, have a shorter shelf life of approximately two months. On the other hand, almonds can last the longest, approximately nine to twelve months.

Whole raw nuts can be stored in the freezer for up to one year. Chopped nuts, ground nuts, or nut flours — all of which contain more surface area for oxidation — are quicker to spoil and should only be stored for up to six months.

Can you freeze nuts in mason jars? ›

Glass jars are ideal; thick-walled plastic jars also work well. Some people use ziplock freezer bags. The main disadvantage of freezing nuts is needing to warm them up before eating or roasting.

While nuts are shelf-stable, they contain those all-important unsaturated fats, which cause them to spoil if they aren't stored properly. Exposure to heat, light, oxygen and humidity can all make your nuts go rancid before you've gone through half the bag.

Nuts smell sour and rancid and aren't quite pleasant. In terms of texture, stale nuts tend to feel softer and lose their trademark crunch when stale. Lastly, rancid nuts taste just like how they smell – sour and bitter.

If a nut is only slightly stale, says Kanney, it can usually still be toasted to revive some of its previous glory and (crunch). However, Kanney says, “If a nut has spoiled or gone rancid, recognizable by a sour or bitter flavor, the nut is no longer good and should be thrown away.”

It's best to choose unsalted or unsweetened nuts. Adding salt or sugar to nuts may cancel out their heart-healthy benefits. Here's some nutrition information on common types of nuts. All calorie and fat content measurements are for 1 ounce, or 28.4 grams (g), of unsalted nuts.

There are four ways to salt unsalted nuts: heat them in a pan, steam them, soak them in brine, or spray and dry them in oil.

Once the chips are cooked, transfer them into a bowl where you can eventually toss the chips. Add your lemon to the chips and toss. This isn't essential but it helps the seasoning stick to the chips and will help cut through the flavours of the seasoning.

Sally Fallon (founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation) explains that using salt to soak nuts “… helps activate enzymes that de-activate the enzyme inhibitors. For grains, we soak in an acidic solution to get rid of phytic acid.

Once the hoppers are full, a vacuum pump is applied for about a minute, which pulls all of the air out of the hopper. As the air is sucked out of the peanuts, the salty brine gets pulled inside the shells (physics class flashback).