How To: Shelling those Texas Pecans

Don’t you just love surprises? Well, the other day I received in the mail a box from Jeannie of For What It’s Worth and it was full of Texas pecans! Aren’t they beautiful?

It’s been years since I’ve shelled pecans. First, I needed to see if we still had a nut cracker. After pulling it from the back of a kitchen drawer (can’t believe it was in there!), all of a sudden memories came pouring back.

When growing up I remember during the holiday season the nut dish loaded with walnuts and pecans and the nut cracker and the picks attached. The fire would be roaring in the fireplace keeping the living room toasty despite the brittle temps outside. Dad would be sitting on the north corner of the blue textured couch with his highball on the end table and the nut bowl in front of him. He’d leisurely crack a nut and pop it in his mouth. What a great treat to relive that memory.

So this was going to be a fun experience. Well, not quite. Unlike Dad, I was on a mission to get them cracked and put away. I started cracking them, but the nuts were stubborn not want to come out of the shells. I’ll show them. My peaceful memory had faded into a me-against-the-nuts. In my craft room/woman cave I retrieved an instrument to pick the meat out of the shells.

Dave came by and volunteered his strength and started cracking the nuts. However, after some time he decided he had better things some gardening chores to do. So now I was back in the kitchen alone struggling with these beautiful pecans. I decided there had to be a better or easier way besides buying them shelled. So what do I do when I need an answer? Google! This is the technique I found and it works!

In a glass cup add one cup of water and then add pecans to fill.

Microwaved for 5 minutes on high.

Remove from the microwave, drain the water, and pour pecans on a towel.

While still warm, start cracking them.

I was amazed at how the pecans actually came out of their shells almost whole. I had to do very little digging.

So I ended up with a big bowl of these delicious pecans.

After letting them set out for several hours to dry a bit (although they weren’t wet), I popped them into the freezer. Now when I’m ready to make something they will be ready. Yum!

Thanks Jeannie for this lovely surprised and helping me to take that trip down memory lane.