"pine nuts" news and stories

Raise your hand if it's happened to you: A couple days ago, you loaded your salad down with pine nuts, adding a nice crunch to your greens. Now, two days later, everything you eat tastes bitter, metallic, and just plain foul. And no matter how you try to cleanse your palate, things continue to taste bad for the next week. Even more confounding: family members who ate that same offending salad have no idea what you're talking about.

Pine nut mouth (yes, that's what it's being called -- who comes up with these names, anyway?) is a poorly documented phenomenon, but it's starting to gain more attention in foodie circles, and scientists are beginning to take note, too. There's not enough scientific data yet to draw any conclusions, but there are a few theories as to what causes this vexing condition. Gregory Moller, a professor of environmental chemistry and toxicology at the University of Idaho, pointed out to the Bay Area News Group that what we call pine nuts are actually not just a single species; 29 different pine trees produce edible nuts. "It could be," he explained, "that some of these species are mildly toxic to some people."

Adding to the list of foods that taste great to some folks and terrible to others (cilantro, how you doin'?), here come innocent looking pine nuts.

"Pine mouth" is spreading from the U.S. to Britain and it's driving some eaters crazy, including a reporter from Britain's Daily Mail who downed a handful of the nuts. "Though I regained my taste after eight days, the only thing I could drink during that time was water," he says. "Drinking wine was like swallowing liquid metal. [emphasis ours]" Yeouch.

We've definitely sampled some pine nuts gone to the dark side, but this sounds out of control. Let's use Slashfood Science: Take the poll and learn more after the jump.

Having a nut allergy, for years I never even glanced at anything nut-centric, save for my beloved peanut butter. I slowly realized almonds were also okay, and that pine nuts were too -- I had no idea they were in pesto (oh, the ignorance of the pre-Internet days!). So I'm on the slow bus when it comes to nuts, which is why I never had roasted pine nuts until now.

This is one of those times that I quickly fell in love, but also became quite angry that the revelation was coming after 30+ years on this earth. What a waste! The wonderful smell of roasting pine nuts is addictive, and their taste is rich, roasted heaven. The first batch were mixed into some mayo and put on a sandwich of roasted vegetables. Heaven. The next batch went into a salad. Heaven. The next, well, that went right into my stomach. What comes next, I'm still working on, but I am thinking about some pine nut/popcorn combination.

If you can eat pine nuts and have never roasted them, I demand that you do it now and see for yourself. It's too easy not to -- sprinkle some in any dry pan and throw it on your stove. Heat 'em up, being careful to jiggle the pan and move the pine nuts around once they start releasing their wonderful smell and change color. It will only take a few minutes.

If you're an old fan of the roasted pine nuts, please share any recipes you love below!

A couple of years ago, some friends and I had a Summer Salad Club. We stretched the bounds of the summer slightly, starting in May and going into the first weeks of September. We'd get together for a potluck dinner every few weeks, each time trying to bring a new salad that included fresh, seasonal ingredients.

I was flipping through a file folder of recipes tonight, looking for a recipe for a brie and tomato pasta sauce that I remember clipping from the newspaper last summer (I never did find it), when I stumbled across a print out that dates back to the early days of the salad club. It is for an Orzo, Arugula, Radicchio and Pine Nut salad and is from cooking.com. It is super garlicky (a feature I particularly love) and has a nice combination of textures and crunch. As we head into the end of summer, some of the delicate salad greens are coming back into the farmers markets, which are perfect for this salad. The recipe is after the jump.

You might notice that the picture above doesn't perfectly match the recipe, but I do think that basil would be a nice addition to this recipe, if you wanted to go that way.

First of all, shame on you for what you're thinking. Second, shame on you for what you're thinking.

Today is National Grab Some Nuts Day. I have no idea how this differs from National Nut Day (I'm sure such a day exists), except for the grabbing aspect. Don't lift or scoop, you have to grab.

My favorite nuts are cashews and pistachios, and I've been meaning to pick a can or two up (even if I do think of nuts as a fall and winter snack, don't ask me why). Here are some recipes you can make with nuts: Sugar and Spice Nuts, Rosemary Toasted Nuts, and a bunch of recipes from GroupRecipes.com, including salads, side dishes, and desserts.