A step by step guide to picking, drying, peeling, and roasting foraged beech nuts from the beech tree (Fagus sylvatica).
It has been a bad year for acorns and sweet chestnut in Newcastle and Northumberland, likely due to the drought. The oaks are not producing acorns, and the few sweet chestnut trees I have seen only have very small nuts. Though I can see on social media that there are good sweet chestnut harvests elsewhere in the country.
The beech nuts, on the other hand, are abundant near me. The trees are covered with their distinctive light brown nut cups covered in hairy protuberances. These cases make the trees easy to spot as the ground beneath them is often covered with scatterings of the beech nut cups from this year and previous years. When the nuts are plentiful and ripe, you will also often see groups of pigeons perched on the branches pecking away at the nuts and squirrels nibbling them on the ground and gathering to be stored away for the winter.
For humans they are delicious if prepared properly. This requires picking, peeling, toasting and peeling again – definitely a labour intensive process that requires patience. However, this is the case for processing most nuts by hand, and they all reward the effort with their rich nutrition. In the past a cooking oil was often made by squeezing the nuts in large oil presses, thus avoiding the laborious process of peeling each small nut.
Like other nuts beech nuts are rich in fats, protein, vitamins and minerals and flavour. They have also sustained people in times of famine and rationing. Beech nuts are rich in essential fatty acids, particularly omega-6, but also omega-9, and high in vitamin E.
However, beech nuts should not be eaten raw in any great quantity as they contain several chemicals that can cause stomach upset and interfere with digestion. This includes fagin and tannins. Drying and heating makes them safe to eat in decent amounts.
When they are ripe and ready to pick there will be some open cups/cases on the tree and many closed ones. The cups will have turned from the earlier light green to an ochre-brown. You can pick the closed cups and take them home, and they will split open over night. Children are often impressed by this nocturnal transformation.
Once the cases open there will be two to three nuts inside. However, many of the nuts inside will not be mature. The tree produces many empty or small nuts mixed in each case among the substantial nuts. To make matters worse some are also eaten by insects, you can normally see a little hole on the nut. It takes time to sort through them when you are picking them of the tree or after you have taken a large batch home in the cups. After a while picking through them and removing the ‘duds’ you will soon get a sense for which ones are worth keeping.
Each individual nut then has to be hand peeled to remove the husk. This also takes time. I peeled and toasted these straight away, though some sources recommend leaving them to dry out in their inner husks in a well ventilated drying rack for 2-3 weeks.
Once fully peeled, the easiest way to cook them is to dry roast them in a frying pan. I roasted them on a medium heat for about 6 minutes, stirring every now and then. If you have managed to collect and peel a lot then they could also be roasted in the oven. Just be careful not to overcook them.
After cooling, remove the toasted skin by lightly rubbing with your hands. If you have a large amount of nuts this can also be done by laying the nuts out between two thick dish towels and massaging gently, laying the resulting mix in a dish and blowing off the skins with a hair dryer on a low setting. If you know any more efficient methods, please let me know in the comments.
Once peeled, roasted and peeled again, beech nuts can be stored in a jar out of light. Use them like pine nuts in pesto or add to toppings of flapjacks and crackers. They make a great garnish for soups and salad or simply eat them on their own.
These were very popular on my foraging course in Newcastle at the weekend. Unfortunately, I doubt I will have time to pick more before the heavy winds and rains from Storm Austen forecast for the weekend that will likely strip the remaining nuts from the tree.
Browse the gallery below for a step by step guide to picking, drying, peeling, and roasting foraged beech nuts.
