Why aren't cashews sold in their shells?
Question
When you buy nuts, they can all come in their shells - except cashew nuts. Why do you never see cashew nuts in their shells? What do they look like?
Lawence, London
Answer
** Joint definitive **
Name: Anna, East Finchley
Qualification: Husband was an engineer that worked on machines for cashew nuts
Answer: Cashews grown on a tree attached in clusters to an apple-like fruit. Between the shell and the nut is a fluid that is highly corrosive. This is actually used to make brake lining for Ferodo brakes. The hotter it gets, the harder it gets.
(James O'Brien: This is amazing... and actually true: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew_oil )
** Joint definitive **
Name: Tony, Westminster
Qualification: Grew up in the Caribbean and used to grow them.
Answer: The nut grows on a tree as a fruit with a nut on the end of it. As kids we used to eat the fruit. Then, the nut is collected and roasted until black. Then it is cracked and the nut is inside. The fruit is called the cashew nut tree fruit and is very sweet and juicy, tasting a bit like a peach.
Name: Lucia, Wandsworth
Qualification: Shopper
Answer: I buy cashew nuts with the shells on them. My kids eat them and they've never been poisoned. The reason he never finds them is he probably goes to a normal supermarket to get them. If he buys foreign goods from Arabic shops, he'll get them with shells on. With regards to what it looks like, it's a bit like the shell of a pistachio.
Conte, Sierra Leone
Qualification: Eater
Cashew nuts come in egg-shaped shells with the cashew inside, attached to a fruit. You have to roast the shell in the fire to get the cashew. We only eat the fruits in Africa.
Name: John, Enfield
Qualification: Nutter!
Answer The shells of cashew nuts are removed as they are poisonous to humans.
(James O'Brien: No round of applause for you. Get off my show!)