Cold Nuts

[JZ]

I smoked up some cheese today and put some almonds in at the same time. When they first came out they didn't taste too bad and I put them into an airtight container. A few hours later they taste kind of ashy like the cheese first does.

I did Seemores nuts and they turned out great so I am thinking that the cause of the ash taste is the cold smoking. So maybe I can fix the taste of the almonds by putting them into the smoker at 220* or for an hour or so or maybe just put them into the toaster oven for awhile. Or do I need to wait for several weeks for the flavour to mellow out, like I do with the cheese?

[Quarlow]

That is odd JZ, but you could be right about the cold smoke. I have done lots of hot smoked almonds "as per the Bradley cook book" and they never tasted ashy. I would try the toaster oven first as you don't want to put any more smoke too them. Just try to heat them and see what happens. That is my take on it.

[JZ]

If I put back into the smoker I didn't plan to smoke them again just heat them - I forgot to note that in my first post. But it would be faster to just put them into the toaster oven. I will give that a try and see what happens.

Might also give the Bradley recipe a try. Thanks for that.

[Quarlow]

I realized after I posted that you probably meant just for heat. Duh on my part. The oven would be faster.
With the Bradley recipe I have been trying to add flavours. I haven't got it perfected yet. I have done the brining and the tried to sprinkle on other flavours before smoking but most of it shook off. They still tasted good though. I am going to try brining, a bit of olive oil then sprinkle before smoking next time.

[JZ]

I did Seemores recipe today and put almonds and pistachios together. I found that the sauce stuck to both nuts really well and some of the salt from the pistachios ended up on the almonds. It was a great combo. I think if you use the Bradley recipe and then do a sauce like Seemore's with the heated butter and seasoning and then mix the nuts in the sauce that the seasoning will stick to the nuts. Worth a try and it is simple to do.