protein-emulsifier blend to help retain the
salt. Peanuts are salted in the shell by being
soaked in brine under a vacuum, which pulls
the air from inside the shell and forces the
brine in.
Removing Skins Many preparations call for
nut skins to be removed so that they don’t
discolor the dish or add unwanted astringency.
Thin skins — those on peanuts and hazelnuts,
for example — can often be made brittle
enough to rub off by a brief toasting in the
oven. The thicker skins of almonds are
toughened and loosened by a minute or two in
boiling water. Others can often be removed by
immersing the nuts in hot water made alkaline
with baking soda (3 Tb soda per quart/45 gm
per liter), rubbing the softened skins off
(alkalinity helps dissolve hemicellulose
cement in the cell walls), then reimmersing
the nuts in a dilute acid solution to neutralize
the slight amount of absorbed alkaline liquid.