My wife picked a mess of pecans earlier this fall. I am quickly growing less fond of them due to them shattering into small pieces instead of whole meats. Do any of you have any advice to offer on the best way to crack them open? One more question. Do they need to be roasted or taken care of any other way prior to cracking them open?

Many thanks in advance!

-- Gunner (barnkat@fidnet.com), January 13, 2002

Answers

I know of at least three different styles of nutcrackers you might try, but I don't know how to describe them for you! If you are using the one where you sit the nut in a slot and then pull the lever down to crack it, you need to adjust it for the size of the nut. Whichever kind you use, you will get the hang of how to best use it for the type of pecan you have.

You do not need to roast pecans, or do anything else to them.

BTW, when you say she picked pecans, I do hope they were nice and ripe. Usually when they are, they will begin falling, and you will pick them up off the ground. This will be late fall, early winter, after the first frost.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), January 13, 2002.

"York" by Texan Nut Sheller Co is best pecan sheller i have seen. going for $10 each here. it can be used for other nuts, lobster & crab claws. 800-844-2760 it is best to let ripe pecans fall on ground & then pick up. enjoy, larry

-- Larry in OK (Nuts4bees@aol.com), January 13, 2002.

Soak them in some hot water for a few minutes to soften the shell. They crack much easier and you get more whole nuts. Also a lot cleaner.

-- Barb (MBRanch@POP.ctctel.com), January 13, 2002.

By "pick" I think Gunner meant picking nutmeats out of shells. that's the term we use in these parts anyway. I cracked and picked a bunch this fall. I found that the lever type cracker worked best. It puts pressure on the nut from the two ends rather than around the middle like handheld ones, I got more halves that way and less pieces. These were the smaller harder shelled Missouri pecans so there's usually more pieces than a thin shelled Georgia pecan, but loads more flavor :)

-- Susan (smtroxel@socket.net), January 13, 2002.

Does anyone know where to get the 'slide hammer' style nut craker, with a rubber band on it? I have been looking for one, they were the best ones I remember,

-- Thumper (slrldr@yahoo.com), January 13, 2002.

Use a pair of channel locks ( aligator pliers)

-- Bill (wah@tnweb.com), January 13, 2002.

We just had a major shelling operation at the house yesterday with four of us shelling pecans for over three hours. I've seen several different shellers that will work so what you want to look for is one that is adjustable for the size of the nut and has some form of compound leverage so that you don't have to put too much brute force into the operation.

The one that I have (can't recall the name) has one end that screws in or out so the cracker cannot go too far and smash the nutmeats inside once it is properly adjusted. The handle on the other end uses compound leverage to apply force to the shell without the person using it having to apply a lot of muscle power. If the nuts are of more or less uniform size you can go through many pounds fairly quickly and get entire halves most of the time. The ones that are too small to crack with that adjustment are set aside and when the larger nuts are cracked you readjust the tool and do the same for the short ones.

The wife made a killer bourbon pecan pie last week with the last of last year's nuts out of the freezer. Nuts from top to bottom and my was it good.

.........Alan.

-- Alan (athagan@atlantic.net), January 14, 2002.