Sunday, January 28, 2007

Why Can't You Buy Cashews in a Shell

Cashews: the nut you can't buy in a shell:

Why? It turns out that the cashew shell is toxic. However, that raised the question of what a cashew looks like in its shell. Again, we had no idea. When we found out, we knew more people should see it. Weird looking, isn't it [follow link for photo]? And caustic, too!

Cashews, like many of the culinary nuts listed above, are not true nuts in the botanical sense. True nuts develop a hard wall around the seed (e.g. hazelnuts). Cashews instead have a lining around the seed that is filled with a nasty fluid.

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