How to Shell Pine Nuts?

Online, March 11, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Pine nuts comes from the seeds of various species pine trees. About 20 species of these seeds are large enough to be worth harvesting for human consumption. The shell must be removed before the pine nut can be eaten. Typically there are two kinds of pine nuts from the perspective of outer shell, namely, soft-shell pine nuts and hard-shell pine nuts. Due to the different types shell of the pine nut, the shelling method is not the same.

For the hard-shell pine nuts, the rotary-friction shelling method can be used. This shelling method need to be finished by pine nuts sheller. Amisy pine nuts shelling machine is an example of the pine nuts sheller. This shelling machine combines the friction and impacting force perfectly so as to achieve high shelling efficiency as well as low broken rate. Before pine nuts are fed to the pine nut shelling machine, they need to be sized by pine nut grading machine firstly. The shelling rollers gap can be adjusted according to the sized nuts. So the uniform sized nuts can be shelled in quantity at one time. Kernels will come off pine nut shells and flow to gravity tables when cracked pine nuts are shaken by sizing decks.

The soft-shell pine nuts are simpler to be shelled than hard-shell pine nuts are. To save time and shell the nuts in quantity, the impact shelling method can be applied. With this method of shelling, pine nuts do not need to be sized. You can directly place the soft-shelled pine nuts between the terry cloth towels and using the rolling pin, roll firmly and then the shells will come off the nuts and stick to the towels. So you can just pull the towel, then the shells will be pulled away with the towel and the kernels are left. This method is mainly used by many homemakers. Of course, if you just want to enjoy the cracking of pine nuts just like sunflower seeds, you can snap open them by your teeth. Another way is to hold the pine nut between the thumb and the forefinger one at a time. By placing gentle pressure on the shell while rolling between the thumb and forefinger, it should pop.