This is a tropical production. The nut, which a good deal resembles the walnut, grows at the end of the fleshy, pea shaped receptacle called the apple. It has an agreeable sub-acid taste, and may be fermented into a kind of wine. The juice is also much used in the West Indies for making punch and other beverages.
The eatable kernel is contained within two shells, and between these shells there is a thick rust-colored liquor, extremely inflammable, and so caustic that it will blister the skin: this is used as an indelible marking ink for linen. The kernel is of a very fine flavor, preferable to the walnut, and employed in puddings and many other compositions of the cook, abounding in a delicious milky juice when fresh, and may be eaten raw, roasted, or pickled. Some also grind it with cacao in making chocolate, the flavor of which it is said to improve.
The broken nuts are used for steeping in old Madeira wines to improve their flavor. The acrid inflammable oil of the shell should be burned out before the nut is eaten; for, if incautiously cracked by the hands or teeth, the caustic oil will blister the lips and excoriate the skin where it touches. It is said that the milky juice of the tree itself, obtained by tapping or incision, forms a black marking ink for linen that cannot be washed out. The nuts are eaten abundantly by the people in Brazil.
The Cashew-nut, Anacarditim occidentale, though doubtless introduced from South America has established itself in many part? of the Peninsula especially along the sea coasts where sandy. It is a low much branched straggling tree with rather large leave and pink flowers. The fruit has a pear-shaped swollen red peduncle on the top of which is the kidney-shaped fruit. The peduncle is very juicy and somewhat sweet, with an astringent after taste. It is rather a poor fruit on the whole, and the best way of using it is to squeeze the peduncle into a glass, and add some sugar so as to make a drink of it. The nut can be eaten raw or parched, requiring, however, the black skin of the kernel to be first removed. The fruit in the Straits is usually very small, and very inferior to the Cashew of South America.
The accepted hand-processing used to uncover the right flavor of these raw, organic cashews is a labor of like that has almost vanished around the globe. Traditional producers on average can only prepare 2 kilos (4.4 pounds) of raw kernels on a daily basis. But the flavor variation between raw and traditionally processed cashews is clearly identifiable.
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