How to Buy and Store Nuts
Do nuts go bad?
Of course they do and nothing tastes worse than a rancid nut.
If your pantry is like mine, you have a mess of unlabeled, undated, twist-tie bags of various nuts. You know how it goes, you buy a bag for a specific recipe, use a 1/4 cup, and there the rest sits getting stale and completely unusable. The texture has gotten soft and the oil in the nut tastes rancid.
The fresher the nut, the better the flavor. Nuts with higher fat content, like walnuts and pecans, can go rancid after a few months at room temperature. If the nuts are stale, you’ll instantly taste a bit of rancid bitterness, and that’s not cool. It’s time to throw out those bad boys.
Buy fresh, whole, raw, and if possible, buy local.
LOCALLY: Depending on where you live, buying nuts locally straight from the farm is the way to go. But keep in mind, nuts are harvested in the fall, so buying them in the middle of summer might mean that you’re getting last year’s crop, which won’t last long in your pantry.
GROCER: If you’re buying that from a grocery store or food warehouse like Costco or Sam’s Club, you want to pay close attention to that expiration date and buy those sealed in a bag, which will ensure freshness and prevent oxygen from slipping through. However, the expiration date really depends on a couple of things; storage conditions, and whether or not the package has been opened.
BULK BINS: The biggest blunder is buying from bulk bins at your grocery store or food coop. It’s nearly impossible to tell how often the shop replaces these nuts, or how long they’ve been sitting out in the open air. According to Steve Lindsay, the Director of Quality Assurance for Diamond Nuts, oxygen is the number one enemy of any nut’s shelf-life. Those sitting in bulk bins are constantly exposed to oxygen, compromising their freshness and speeding up the rancidity process. One final word on bulk bins: as you’ve probably noticed, some people stick their bare hands directly into the bins to sneak a snack, this exposes the contents to oodles of outside germs and bacteria. Just saying.
How do you keep nuts fresh longer?
Contrary to popular belief, nuts should be stored in the refrigerator or freezer. Why? Because nuts contain a high amount of saturated fat, an oil which makes them highly prone to going rancid.
FREEZER: It’s best to store nuts in an airtight container in the freezer from the moment you receive them, up to one year.
REFRIGERATOR: Nuts can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to six months.
PANTRY: If you can’t spare refrigerator or freezer space, you can store them at room temperature for about three months maximum, and only if they’re in an airtight container, shielded from light and heat.
A good rule of thumb:
Think of nuts as produce rather than a packaged good. Just as you would spinach or a ripe tomato, give them a sniff before you eat them. As nuts age, the rancidity will give them a paint-like smell. If you sniff any harsh or bitter aromas, toss them - otherwise, they’re probably still fair game.
