Louisiana slave named Antoine, who worked out how to graft wood from superior trees onto seedling stocks Georgia, Texas, and New Mexico are now the largest producers of pecans Compared to the walnut, the pecan is more elongated, the cotyledons thicker and smoother, with a larger proportion of meat to shell As with walnuts, light-skinned varieties are less astringent than dark-skinned The distinctive flavor of pecans remains somewhat mysterious In addition to the generic nutty notes of the pyrazines, one study found a lactone (octalactone) that is also present in coconuts Pecans and walnuts are among the nuts with the highest oil and unsaturated fatty acid contents High oil content generally goes along with fragile texture, which means that the kernels are easily bruised, with seepage of oil to the surface and rapidoxidation and staling Roasting increases the rate of staling by weakening cells and allowing oil to come into contact with the air Carefully handled, raw pecans can be stored for years in the freezer Food Words: Pine, Walnut, Flax, Sesame A number of nut names seem simply to name the nuts, without a penumbra of related meanings This is an indication that almonds and pistachios (from the Greek) and hazelnuts (from the Indo-European) have been basic fare for a very long time Pine comes from an Indo-European root meaning “to swell, to be fat,” probably an allusion to the fat-like resin that the tree e x u d e s Walnut is an Old English compound of wealh, meaning “Celt” or “foreigner,” and hnutu, “nut,” a reflection of the fact that walnuts were introduced to the British Isles from the east Flax comes from an Indo-European root meaning “to plait,” because flax was originally grown ... name the nuts, without a penumbra of related meanings This is an indication that almonds and pistachios (from the Greek) and hazelnuts (from the Indo-European) have been basic fare for a very long... probably an allusion to the fat-like resin that the tree e x u d e s Walnut is an Old English compound of wealh, meaning “Celt” or “foreigner,” and hnutu, “nut,” a reflection of the fact that walnuts were introduced to...by weakening cells and allowing oil to come into contact with the air Carefully handled, raw pecans can be stored for years in the freezer Food Words: Pine, Walnut, Flax, Sesame A number of nut names