Ingredient: Pecan nuts
Category: Nuts
Season: All
The Pecan (Carya illinoinensis, commonly misspelled illinoensis) is a species of hickory, native to south-central North America, in the United States from southern Iowa, Illinois and Indiana east to western Kentucky and western Tennessee, south through Oklahoma, Arkansas, to Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana; and in Mexico from Coahuila south to Jalisco and Veracruz.
Pecan trees may live and bear edible nuts for more than three hundred years .
The fruit is an oval to oblong nut , 2.6–6 cm long and 1.5–3 cm broad, dark brown with a rough husk 3–4 mm thick, which splits off in four sections at maturity to release the thin-shelled nut.
Uses
The Spaniards brought the pecan into Europe , Asia, and Africa beginning in the 16th century.
The nuts of the Pecan are edible, with a rich, buttery flavour .
They can be eaten fresh or used in cooking , particularly in sweet desserts but also in some savory dishes.
One of the most common desserts with the pecan as a central ingredient is the pecan pie, a traditional southern U.S. recipe.
Pecans are also a major ingredient in praline candy , most often associated with New Orleans.
In addition to the pecan nut, the wood is also used in making furniture, in hardwood flooring, as well as flavouring fuel for smoking meats.
The pecan tree is the state tree of Texas
Pecans were one of the most recently domesticated major crops .
Although wild pecans were well-known among the colonial Americans as a delicacy , the commercial growing of pecans in the United States did not begin until the 1880s.
Today, the U.S. produces between 80% and 95% of the world's pecans , with an annual crop of 150–200 thousand tonnes.
The nut harvest for growers is typically around mid-October .
Historically, the leading Pecan-producing state in the U.S. has been Georgia , followed by Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma; they are also grown in Arizona and Hawaii.
Outside the United States, pecans are grown in Australia, Brazil, China, Israel, Mexico, Peru and South Africa.
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