Cashew nut

CASHEW NUT, the fruit of the cashew, cadju or acajou tree, Anacardium occidentale (nat. ord. Anacardiaceae), a native of the West Indian Islands. The fruit is kidney-shaped, about an inch in length, and the kernel is enclosed in two coverings, the outer of which is smooth, grey and leathery. Inside this external rind is a dark-coloured layer, containing an excessively acrid juice. The kernels have a bland, oily, pleasant taste. They are much eaten, both raw and roasted, in the tropical regions in which the tree is cultivated, and they yield a lightcoloured, sweet-tasted oil, said to be equal to olive oil for culinary purposes. The fruit-stalk, immediately under the fruit, is swollen and fleshy, and assumes a pear-like shape. This swollen portion of the stalk has a pleasant acid taste, and is eaten under Anacardium occidentale, Cashew Nut plant, belonging to the nat. ord. Anacardiaceae.

i. Branch (reduced), bearing flowers and fruit. The fruitstalks are enlarged in a pearlike form, bearing the nut (the true fruit) at their apex.

2. Flower expanded.

3. Stamen and pistil, with the calyx; one fertile stamen longer than the others.

the name of cashew apple. By fermentation it yields an alcoholic beverage, from which a spirit for drinking is distilled in the West Indies and Brazil. The stem of the tree yields a gum analogous to gum arabic.

Categories: CAS-CAT | Dicots | Food