Santander wrote:I've mentioned this before, but the best pine nuts I ever had in my life were in Buryatia on the Mongolian border. We collected the cones from the trees and toasted them in a cast iron pan on a campfire; after the charred petals were removed the warm, oily kernels came out easily. It was an experience very analogous to making campfire popcorn in Wisconsin. I can think of few foods more resonant or delicious than those pine nuts!

When I visit my relatives in Italy in cold weather, we toss the cones into the fireplace/hearth and roast them, then break off bits and gingerly crack the petals open whilst attempting to avoid burning the fingers too much. The pine nuts are especially delicious that way.

Antonius

This happened to me this summer with Pine Nuts I bought from Whole Food in the bulk food case. That nasty taste stuck around for two weeks. It was highly annoying. Oddly, my wife ate the same batch of pesto as me and even through a handful of the nuts on her salad and she didn't notice a funny taste. I didn't realize until googling what it was but sure enough, first hit mentioned Pine Nuts and I had just had a whopping batch of pesto the night before. I don't think I can ever bring myself to eat another.

I had this happen to me - twice. My husband thought the bad taste might be the result of a tooth problem, so I ran to the dentist, who couldn't find any problem. I finally narrowed it down to the pine nuts I purchased at Trader Joe's in Orland. I used to snack on them occasionally, tossing a handful in my mouth straight from the bag. After more than two weeks of that nasty taste in my mouth, I'll never eat them again.

Suzy

jglynn wrote:whopping batch of pesto

This is a good band name.

Antonius wrote:Unfortunately, almost all pine nuts available these days around here are from China and they are in my opinion sad substitutes for the Mediterranean ones. Not only are they not especially great specimens to start with, but they are often mishandled and rancid. Rancid pine nuts leave a nasty after-taste.

It sounds as if there is something even more depressing at issue at hand with reports of weeks of bad after-taste but, that aside, even the usual Chinese pine nuts are second rate at best, in my opinion, and I've been eating pine nuts my entire life.

Antonius

Really good (and expensive) Turkish pine nuts are available at the new Sanabel grocery store on N. Kedzie.

Sanabel
4213 North Kedzie

Hi all,

I recently posted the pine mouth question in a cooking website that I frequent and I had one interesting answer. The person mentioned that they had a similar sounding experience that was tied to high zinc levels.

I've read alot of culprits that people lay the blame for pinemouth on. After reading some information on varying zinc levels and the zinc tally test it actually looks like a likely suspect.

I plan to put together one of the homemade zinc tally tests to see what reaction I have. I'm also interested to find if I do have what seems to be a high level of zinc in my system if the aftertaste left from the testing is similar to the horrible aftertaste left by the pinenuts.

I don't know if high zinc levels could be the cause of pine mouth or not. But it makes a bit of sense. The horrible aftertaste is not immediate and there is no off taste when the nuts are first eaten (which puts the cause being rancid nuts to rest). But then, once the nuts are processed in the body the effects show up sometimes many hours later. Which would seem to hold true if the cause could be high levels (of something) within individuals. It would also explain why several people could eat the same nuts and most are not affected at all.


Just a few thoughts,
dan

dan, that's an interesting hypothesis, and wouldn't surprise me if it was right on. I've heard that some people experience symptoms very similar to "pine mouth" from zinc-based cold remedies (Zicam et al).

From what I've heard, some experience a lingering nasty taste from the lozenges, and many folks have reported some level of anosmia, ranging from brief to permanent, allegedly caused by zinc nasal sprays (no specific mention of those Zicam nose swabs though).

"Saray" brand Turkish pine nuts:


As the Turkish pine nuts I mentioned above were toasting, I noticed a difference right away. They had a brighter sheen, and were releasing substantially more aromatic oils than the ones I've bought at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. I don't know if this is a function of provenance, or perhaps just a function of the relative freshness of this product. Sanabel did just open, and who knows if older pine nuts will be on the shelves when the place has been around for a couple of years. But these were fresh and fantastic, and I recommend getting over there for some while they're this good.

Hi Kenny,

since I've had "pinemouth" a few times...would you be interested in buying a package of pine nuts for me? I could send you payment in the mail or paypal.

thanks,
dan

Montréal Gazette published an article this morning on 'pine nut mouth'. Nothing terribly new, but a good compilation with some references.

