Nut (food)

In cuisine, dry nuts are dry, edible fruits or seeds that usually, but not always, have a high fat content.

A walnut, left, and its seed, right, having been removed from its pericarp

Seeds of the Korean pine in shell and empty shell, above; removed from shell, below

Cuisine is a much less restrictive and older meaning of the word than the narrow meaning of nut in botany; the term is applied to many seeds that are not botanically nuts. Any large, oily kernels found within a shell and used in food are commonly called nuts. They are often used in making nut butters, a paste of the nuts and oil.

Nuts are an important source of nutrients for both humans and wildlife.[1] Because nuts generally have a high oil content, they are a highly prized food and energy source. Many 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.[1]

Nuts used for food, whether true nut or not, are among the most common food allergens.[1][2]

Raw mixed nuts, sold as a snack food.

Some fruits and seeds that do not meet the botanical definition but are nuts in the culinary sense are:[1]

• Almonds 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 the seed[3] of a drupe fruit with an accessory fruit.
• Chilean hazelnut or Gevuina.
• Macadamia is a creamy white kernel of a follicle type fruit.
• Malabar chestnut.
• Mongongo nut.
• Peanut is a seed and from a legume type fruit (of the family Fabaceae).
• Pecan is the seed of a drupe fruit.
• Pili nut is the seed of the tropical tree Canarium ovatum which grows in the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
• Pine nut is the seed of several species of pine (coniferous trees).
• Pistachio is the partly dehiscent seed of a thin-shelled drupe.
• Walnut (Juglans) is the seed of a drupe fruit.
• Yeheb nut is the seed of a desert bush, Cordeauxia edulis.