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melanie
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| Posted: Oct 18 2008 at 10:47am | IP Logged
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Hello,
We were out yesterday and my daughter found a pecan tree with tons of nuts underneath and collected a huge bag full. The nuts originally had this softer green shell around them, and she has peeled that off, but the hard outer brown shell is like concrete. No one can get it off! How do we shell these? And what is the best way to store them, I'm guessing they need to be dried or something to keep them from going rancid?
Melanie, visions of holiday pralines dancing in her head.... 
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juststartn
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| Posted: Oct 18 2008 at 12:27pm | IP Logged
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Freezer! Bag them up....
If you have a hammer, you can use that (with some subtlty) to crack the outer shells..or even some good sized pliers might work...
I know some people who have run over particularly hard to crack nuts, with their cars (not people, just nuts from the tree!  ). That'll definitely work.
But I'd opt for the first two choices, before resorting to "vehicular nutcracking"...bag them up, and pop them into the freezer.
Rachel
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Oct 18 2008 at 4:40pm | IP Logged
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no help with the shells.. but it's the fats that go rancid, drying won't change that.. so you need to store them in a cool location.. freezer is great.. and they'll keep for ages.
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Wendy
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| Posted: Oct 20 2008 at 7:44am | IP Logged
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Ooooh, what a great find! My grandmother had a huge pecan tree in her backyard when I was growing up. She kept them in a brown paper bag (top rolled up) until we shelled them. You need a nutcracker and a pick, to pick the meat out once you've opened the nut.
I keep shelled pecans in the freezer.
I use pecans in breads and cookies (I guess where most people would use walnuts) and pecan pie for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  My dh loves pecan pralines... We also like sugared pecans and spicy pecans. Can you tell my grandmother had to find lots of ways to use them up?
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: Oct 20 2008 at 9:12pm | IP Logged
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With the heel of your shoe.
I'm serious. That's how all little Cajun children crack them and you learn quickly just how much pressure to use so you don't smash them.
As adults we use just a regular nutcracker and pick. Most families down here have an honest-to-goodness pecan cracker but I have trouble remembering how to use it. 
melanie wrote:
| And what is the best way to store them, |
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We just put our in a freezer bag and store them in the freezer, but they will last a good while in the door of your refrigerator as well.
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Oct 21 2008 at 7:30am | IP Logged
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Cay Gibson wrote:
| As adults we use just a regular nutcracker and pick. Most families down here have an honest-to-goodness pecan cracker but I have trouble remembering how to use it. |
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Lol, I feel silly. This is how we did it growing up (and, incidently, the pick is a good tool to have if you are doing a bunch because the pithy part really tastes ick if you don't get it all out).
However, when I originally read this post I was like, wow, if a nutcracker won't crack it, I'm not sure... Of course not everyone has a set of these.
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Servant2theKing
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| Posted: Oct 23 2008 at 12:20pm | IP Logged
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My grandmother kept a large flat rock as a kitchen doorstop AND for all her grandchildren to use for cracking pecan shells with a tack hammer (however, I think any hammer would do). We really had to concentrate to holds the shell just right, and hit the hammer on the seam in just the right way to crack it on the first whack. My grandmother just had to have bags of pecans in the shell every year for her baking...they sold them at a chain of stores called "Stuckeys" and we could never pass by without stopping for G-ma's pecans. I think she thought they were fresher than already shelled pecans. We freeze shelled nuts all the time and they definitely seem to stay fresher.
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TxTrish
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| Posted: Oct 23 2008 at 4:14pm | IP Logged
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Last fall we picked up nearly 100lbs of pecans from our backyard. We were living in W.Tx and there were TONS of pecan trees there. We took our nuts to the local feed store and had them "cracked" cheap. I don't remember what we spent - but it wasn't much and now we just pick them all apart when we use them. Store in the freezer.
Trish
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: how to use pecans???