Geo

Thanks for the link Geo.



Having suffered from pine-mouth several times I have reluctantly been trying pine nuts to find a source that didn't cause this horrible taste/ I found that some domestic pinenuts, from Wholesalepinenuts.com, didn't effect me at all.

dan

Fox & Obel has pine nuts from Portugal. They're not cheap, but they are delicious.

Hi- I try to buy pine nuts that are not from China. I usually buy my pine nuts from the bulk section at Whole Foods, which are more expensive than the ones from China that they carry, but they are worth it. I was in the downtown Evanston WF on Sunday though, because I was going to make a batch of pesto, and the pine nuts in the bulk section are $29.95 a pound! They do not even have any pine nuts from China right now. Apparently there is a shortage of pine nuts right now, and they are trying to find a cheaper source of pine nuts. No wat ws I going to spend that much for pine nuts. I ended up getting walnuts instead. You can substitute walnuts for pine nuts in a pinch. Does anybody know where I can get pine nuts that are not from China, for under $20 a pound? Somebody here gave a link to a company in Nevada called discount pine nuts, and they are out of shelled pine nuts. Thanks for any help, Nancy

NFriday wrote:Hi- I try to buy pine nuts that are not from China. I usually buy my pine nuts from the bulk section at Whole Foods, which are more expensive than the ones from China that they carry, but they are worth it. I was in the downtown Evanston WF on Sunday though, because I was going to make a batch of pesto, and the pine nuts in the bulk section are $29.95 a pound! They do not even have any pine nuts from China right now. Apparently there is a shortage of pine nuts right now, and they are trying to find a cheaper source of pine nuts. No wat ws I going to spend that much for pine nuts. I ended up getting walnuts instead. You can substitute walnuts for pine nuts in a pinch. Does anybody know where I can get pine nuts that are not from China, for under $20 a pound? Somebody here gave a link to a company in Nevada called discount pine nuts, and they are out of shelled pine nuts. Thanks for any help, Nancy

I just bought some Turkish pine nuts at Lincolnwood Produce yesterday. I paid $26.99/lb which sounds like a lot, but the reality was that a pint container of them cost $9.50.

Pine-nut mouth: Clues from Denmark

Darren72 wrote:Pine-nut mouth: Clues from Denmark

Nice find.

Tell me.....can we harvest pinenuts from pine trees that grow here in IL? I have a few big pines in my yard with cones. Pls advise.

toria wrote:Tell me.....can we harvest pinenuts from pine trees that grow here in IL? I have a few big pines in my yard with cones. Pls advise.

Doubtful. Identify the species. There are dozens of pine species.

you should be able to get pinenuts from any species of pine, but in many species the nuts will be too small to be worth the bother.

grab a cone, extract some nuts, see how they look.

Now that this topic is bumped to the top on an all-cap, out-of-area post, I've got an on-topic query:

Has anyone tried the Kirkland pine nuts? We bought a bag and stuck it straight in the freezer, not having had a hankering for them.
If they're known to be a cause of pine-nut-mouth, I'll take 'em back. The nuts are from China, and a better value than anywhere else I've seen (I don't remember what we paid, but I remember it was substantially less than the north-of-$2-per-ounce prices I've been seeing elsewhere).

JF--

We're on about our fifth bag of Kirkland pine nuts and no problem yet. We keep them in the freezer.

Geo

JoelF wrote:Now that this topic is bumped to the top on an all-cap, out-of-area post, I've got an on-topic query:

Has anyone tried the Kirkland pine nuts? We bought a bag and stuck it straight in the freezer, not having had a hankering for them.
If they're known to be a cause of pine-nut-mouth, I'll take 'em back. The nuts are from China, and a better value than anywhere else I've seen (I don't remember what we paid, but I remember it was substantially less than the north-of-$2-per-ounce prices I've been seeing elsewhere).

If you scan the 'net you'll see random complaints about all the various store-branded pine nuts (including Kirkland). It's important to note that it's only for certain "batches" and only certain people are sensitive to it. So you may well have had the "bad" ones and not known it. Appears to be a huge tempest in a teapot (ALL CAPS POST NOTWITHSTANDING). And if it was a widespread issue I don't doubt that Costco or TJ's would stop selling them.

spinynorman99 wrote:If you scan the 'net you'll see random complaints about all the various store-branded pine nuts (including Kirkland). It's important to note that it's only for certain "batches" and only certain people are sensitive to it. So you may well have had the "bad" ones and not known it. Appears to be a huge tempest in a teapot (ALL CAPS POST NOTWITHSTANDING). And if it was a widespread issue I don't doubt that Costco or TJ's would stop selling them.

