I want to smoke my nuts....

[wade]

Yes you do need to watch them to ensure that they don't burn. You want to avoid direct heat on the nuts for too long or they can burn. I hot smoke mine in an FEC-100 which provides heat from the top and I have a large pan on the top shelf to act as a heat baffle and each time I stir the nuts I rotate their position in the smoker. This avoids hot spots. You are looking for the faintest of straw colour on the cashews and no real colour on the almonds. When I demonstrate this in my BBQ courses I use a ProQ vertical smoker or a WSM with an empty water pan in place and these do not burn.

 

[wade]

Yes you need to make sure that they don't burn. You are looking for the slightest light straw colour on the cashews and no colour at all on the almonds. I roast mine in an FEC-100 which has top heat and I place a large empty pan on the top shelf to act as a heat baffle. I also rotate their position in the smoker every time I stir. When I demonstrate this at my cooking classes I use either a ProQ or WSM vertical smoker with an empty water pan and these do not burn. Every smoker and smoker thermometer will be different and so the cooking times may need adjusting slightly depending on the smoker.

 

[johnmeyer]

Wade, thanks for the tips on how to avoid burning nuts. Regardless of the temperature used, that advice will be helpful.

 

[Bearcarver]

I just re-read the "Scarbelly Nuts" Thread, and he used 225° smoking Temp, but he started with Roasted Nuts.
He sent me some from CA, and they were Awesome!!
Here's the link again:
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/chipotle-garlic-mixed-nuts.111474/

Bear

 

[fullborebbq]

Great thread.

 

[Steve H]

I forgot about this thread. A month or two back I bought 5 pounds of raw cashews. Brined them and smoked them with hickory at 225 degrees for 4 hours. They came out great!

 

[sigmo]

I know this isn't a new thread, but I thought I'd just toss in the method I've been using with success.

I run a modified MES40. I use an AMNPS with, usually, Pitmaster's Choice pellets, which are a combination of different woods.

I love to do pecans. I buy them at Sam's Club, 32 oz bags. They're raw.

I have four half-sized foil steam table pans (also from Sam's). I punched a zillion holes in the bottoms of the pans with a Philip's screwdriver to allow smoke to rise up through them.

Two bags of pecans, 64 oz total, get coated with melted butter and finely-ground spice mixture. I melt butter in a large pan and then add the spice blend. Then I stir one bag (32oz) of the pecans into the butter spice mixture to coat them as evenly as possible.

I put 16 oz into each of the hole-filled pans.

I run the smoker at 225 degrees. I stagger the pans on the four shelves in the smoker and give them 45 minutes. Then I take the trays out, stir the nuts, and rotate the tray positions and give them another 45 minutes. I do that four times so each tray spends the same amount of time in each position. Total smoking time is 3 hours.

At 225, the pecans don't get "roasted", exactly. they get cooked, but not really roasted. The level of cooking is really just what I like. The pecans are no longer raw, and the texture is great.

My MES has fairly close temperature control.

Anyhow, 225 for 3 hours for pecans seems about right to me. I think some folks might prefer them to be roasted more, but to me, the smoke, spices, and cooking at 225 is excellent.