Softening Pecans

(Brian) #1

Hoping someone can give me some ideas on how to do something.

I bought a nice package of pecans at the store the other day. They taste good, like right out of the shell. But there’s a problem. Well, the problem is me, actually. They’re hard for me to eat. I can manage if I really try but they’re kinda tough and I don’t have the teeth left to grind them up well.

I remember of eating some pecans somewhere, can’t remember where, that had a roasted and salted flavor but were actually very brittle and soft in texture. Those were very easy to eat.

Anybody have any idea how they might have done that? If I could figure that out, I could be regularly snacking on them and they appear to be pretty good food for us keto types.

Thanks!

#2

At 27 I lost all my teeth so know your issue well.
I am now 70 and have been eating nuts all my life. This is how I deal with the tough nuts without the ability to bite and chew…
My solution is to run all my nuts through a meat grinder, I do a batch every month or so after roasting them and adding any other flavourings as I grind them up.
I have several sizes of grinding plates so can use a large hole plate for a paste from the softer nuts to very small holed plates to use on the harder nuts, all ideal for making nut butters or just eating the ground paste. You just do not have to chew so hard to enjoy them.

The resultant paste still has a fair amount of Nut texture but assists eating them raw.
If they are still too tough to eat raw - I just run them through again with a smaller holed plate.

Nutty Fat bomb.
2 Tbsp Ground Nuts. (Macadamia or Pecan)
2 Tbsp Coconut Oil.
1 Tbsp Cocoa Butter ( just melted )
1 Tbsp. 100% dark chocolate ( just melted )
if chocolate not available use 1 heaped tsp Cocoa Powder.
1 tsp Vanilla essence
Into a bowl and stir well until mixed then place in moulds and refrigerate.

Once set, remove from the mould and let them melt in you mouth as you savour that nutty flavour.

You can add. 1 Tbsp Desiccated coconut for an extra flakey twist.

Enjoy…
KC & KO

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #3

I seem to remember reading a Paleo recipe site where they brine the nuts in salt and water mixture for ±12 hrs.dry them off with a tea towel, then roasted them in the oven at 250F for 1 hr… Sorry I don’t remember which site it was.

Rehydrating nuts is a very Paleo thing to do it seems. I’ve seen several sites that recommend that.

(Sheri Knauer) #4

You can try roasting them yourself. melt some butter on the stove top, mix in pecans until they are coated. Put on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper, then toast in the oven at around 350 for 10 minutes or so, stirring once or twice. If they aren’t toasted enough after 10 minutes, keep them in a few minutes more but don’t walk away and get distracted because nobody likes burnt nuts. Don’t forget to salt them as soon as you take them out of the oven. Hopefully they will be easier for you to eat once toasted and they are so good toasted with butter!

(Peter Bursky) #5

At work we had a few sessions of cooking presentations, and even though the recipes were not keto, the chef running the class gave a good few tips. One of them was to leave the nuts in salted water overnight, and it’s supposed to make them softer and easier to digest.
Hole that helps!