Nut (fruit) - Culinary Definition and Uses

Culinary Definition and Uses

A nut in cuisine is a much less restrictive category than a nut in botany, as the term is applied to many seeds that are not botanically true nuts. Any large, oily kernel found within a shell and used in food may be regarded as a nut.

Nuts are an important source of nutrients for both humans and wildlife. Because nuts generally have a high oil content, they are a highly prized food and energy source. A large number of seeds are edible by humans and used in cooking, eaten raw, sprouted, or roasted as a snack food, or pressed for oil that is used in cookery and cosmetics. Nuts (or seeds generally) are also a significant source of nutrition for wildlife. This is particularly true in temperate climates where animals such as jays and squirrels store acorns and other nuts during the autumn to keep from starving during the late autumn, all of winter, and early spring.

Nuts used for food, whether true nut or not, are among the most common food allergens.

Some fruits and seeds that do not meet the botanical definition but are nuts in the culinary sense:

• Almonds, Pecans, and Walnuts are the edible seeds of drupe fruits — the leathery "flesh" is removed at harvest.
• Brazil nut is the seed from a capsule.
• Candlenut (used for oil) is a seed.
• Cashew is a seed.
• Chilean hazelnut or Gevuina
• Horse-chestnut is an inedible capsule.
• Macadamia is a creamy white kernel (Macadamia integrifolia and Macadamia tetraphylla).
• Malabar chestnut
• Mongongo
• Peanut is a seed and a legume of the family Fabaceae.
• Pine nut is the seed of several species of pine (coniferous trees).
• Pistachio is the seed of a thin-shelled drupe.