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Discover the Difference:
Pinon nuts, Italian pignolia and the Nevada Pinyon Pine nut.
America's Wild Pinon Pine Nuts
Out of the 100 recognized species of true pines,about 28 species produce nuts of sufficient quality and desirable flavor to make them worth eating.here are three kinds of pinyon pine in these forests. The New Mexico Pinyon is one of the main sources of the edible pine nuts of the American southwest. The "nuts" are the seeds found between the scales of the cones. Pinyon pine nuts were a major food source for native American Indians in the area where the nut pine grows, in some cases providing most or all of the winter diet.
Pine nut development in North America is modest in comparison with that in Europe. The Italian pine tree, with superior timber, is larger and grows faster than the stunted pinon of the southwestern United States. Italian stone pine plantations are well established in Mediterranean Europe, via order of the pope in the mid 1600's.The American pinon has remained mostly neglected and uncultivated.
About European Pine nuts
The most common in Europe is the "pignolia" nuts of the Italian stone pine, grown for the most part in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and North Africa. In Italian stone pine harvests, the trees are shaken to remove the kernel. Once removed, they are dried further before being processed in a milling station to remove the kernel from its hard outer shell. The kernels and shells are separated by sifting; the testa, or thin skin which still covers the kernel, is then removed. Thereafter, the kernels are graded and sized.
Superior, unblemished, shelled kernels, both large and small, are reserved for the export market; the remaining kernels are sold locally or utilized in prepared foods. Although pignolia nuts may be eaten out of hand, raw or roasted, they have the distinction of being the only nuts used predominantly as ingredients for cooking. For many centuries in European cookery, they have been blended with meats, fish and poultry, and have been used in many different sauces.
About Korean, Siberian, Afiganistan, Chineese Pine Nuts
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Pinon Penny's Pinon Nut Harvest 2008:
