The cashew apple, also called cashew fruit, is the fleshy part of the cashew fruit attached to the cashew nut. The top end of the cashew apple is attached to the stem that comes off the tree. Which parts of cashew apples fruits are usable? Keep reading to know the details
Where does a cashew nut come from?
While many of the cashews produced for commerce come from Africa and India, the cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale) is native to tropical regions of Brazil. The tree produces a long, fleshy stalk, called a cashew apple, which resembles a small pear.
Furthermore, what part of the cashew is poisonous? Raw cashews contain urushiol, a resin that is toxic if ingested and can cause rashes or burns if it contacts the skin. To remove this substance, cashews must go through a rigorous roasting or steaming process to ensure they are safe to eat. This is why you will always see cashews shelled at the grocery store.
What are 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. In botanical terms, the cashew apple is an accessory fruit that grows on the cashew seed (which is the raw nut).
The cashew apples contain:
- 90 % is the fruit.
- 10 % is the raw cashew nut.
Which parts of cashew apples are usable?
All parts of the cashew apples are usable, including:
- The apples
- The fruits
- The cashew nuts
- The cashew kernels
- The cashew nuts shell
- The cashew nuts testa
- The Fruits
When ripe, the whole thing falls off the tree, and the bottom part is gathered for processing. The false fruit (called cashew fruit or cashew apple) is edible, but it is very perishable. The cashew fruits are juicy, lightly flavored, sour, with a lot of vitamin C, and they can also be eaten fresh. In West Africa, cashew apples are usually plucked off a tree and eaten on the spot it’s sweet but slightly astringent. It is often left to rot, but can be eaten raw, cooked, or used to make a liquor called feni. Moreover, cashew fruits are used in a variety of ways for example include curries, chutneys, jams, vinegar, liquors, Candy, Syrup, Juice…, and it’s more popular year by year.
2. The Kernels
Cashew Kernels are being used as the main commercial product in the cashew nut industry. They have a nutty flavor and a rich taste to be USED in recipes of salted cashew nuts, honey cashews, whole-grain salt-roasted cashews, chili garlic cashews, wasabi cashews …or to be processed by salting, sugaring, flavoring, roasting, oil frying, or industrial processing into cashew cheese or cashew butter…
3. The Cashew Nuts Shell
Raw cashews contain urushiol- the same toxic chemical that is found in poison oak or ivy. Cashew poisoning is rare, but if urushi is ingested at a high level, it can be deadly
The cashew shells are what many consider the trash, are now becoming a new source of raw materials and could open up a market of hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Because cashew nut shell oil is an important raw material in many industries. The cashew shell contains 25% of this reddish-brown oil, industrially known as Cashew Nuts Shell Liquid (CNSL) which is a by-product of the roasting shell process. Moreover, cashew shell residues, the remains of the raw cashew shell after the oil has been extracted used to burn the boiler with a high heating value. Cashew Nuts Shell Liquid (CNSL) has several uses in the industry. Extracted from the shell, this liquid is mostly composed of anacardic acids; it is used, after purification, in chemical product manufacturing. This liquid is dangerous can not be handled with bare hands. Its handling requires the use of oil, gloves, etc…
4. The Cashew Nuts Testa
Sometimes, cashew testa is used either to complement livestock food, and they also can be used to make dyeing. Extract of cashew testa skin as tanning agent In the testa shell of cashew nuts that contain many tannins, people often buy cashew testa shells from Vietnam to extract this substance to be raw materials for the industry. Tannins are a class of astringent polyphenols that are naturally present in the bark and leaves of many plants.
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.
In India, cashew apples are used to make the liquor feni. Fun fact: like ouzo and champagne, feni s a geographically limited product; feni made anywhere other than Goa can’t legally be called feni, Ozy reports.