What are cashew apples? How do you use a cashew apple?

Cashews are known as nutritious nuts with many health benefits. Cashews are known as a snack and are a healthy food, versatile, and unique compared to other nuts, full of nutrients necessary for a good health. However, not every part of the cashew fruit contains nutrients. Especially the parts except for the cashew kernel. One of them is cashew apple. “What are cashew apples?” and “How do you use a cashew apple?”. Here is the useful information for you.

 What is the cashew apples?

The cashew apple is the fruit of the cashew tree to which the cashew nut is attached. The top end of the cashew apple is attached to the cashew tree stem. The bottom end of the cashew apple attaches to the cashew nut, which is encased in a shell. The cashew nut is the true fruit, and is considered a drupe. In botanical terms, the cashew apple is an accessory fruit that grows on the cashew seed (which is the raw nut).

Cashews come from a cashew tree that bears what’s commonly known as cashew apples. A cashew apple is what’s known in the scientific world as a pseudo fruit, which is a fancy way of saying parts of the fruit’s flesh do not come from the plant’s ovary, but from other areas of the specimen. Other pseudo fruits include strawberries, pears, apples, and pineapples.

Features of the cashew apples

Cashew nuts are small, green-brown in color, and kidney-shaped. Conversely, the cashew apple is the thickened fruit stalk that the cashew nut hangs from. The cashew apple is, at around 5-10 cm in size, far bigger than the nut and is similar to a pear or pepper in terms of its shape. The fruit is only an accessory fruit as the cashew nut alone is used for reproduction. A ripe cashew apple is yellow-orange or red in color. It contains a great deal of vitamin C, has a sweet-sour taste, and is vaguely redolent of the apples that we are familiar with here. Its aroma is fruity and sweet.

The cashew apples contain: 

• 90% is the fruit.
• 10% is the raw cashew nut.

Food Value Per 100 g of Fresh Cashew Apple*

*Analyses made in Central America and Cuba.

What does a cashew apple taste like?

The cashew fruit, or cashew apple, is the fleshy, protective “fruit” out of which the cashew “nut” grows. The flavor of the cashew apple is tropical but not solely fruity.

People often detect citrus, mango and non-sweet fruit flavors in it like cucumber and bell pepper. All in all, it’s described as having a sweet to bitter and slightly acidic taste.

The taste has been characterized as a mix of front-of-the-mouth sweet with a touch of sour, similar to an apple. The smell is typical of the fruit: sweet, juicy, and fruity. Since the fruit doesn’t last long before decaying and is what’s known as ‘touch-sensitive,’ consumption of cashew apples must be kept close to the harvest site. As is common with many fruits, the longer the fruit ripens on the branch, the sweeter the fruit will be.

Cashew apples’ rich astringent taste stems from its pectin-adhered, waxy skin infused with a chemical oil called urushiol. Every member of the Anacardiaceae family of trees (think sumac, mangoes, Peruvian peppers, pistachios, poison ivy, and yes, cashews) contains urushiol in all parts of the plant, which is why cashews are never sold in their toxic shell and are often roasted at high temperatures to eliminate any residual oil.

How do you use a cashew apple?

Consumption of the cashew apple tends to stay close to home, as the fruit doesn’t last long before decaying. You’ll find the cashew apple in drinks and in fruit spreads like jams and jellies, though most cultivation is directed toward the production of the valuable nut crop.

Like most fruit trees, the cashew apple and nut drop to the ground together when both have fully ripened on the branch. The big cashew farms then pop off the nut and toss the cashew apple back to the ground. On those types of farms, the pseudo fruit gets eaten by livestock. In smaller farms, the cashew apples are sometimes picked up and taken to sell at local markets or fruit and vegetable processing companies.

Although several countries enjoy the fruit whole and fresh, steaming or boiling cashew apples in salted water for a few minutes can reduce its fibrous quality and bitter taste. You can also simmer it directly into preserves, jams, and other fruit-inspired sweet variations. If you happen to be close to a cashew tree (gloves in hand), it’s best to use the fruit immediately after it falls from the branch as it tends to spoil quickly.

Here is some information about cashew apples. If you know to know more about cashew nuts as well as the best quality Vietnamese cashew nuts, do not hesitate to click on our website Vihaba.vn to know more detailed information about cashew products.