Topic: Preserving pinoli(pinenuts)?

[Hyacinth]

I brought a quantity back from Turkey & my plan was to make batches of pesto to freeze.....quick Google suggests that pesto keeps for only 6 weeks in the freezer :-\ and I don't want to be eating pesto every day, so.....is it possible to freeze the nuts, for example, to use as/when?

Thanks

[1066]

I take it the nuts are fresh? Cos I just store them in a glass jar and use a handful when I want to. So this has got me thinking........ I wonder if you could freeze the fresh nuts like you do with fresh beans??

[cacran]

Be very careful with pinenuts. a lot of people have been having probles with taste interference after having pine nuts, mainly chinese ones, I think. My daughter was very bad with it and was unable to eat for two weeks.  :-\

[Hyacinth]

I've no probs with eating pine nuts - we used to live surrounded by pine trees and graze to our hearts content 8)

Storing them in a glass jar? I stored some walnuts once and they were decidedly rancid when I came to the end of them, so I'm not keen on trying that again :-\ hence the thought of freezing.

[Baccy Man]

Assuming they are fresh then if stored somewhere cool & dry they will keep for 3-6 months, if kept in the freezer they will keep for 12 months. If they were pre packed I would reduce those times to 1 month & 6 months respectively to allow for time in transit/storage before you purchased them.
If stored in warm humid conditions the taste deteriorates rapidly & they can become rancid in just a few days.
The pine nuts associated with the taste disturbances Ceres mentioned are primarily associated with Chinese pine nuts but there is no conlusive evidence to say that only Chinese pine nuts or kernels collected from a particular variety of tree are affected by this issue. All that is known conclusively is that some pine nuts stored at 16ºC-18°C can contain triglycerides formed by unsaturated fatty acids. This results in taste disturbances (bitter, metallic taste) developing 1-3 days after consumption and lasting for up to 21 days.

[Duke Ellington]

Yep you are correct...I had this problem earlier this year. I bought my pine nuts from Lidls and after eating some of my left over pine nuts raw I suffered taste disturbance for nearly two weeks.....I never want to go through that again. Everything I ate during those two weeks tasted awful. I thought it was my cooking at first :'(. I did some research online and found it to be a common problem and as Baccy Man says its inconclusive as to whether the problem is due to eating Chinese pine nuts. I did find out that I hight percent of Pine nuts sold by our supermarkets are from China and some supermarkets do not have to state exactely where they are harvested. It seems that the problem lies with the pine oil within the nuts and if they have become rancid at the time of harvesting. I really didn't find any real answer to the problem. These days I buy my pine nuts from Supermarkets with a high turnover of stock....I freeze my pine nuts as soon as I get them home....and I never nibble on raw pine nuts. I know this sounds as though I am being overly cautious but as I said earlier never again. I really did think at the time that I had some underlying illness that had affected my sense of taste!!

The bottom line is .....Its okay to freeze pinenuts!!

Duke :)

[Hyacinth]

Thanks all, that's really interesting 8)

I'm going for Duke's bottom line....these are fresh pine nuts and I'm freezing them; mind you, seems a novel way to diet... :-\ ;D

[Alimo]

Crikey I've never heard of this, and I sprinkle raw pine nuts in salads.....

Should I stop??

Alison

[Duke Ellington]

I wouldn't stop Alison if you enjoy eating them and have never had the taste disturbance problem. I would just be aware that pine nuts can go rancid quite quickly.

Duke :)

[Alimo]

Ok, I do so love them  :)

Alison