Since when does LTH allow a voice of reason within a vehement heated rant?

nr706 wrote:

spinynorman99 wrote:If you scan the 'net you'll see random complaints about all the various store-branded pine nuts (including Kirkland). It's important to note that it's only for certain "batches" and only certain people are sensitive to it. So you may well have had the "bad" ones and not known it. Appears to be a huge tempest in a teapot (ALL CAPS POST NOTWITHSTANDING). And if it was a widespread issue I don't doubt that Costco or TJ's would stop selling them.

Since when does LTH allow a voice of reason within a vehement heated rant?

I've been referred to as many things but never a "voice of reason." Take it back.

JoelF wrote:Now that this topic is bumped to the top on an all-cap, out-of-area post, I've got an on-topic query:

Has anyone tried the Kirkland pine nuts? We bought a bag and stuck it straight in the freezer, not having had a hankering for them.
If they're known to be a cause of pine-nut-mouth, I'll take 'em back. The nuts are from China, and a better value than anywhere else I've seen (I don't remember what we paid, but I remember it was substantially less than the north-of-$2-per-ounce prices I've been seeing elsewhere).

Also bought a number of bags over the years without a problem. I started to grab one a couple weeks ago and the price was either $22.99 or $24.99. Yikes!

Rick T. wrote:

JoelF wrote:Has anyone tried the Kirkland pine nuts?

Also bought a number of bags over the years without a problem. I started to grab one a couple weeks ago and the price was either $22.99 or $24.99. Yikes!

Scary thing is, that *is* a good price these days for pine nuts. At a pound and a half, that's more like the $1/oz. I remember from a couple years ago at most stores.

JoelF wrote:

Rick T. wrote:

JoelF wrote:Has anyone tried the Kirkland pine nuts?

Also bought a number of bags over the years without a problem. I started to grab one a couple weeks ago and the price was either $22.99 or $24.99. Yikes!

Scary thing is, that *is* a good price these days for pine nuts. At a pound and a half, that's more like the $1/oz. I remember from a couple years ago at most stores.

It's a ridiculously labor-intensive product. As far as domestic nuts go, they're all hand-processed so they're clearly going to be the most expensive. I don't know how mechanized the foreign suppliers are but I don't imagine it's a straightforward process.

This thread is one of the more informative things I've read in awhile... who knew pine nuts were so hotly contested. I've been trying to figure out why a 1 ounce can at Fox & Obel sells for $13 vs costco selling a 1 pound bag for not much more... I guess this might explain. Along with many 6 liters of olive oil, pine nuts have become a "must buy" when I travel to europe. I got them at a market in spain last year and earlier this year again in Spain, I think I paid about ~$8 for about a pound, both were grown locally to the market.

Well, first dish made with the Kirland nuts -- no metallic taste.
Recipe: Spaghetti with Shrimp, Ramps, Mushrooms and Asparagus

10 Ramps, cleaned, sliced thin -- bulb/stalk and leaves separated
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tbs olive oil
pinch of red pepper flakes
12 shrimp, peeled
8 small crimini mushrooms, cut in half
5 large stalks asparagus, cut into small pieces
2 Tbs panko
1/4C pecorino romano
2 Tbs pine nuts
1/4C basil leaves, julienned
1/2 lb spaghetti
1 Tbs salt

heat 4 quarts water with salt until boiling. drop the spaghetti in -- you've got 9 minutes to do everything else
heat oil in a large nonstick skillet on medium
sautee ramp bulbs/stalks and garlic for two minutes, add red pepper flakes
add mushrooms and asparagus, cook for three minutes
add shrimp, cook for 1 minute each side, add pine nuts
add 1 ladle pasta water, the drained pasta, the basil and ramp leaves, pecorino
Pull off the heat and toss
Add a little more olive oil, and serve

Just a warning; I got the dreaded pine mouth from the nuts from Trader Joe's (Lincoln Park location). I used them in a red pepper pesto on Friday and it just started this morning.