ALL ABOUT HAZELNUTS

The world is divided into two camps when it comes to Corylus avellana. One calls it a filbert, the other a hazelnut. “When people ask me if we grow filberts, I say, ‘yeah, they grow on hazelnut trees,’ ” says Floyd Aylor, president of Columbia Empire Farms, which grows and processes filberts, er hazelnuts, in Sherwood, Ore.

Hazelnut is the more correct name since it is a member of the hazel family—hazel being derived from Greek and Anglo-Saxon words for bonnet or helmet, which the husk or shell of the nut resembles. Filbert came from St. Philbert, whose feast day in England was celebrated on August 22, when the nuts matured. Or perhaps it was the tubular husk around a longer version of the nut, reminiscent of a full-beard, or ‘Vollbart’ in German.

Whether you call it a filbert or hazelnut—or full beard—this is one tasty morsel.  “Hazelnuts have a very, very distinctive flavor, as opposed to more neutral flavor of other nuts like walnuts or pecans,” says Wayne Harley Brachman, a highly regarded restaurant pastry chef in New York. While all nuts take on more flavor when roasted, Brachman thinks toasting “really accents the essential oils in hazelnuts.” Brachman likes to use hazelnuts with berries, especially raspberries, in desserts such as a hazelnut frangipane with raspberries in a chocolate crust. They’re also good with dried fruits, he says, in creations such as a pear and sour cherry cobbler with hazelnut biscuit topping, or a dried cherry and hazelnut Toll House cookie.

Though used in a variety of desserts and confections, hazelnuts have a particular affinity for chocolate. “They have a bright mid palate fruit that makes them go well with the fruitiness in chocolate,” says John Scharffenberger, a former California sparkling wine maker and co-founder of chocolate maker Scharffen Berger in South San Francisco. Scharffenberger has been experimenting with hazelnuts and chocolate to create an American version of the Italian chocolate-hazelnut confection gianduia.

Hazelnuts can be also used in a number of savory dishes, especially ones with a Mediterranean bent. “Hazelnuts have an earthy quality that makes them go well with the rustic cooking of the Mediterranean, whether it’s the cheeses and game of the western Mediterranean or the sweeter dishes of the eastern Mediterranean,” says Matthew Kenney, a New York restaurateur and co-author (with me) of Matthew Kenney’s Mediterranean Cooking. Kenney uses hazelnuts with pomegranate molasses in a dipping sauce for grilled chicken kabobs and with golden raisins and Sauternes spooned over roasted quail and Belgian endive.

Americans haven’t taken to hazelnuts the way Europeans have. Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium use considerably more, particularly in candies and desserts. Hazelnuts have been overshadowed in the United States by almonds, walnuts, and pecans, which are all produced in greater quantities domestically. Despite this, hazelnuts are comparable to almonds in price at about $5 a pound, $3 or more per pound less than pecans and about $1 a pound more than walnuts.

For all practical purposes, Oregon is the only state that grows hazelnuts. A blight wiped out hazelnut trees most everywhere else in the country and is now threatening the Oregon trees. But researchers at the University of Oregon are developing fungal sprays to keep the blight at bay.

About 75 percent of the hazelnuts we consume come from Turkey, the world’s largest producer. Like Oregon, the Turkish growing area along the Black Sea, has a hazelnut-friendly temperate climate with mild winters (when trees bloom) and moderate summers, though Turkish trees often grow wild, unlike the more cultivated Oregon trees. Italy is the second-largest producer of hazelnuts but consumes virtually all of that production. Spain ranks fourth, after the United States.

Which hazelnuts are best? “Oregon nuts are not as intense as I hoped. They’re too big and too pretty,” Scharffenberger says. “I’ve tasted the Turkish nuts and they’re flavorful. They’re more wild and, like good wine grapes, have to struggle. But the best I’ve eaten are the ones from wild trees on my property near Philo. They’re very small but more intense in flavor.”

Though Brachman thinks the larger Oregon nuts are better for eating out of hand, he believes the origin of hazelnuts is not nearly as important as how they are handled. “If hazelnuts sit around at room temperature and are exposed to air long enough, you can’t tell them apart from almonds,” he says. “At a seminar I tasted some hazelnuts from Oregon and Turkey and neither was particularly flavorful. Then I pulled out some of mine that had been frozen (Brachman won’t say where they came from.) Mine were by far the best.”

The first batch of Turkish hazelnuts I bought—loose from a bin—was stale and tasted more like peanuts than almonds. (The smaller Turkish hazelnuts also look a bit like Spanish peanuts. Befitting their wilder habitat, they are also less uniform than Oregon hazelnuts.) The second batch was properly sealed and had a woodsy flavor I associate with hazelnuts. The Oregon hazelnuts had that flavor even more so.

Look for plump hazelnuts with a uniform color—the Oregon nuts are reddish brown, the Turkish nuts are more chestnut brown. Brachman thinks all hazelnut producers would serve their products better if the nuts were kept in opaque, vacuum-sealed packages, like coffee beans. Well-sealed hazelnuts will last up to two years in the freezer. In cold storage (32 to 38 degrees), hazelnuts in the shell, which come primarily from Oregon, will keep a year or more.

To bring out their best flavor, hazelnuts should be toasted. Philippe Boulot, chef of Heathman Hotel in Portland, Ore, and a native of Normandy, suggests five minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven. This gives a slightly burnt flavor that Europeans like but which many Americans may not. Slow toasting at 250 to 300 degrees for about 25 minutes will make burning less likely if you get distracted. I prefer Brachman’s suggestion of 350 for eight minutes or 325 degrees for six minutes in a convection oven. Larger nuts may take a bit longer.

Removing the papery inner skins from toasted Oregon hazelnuts is more difficult than from Turkish hazelnuts. The best method is to put the nuts just out of the oven in a dish towel with a rough surface. Pull the towel up around the nuts and secure with a rubber band. Let the nuts steam for 5 minutes, then vigorously rub them together to remove the skins. For more nettlesome skins, shake the nuts in a sieve or deep-frying basket covered with a towel.

The ways in which you can use hazelnuts in fall and winter dishes are almost endless. Brown them in butter and add them to blanched string beans or Brussels sprouts. Sprinkle toasted hazelnuts on a winter squash soup seasoned with ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. Stuff them into a pork loin roast with dried cherries or cranberries. Fold hazelnuts into freshly made cranberry sauce with grated orange rind and a splash of Frangelico. Toss them into a salad of hearty greens and roasted chanterelle mushrooms with a hazelnut oil vinaigrette. Or press crushed hazelnuts, mixed with seasoned bread crumbs, onto trout or salmon fillets for a delicious crust. In fact, try hazelnuts in any dish where you’d use other nuts like, oh, filberts maybe?

How to Get it

Here are some mail order and internet sources for Oregon hazelnuts:

Columbia Empire Farms, Sherwood, OR, 888-252-0699; www.nutworld.com.

Hazelnut Growers of Oregon, Cornelius, OR, 800-923-6887; www.hazelnut.com 

Northwest Hazelnut Co., Hubbard, OR, 503-982-8030; www.nwhazelnut.com.

This article first appeared in my Tastes column in the November 15, 1999 issue of Wine Spectator magazine.