Has the Whole World Gone Nuts? Quiz

Answer: Almond

Marzipan is made from the almond nut, ground into a flour and mixed with honey or sugar to form a paste. Often marzipan candy is arranged into animal or fruit shapes for sale. Almond trees are of Mediterranean origin. Most scholars believe that marzipan was first made in Turkey or Persia.

The Baltic region of Germany, in particular the area near Lübeck, is known for creating some of the world's best marzipan. Be careful when buying marzipan, many inferior brands use only the essence of almonds and add soy paste as a filler.

Answer: Walnut

Güllac is a sweet treat made from milk, sugar, pomegranate seeds, phyllo dough and walnuts. Similar to the popular desert baklava, güllac is made by soaking thin strips of phyllo dough into a warm milk sugar solution infused with the pomegranate seeds. Walnuts are crushed and chopped and are placed between the layers of the dough. Evidence suggests that the Turks and other Indo-Asian cultures have made güllac since the early 14th century.

In Turkey, güllac is often served during the Muslim Ramadan period.

Answer: Macadamia

Macadamia trees are native to Australia and come in many different varieties. Macadamia's were named for the Australian (Scotland born) chemist John Macadam by Ferdinand Mueller then a leading Australian botanist. Macadamias were transported and planted in Hawaii in the 1880s and became an important export crop by the early 20th century. Macadamia nuts are higher in fat and lower in protein than most other nuts.

Moreso, the fat content in the macadamia has the highest percentage of monounsaturated fat of any edible seed. Studies have confirmed that macadamia nuts help lower the "bad" LDL cholesterol levels.

While that may be true, it hardly feels like a health food when I eat a tin of white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies.

Answer: True

Similar to the nomenclature debates over what is a fruit or a vegetable, many of the things we commonly call nuts are botanically drupes. A true nut has a hard shell that contains both the fruit and seed of the plant. In nuts the pod does not naturally release the seed into the wild. An acorn is an example of a true nut. Drupes are fruit where an outer flesh surrounds a shell or pit with the seed inside. Many of the most frequently cultivated tree fruits are drupes, where the flesh is eaten and the pit discarded. These include cherries, peaches, plums and coconuts. In coconuts, the hard shell husk is merely camouflage for the white fruit that is used in cooking.

While many drupe pits are discarded, many common nuts are technically drupe seeds. These include the almond, walnut and pecan nuts. Scientifically speaking these types of nuts are often called drupaceous nuts. "Drupe" comes from the Greek word for olive, itself an important type of drupaceous fruit.

Answer: pistachio

Like many other so-called nuts, pistachios are really seeds of a drupe fruit tree. Pistachio trees are closely related to cashews, mangos and of all things poison ivy. Pistachios are amongst the oldest cultivated seed nuts and are mentioned in texts as far back as 7000 years ago. Pistachios are one of two nuts that are referenced by name in the Old Testament. Iran is the world's leading producer of pistachios with the US second. In the US, almost all pistachios are grown in California. Pistachios are also high in mono- and polyunsaturated fats and are being studied for both cholesterol control and weight loss benefits.

The shell of the pistachio nut will open naturally as it ripens to allow access to the seed within. This fact makes the pistachio unique in that the fruit does not need to be shelled before roasting or salting. The appearance and great versatility of the pistachio have led to the happy nut moniker. In Iran, it is considered a sign of good luck to sit under the pistachio trees and hear the nutshells cracking.

Answer: Hazelnut

The hazelnut is also called the filbert nut and is used for the flavoring in the Italian liqueur Frangelico. Frangelico is sold in a bottle that depicts a friar and has a white sash around its middle. Frangelico is not a liqueur made by monks in the middle ages but rather was not distilled until the 1980s. Locally grown hazelnuts are harvested in the Piedmont region of Italy roasted and added to alcohol and cocoa, vanilla and coffee extracts to produce over 3 million bottles of the beverage a year.

Hazelnuts are amongst the oldest cultivated nuts with new evidence suggesting mass use as far back as 9000 years ago. Hazelnut flavoring is popular with coffee drinks and is the basis for the highly successful Nutella spread.

Answer: Pecan

There are over 1,000 varieties of pecan trees in the world with many of the different species named for Native American tribes. Pecans are the only major tree nut that grows naturally in North America. Historically the pecan was an important source of protein, fat and minerals for Native Americans. The name "pecan" is a Native American word from the Algonquin tribe that refers generally to any food requiring a stone to crack. These same native tribes made an early distilled liquor from pecans called powcohicora. Pecan plantations started in the 1770s and included farms run by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

The American South has always been a fertile area for pecan growing and commerce. Over 80% of the world's supply of pecans comes from the US. One tasty treat using pecans is the pecan pie, a mixture of nuts and corn syrup making it one of the truly original North American foods. Pecans are also a natural source of zinc and monounsaturated fat.

Answer: Peanuts

Peanut production dwarfs the product on of all other nut type foods. Peanuts are neither a nut nor a drupe; but are instead a legume. Legumes are vegetables that are grown as plants that like nuts and drupes have seeds or pods that are edible by humans and animals. Common legumes include peas, soybeans, carob, vanilla and the peanut. Peanuts are a native legume to South America that were harvested as long as 7500-8000 years ago. While always a part of native tribal diet, the peanut remained primarily a livestock and ornamental plant until the late 19th century when use for human consumption began in earnest. George Washington Carver an African-American botanist is credited for trumpeting the value of peanuts as both a cash crop alternative for cotton and a useful dietary ingredient. Carver helped create hundreds of peanut based recipes. Another famous American, John Kellogg of health food and cereal fame, patented the first peanut butter process.

Despite the fact that peanuts are really a bean, most people think of the roasted or boiled bean as a nut. China and India produce two thirds of peanuts grown in the world. Peanut oil like many other tree nut oils is pressed and used as a cooking oil across the globe.

Answer: chestnut

Who doesn't remember the "Christmas Song" from 1946 written by Mel Torme and Bob Wells and made famous by Nate King Cole that begins "chestnuts roasting on an open fire...". Chestnuts are a true tree nut that are unusual in that they are high in vitamin C. A 100 gram serving of chestnuts have half of the recommended daily requirement of the vitamin, contain no gluten and are low in fat. A serving of chestnuts has only 1.3 grams of fat compared to over 60 grams for the same serving of walnuts.

The chestnut has a high carbohydrate content and a surprising amount of moisture. When roasted the moisture will evaporate causing the nut to pop similar to the way popcorn is made. Roasted chestnuts are served in many countries as a street food like a baked potato or used as a stuffing when mixed with dried fruit and root vegetables. When milled, the starchy content of the chestnut creates a good flour for breads.

Answer: They do not contain any nuts

Many of the foods we call nuts are actually either drupes or legumes. Similarly, none of these popular nut named foods contain any actual nuts. Corn nuts are kernels of corn that have been deep fried to create a crispy nut-like snack food. Water chestnuts are a tubular water marsh vegetable grown in China and Southeast Asia that has a flavor similar to a chestnut. Grape-Nuts is a breakfast food made from the dried and baked cereal grains wheat and barley.

The name was chosen by the cereals creator, C.W. Post, because the cooked grains had a nut-like crunch. Post was a patient at the health spa run by and then a competitor of John Kellogg famed for creating, amongst other foods, corn flakes.