Would you want to know if almonds are real Nuts? In my experience, almonds are actually seeds within a fruit known as a drupe rather than nuts. Almonds are not considered nuts.
In reality, peanuts are legumes, while almonds are encased in a plump, meaty covering. People throughout the world like these fruits, whether or not they are actually “nuts.”
Almonds are comparable to their non-nut counterparts. However, what is an almond if it isn’t a nut?
First of all, some nuts are nuts before your entire world starts to fall apart and you begin to question whether things are indeed getting worse.
Acorns, chestnuts, and walnuts are examples of genuine nuts. Despite their apparent resemblance to walnuts, pecans are not considered nuts.
Brazil nuts aren’t nuts, either. But that’s not all; I’ll explain more about the topic as you continue reading.
Now, let’s get started
what are almonds, and are they even nuts
To begin, let’s ask the most basic of all questions: what are almonds, and are they even considered nuts?
This argument may be familiar to you, but despite the widespread assumption that almonds belong to the nut family, they are really the seed of a fruit that is produced by the almond tree, Prunus amygdalus in Latin.
The Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus created the binomial (two-name) system that we use today in the middle of the eighteenth century.
Scientific Latin names, such as Prunus amygdalus, are used to identify and categorize plants according to their features.
Each plant’s genus and species are denoted by the two designations employed in this system.
The almond tree’s scientific name, Prunus amygdalus, leads us to believe that it belongs to the genus Prunus, which also includes fruit trees like apricot, plum, peach, and nectarine.
Despite their technical names, many “nuts,” such as peanuts, cashews, coconuts, macadamia nuts, cashews, cashews, and cashews, are actually not actually nuts at all.
Is almond wild
No. One type of drupe fruit is the almond. A drupe fruit is a type of fruit that has a fleshy component on the outside that comes around an inner shell or “pit” that contains a seed on the inside.
Peaches, nectarines, prunes, apricots, cherries, and mangoes are all examples of drupe fruits, which are also frequently referred to as stone fruits.
There are several more instances. Coconuts and olives are both examples of drupes, which are also known as stone fruits.
You have most likely experienced an “aha” moment as a result of understanding this.
Both the pits and the seeds of these fruits are not edible; nevertheless, we are able to extract and make use of the oil that is contained within some of them.
However, it may be challenging to differentiate between nuts that do not contain nuts and nuts that do include nuts. Actual nuts, after all, have a protective husk that covers the inner shell of the nutshell.
Can almonds be classified as nuts or fruit
This is because an almond is not a nut but rather a Drupe.
A drupe is a stone that is found inside of a fruit, which, in the case of the almond, is a tree species that belongs to the peach family.
The ‘nut’ of the almond may be discovered embedded within the stone’s shell, which is located within the flesh of the fruit.
Originating in Iran, the almond tree is currently widely cultivated in regions that have conditions that are favorable for its growth.
Consequently, Iran continues to be one of the most significant producers of almonds. Still, it has been joined by nations as far away as Morocco, Spain, and the United States of America.
Almonds are not nuts, yet they have many culinary uses.
Some of these applications include butter, flour, milk, and, most significantly, marzipan and macarons.
Bitter almonds, on the other hand, are loaded with cyanide and are incredibly hazardous to consume; hence,
it is only logical that some Muppets thought that biting into them would be an excellent cancer treatment.
Why Aren’t Almonds Nuts
In reality, almonds are seeds. Anything that has an embryo, endosperm, and coating on it is called a seed.
Although a fruit encircles them, almonds are not a fruit like nuts are.
The seed of a particular kind of fruit known as a drupe is what almonds are. A drupe is essentially a type of fleshy fruit with seed within that is encased in a hard shell.
However, there is more to it. Among the drupe fruits are plums, peaches, and olives.
Imagine discovering a pit when you open a peach. There would be a seed within that pit if you were to open it. That seed resembles an almond in nature.
You can conceive of three types of things: a fruit, a nut, and a seed, albeit there are more.
Fruit is essentially anything that has seeds to avoid going too technical or into definitions (remember, this isn’t a comprehensive notion).
Fruits include apples. Fruits are what cherries are. Nuts are fruits, too.
The primary distinction between nuts and fruits, such as apples, where we consume the flesh, is that nuts have a hard shell that we do not consume.
This is just one way of looking at things; there is much more to it.
The main reason an almond is a seed is that it is encased in fleshy fruit instead of a shell. Typically, when we purchase almonds, we are buying the seed within rather than the meaty fruit.
We consider the shell that surrounds the seed to be different from the shell that surrounds a nut.
Returning to the peach analogy, purchasing nuts is similar to buying a peach, removing the fruit, and then consuming the seed that is within.
Purchasing almonds is identical to buying peach pits and consuming the seed therein.
Why Do We Think of Almonds as Nuts
In the context of food, we typically refer to kernels or seeds that we consume and that have shells surrounding them as nuts, even though, in reality, they are not strictly considered nuts.
This is something that we do because, by and large, we approach things like this in the same manner as we approach genuine nuts when it comes to eating.
A parallel may be drawn between this and the way in which we regard things that are classified as fruits, such as tomatoes and cucumbers, to be vegetables.
In spite of the fact that they are fruits, we tend to consider them as vegetables, and as a result, we occasionally refer to them as vegetables.
Consider the experience of eating a salad consisting of tomatoes and cucumbers. When you think of yourself, do you picture yourself eating a fruit salad, or do you picture yourself eating your vegetables
Final thought
Now that we have established that almonds are not real Nuts, It’s interesting to note that drupes are another categorization, and certain tree nuts are included in this group.
A drupe is a kind of fruit where a shell encloses a seed, also referred to as a pit, surrounded by an exterior fleshy portion.
Drupes include peaches, plums, and cherries, but they also include pecans, walnuts, and almonds. They are only drupes, and we consume the seed within the pit rather than the fruit.
Since cashews are the seeds that develop underneath cashew apples, they are also regarded as drupes.
