inactivate enzymes and soften the cellular
structure, then pressing them; the oil is then
clarified and sometimes refined to remove
some of the distinctive flavor and impurities
that would lower the smoke point.
Pecans Pecans are the soft, fatty seeds of a
very large tree, a distant relative of the walnut
that is native to the Mississippi and other
river valleys of central North America, and
found as far south as Oaxaca. Carya
illinoiensis is one of about 14 species of
hickories, and its nuts among the tastiest and
easiest to shell. Wild pecans were enjoyed by
the native Americans, and apparently made
into a kind of milk that was used for drinking,
cooking, and possibly fermenting. The earliest
intentional plantings may have been made by
the Spanish around 1700 in Mexico, and a few
decades later the trees were grown in the
eastern British colonies. The first improved
varieties were made possible in the 1840s by a