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Pioneer Cooking with Honey & Pine Nut Know-How! |
Pioneer Honey Candy
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2 cups honey
1 cup sugar
1 cup cream
1 cup roasted & shelled pine nuts (optional)
Combine ingredients and cook over medium heat until at hard crack stage (a small
amount dropped into cold water hardens immediately and will snap in pieces).
Add pine nuts. When cool enough to handle, butter hands and pull candy until
golden. Stretch into ropes & cut into 1" pieces. Pioneering could be sweet!
Pine nuts
Pine nuts were and are a welcome seasonal food for Native Americans in the Eastern
Sierra. Visit Bodie Victorian Hotel in Bridgeport Valley this September and go
picking! Here's how to prepare pine nuts: by Don Quilici, from the Nevada Appeal
 IT'S TIME FOR PINE NUTS
This is a seasonal repeat of a previous story on how to enjoy those tiny, irresistible,
gourmet treats known as pine nuts.
For those of you unfamiliar with pine nuts, they are the seeds of the pinyon
pine tree. That tree is the official tree of the State of Nevada. It is a fairly
small, rather unattractive, bushy-looking tree and is one of the main physical
features of our Great Basin area. Surprisingly, it also produces one of Mother
Nature's tastiest gourmet treats - pine nuts. Most interesting, the seed crop
of the pinyon tree is completely unpredictable and unreliable. The nuts only
occur about once every three years, with the density varying dramatically from
one geographic area to another. So, with that as a brief background, here is
what to do: At your convenience, wander down to your favorite super market and
buy several pounds of the raw pine nuts. Then, just follow these very easy instructions:
Selecting good pine nuts:
Note: This step is optional.
Fill a two-pound coffee can about half-full of cold water. Then, pour in a quantity
of nuts to determine if any float. Any that float are hollow or have begun to
get hard. It's your choice as to whether or not to cook them. Repeat this process
until you have floated all of the nuts.
Boiling the pine nuts:
Replace the water in the coffee can with clean, cold water. Then, place enough
pine nuts in the can until the water level is several inches from the top. You
are now ready to boil them on your stove. Season with lots of table salt. If
in doubt, use more. Much more! Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and cook
for about 30 minutes at a medium-high heat. Special Note: Do not use any of your
regular cooking pots. The nuts will produce pitch while cooking and that pitch
is almost impossible to remove from your pots. That's why you use the coffee
can.
Baking the pine nuts:
Cover a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil (to protect the sheet from any
remaining pitch). Remove the pipping-hot pine nuts from the water. Spread them
in a layer over the sheet. Season with lots of salt. If in doubt, use even more
salt. Place the cookie sheet in a pre-heated oven. Bake the nuts at 350 degrees
for about 15 minutes.
Warning:
You are now ready to eat an unforgettable treat. However, be advised that you
can not eat just one, freshly-cooked pine nut and then stop. It's impossible.
Eating pine nuts is comparable to eating potato chips, jelly beans, cashews,
etc. You will feel compelled to keep eating more and more, until they're all
gone. Don't say that you weren't pre-warned.
Finally:
Sharing freshly-cooked pine nuts with that special person in front of a cozy,
crackling fireplace on a cold, wintry night is a great combination. Try it! |
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