What Do Brazil Nuts Taste Like?

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
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This may be a stupid question, but hopefully, even if so, it won’t beget a stupid answer…

I’ve eaten Brazil nuts for a long time. Not seeking them out, mind you, but they’re in better-grade mixes, and they appear on fancy nut trays with some frequency. They can be disconcertingly large, and are allegedly rich in selenium.

I had some tonight. I’m completely lost, though, to describe their taste. To me, they are the nut equivalent of a glass of distilled water. So, are they the Seinfeld nut–about nothing, or am I missing something?

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Get better quality brazil nuts.

They’re very nutty & rich. A favorite of mine. Great crunch, too.

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For me they’re all about the texture and unique “clean” richness. They remind me of a macadamia nut in terms of their fat content/oiliness, but they’re less buttery, with more of a “fresh” flavor to their oils, for lack of a better word. And their texture is crunchy in a different way from other nuts as well, almost like a water chestnut and an almond had a delicious baby. I love them!

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They go rancid quite easily - so buy in small amounts, check packaging for dates to ensure freshness and eat them up quickly!

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I keep my nuts I won’t be eating within a few weeks in the freezer. That’s where the nuts I cook and bake with are kept.

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Here’s the thing… If I were to blind test nuts (at least the ones I know), I’d know them all instantly by their characteristic flavor. But not Brazil nuts. Even macadamias have a recognizable flavor profile. The only way I’d think to ID a sample as a Brazil would be the absence of flavors.

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Yup, same with brazil nuts IF you try them on your own, and they haven’t been ‘contaminated’ by sitting in a salty mix with random other nuts.

I used to eat them straight outta the shell, no salt needed. But not everyone likes them, and you may not, either :woman_shrugging:t2:

ETA since you edited yours: if you’ve only ever had them as part of a salty nut mix, you haven’t actually tasted them properly.

Looking forward to your report.

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I would 100% be able to ID a Brazil nut, my favorite in a container of mixed nuts. They have a particular texture and oiliness, and they taste like Brazil nuts.

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And missing from the others. I’ve yet to find a mix that contains everything I’d like.

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10

I wish they’d leave out those pesky cashews…

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I know someone who absolutely adores cashews. Go figure. I certainly don’t seek them out; I’ll cook with them if the recipe calls for it. When I was a kid I had a hard time recognizing them by sight; I was always expecting a peanut.

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I love cashews. I can do without pecans, except in pie.

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Most everyone I know loves cashews. More for them, but I wish they wouldn’t permeate every single f’n nutmix out there. I leave them all for my PIC, who is one of those people :wink:

I dislike them more than almonds, even.

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I love pecans, especially oven toasted in butter. Pecan pie for me is like eating directly out of the sugar bowl. I will partake for the sake of good manners if the situation arises.

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15

This.

All nuts, Brazils included, taste like themselves.

Put another way, a nut taste like what that nut is.

An almond tastes like an almond. A macadamia tastes like, well, a macadamia.

Each nut inherently tastes like itself and can only be described by reference to itself.

Each nut is its only flavor category.

It’s like asking what an egg tastes like. Well, it tastes like an egg.

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Let alone whole nuts…

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This is a tautology. It’s not any more useful than saying all wines taste like themselves, when in fact there are hundreds of different flavor compounds in them.

Drawing another parallel with wine, understand that many nuts have a characteristic flavor that’s easily recognized. But to me, Brazil nuts have no real flavor. Maybe they’re the vodka of the nut world.

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Seinfeld nut-about-nothing! I’ve always viewed them as tasteless filler amongst good mixed nuts….

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I mix my own, that way it isn’t 50% peanuts like the commercially mixes are made.

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That’s funny, I always thought of the Brazil nuts in mixes as being the fanciest/most prized, by virtue of how few of them were in the mix…