The Setup

Finally getting back to normal after a stormy year. As I normally do near the holidays, I smoked some nuts. I purchased the products from Sam’s, as I have had good luck with the brands in the past. It was a decent day on Sunday so I smoked three batches of nuts. I did two rounds of Cashews, and one round of Almonds. To accomplish this, I use a weber pan that I purchased from Amazon. It is a decent pan that can be used for several things, but mainly I use it to smoke nuts. The slots in the pan allow for good smoke penetration .

Cashews

For the cashews, I prefer to purchase them in containers that can be reused to store the smoked products, even if it is temporary.

I do one canister at a time, I did two batches. I dump them into a large enough bowl, and they are delicious out of the container, but I jazz them up a bit.

As you can see, they’re a bit dull out of the container. so I add some olive oil and stir, just enough to make them shine. The olive oil will work as a binder that will allow the seasoning applied to stick to the nuts.

Once they are shined up, I then add paprika and garlic powder and onion powder and stir, add more and stir, and more and stir. I want a good covering on them. I’m not a technical chef and don’t measure the ingredients. I prefer to sprinkle, stir, assess, then sprinkle and stir some more until I think I’ve got the right amount.

I then add them to the lit smoker. My target temp is 225 on the smoker and for the cashews, I use hickory chunks for the smoked flavor.

I cook for about 90 minutes, and stir every 30 minutes, this important to ensure the nuts on the bottom of the pan do not burn during the process. When they are completed, I remove and let them cool, before placing them back in the container.

For the full cashew process Hickory Smoked and Seasoned Cashews

The Almonds

After completing two round of cashews, I moved on to do 3lbs of almonds. I followed the same processing, using olive oil as a binder, just enough to make them shine as shown below. Again, the olive oil works as a binder to help the seasoning coat the almonds.

For these, I like the combination of cinnamon and chipotle powder. It gives it a nice, sweet spicy “Sweet Heat” combination. I also switched to cherry wood for the smoke flavor being applied.

“I went the same 90 minutes, stirring every 30 minutes. Both types turned out great, and will be appreciated by the people that I will be sharing them with.

For the full almond process Sweet Heat – Cherry Smoked Almonds

This kind of day could get bigger — at peak, I’ve run as many as five or six batches in a single sitting, four rounds of cashews followed by two of almonds. For the full process and how a bigger day comes together, see The Complete Guide to Smoking Nuts.