How to Safely Harvest and Prepare Ginko Nuts

Step 6 Cooking The Nuts

Note: the nuts need to be cooked before you can eat them. 

To prepare them for eating, either roast them in a cast iron skillet like you would any other raw nut, roast them in the oven at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) or put them in a paper bag in the microwave.  You will know they are cooked because they have turned translucent bright green.

In the photos below, you can see the difference between a cooked and uncooked ginko nut.

Comments

[virginadian]

my mom puts ginko nuts in congee when i'm sick, it's a bit bitter but all in all very delicious and nutricious

[neighborhoodfruit]

Now that would be cool, if you made an instructable for the right way to make congee/ jook/ zhou/ ¥

[TamarGirl]

 Not an instructable, but instructions nonetheless.
chinesefood.about.com/od/breakfast/r/congee.htm

[neighborhoodfruit]

Thanks TamarGirl!  Whenever I make congee, I do it slightly differently than that (slowly cooking it and stirring constantly, adding cold water every time it boils).  I'll have to try to do it that way!

[cpetito]

Our previous house had a female Ginko tree in the front yard.  It was a wonderful tree - except in the fall when it was time to rake the prehistoric, very dense leaves amid the "fruits which smell like dog feces".  (I concur with the very accurate description :-)

We heard that the fruit had benefits, but never really believed that anything that smelled that bad could possible be good for human use.  Perhaps we should sneak back to the old house and steal away some fruit - I assume that cooked they taste better than they smell?

Thank you for bringing back memories of a wonderful tree!

[neighborhoodfruit]

I'm glad you liked the instructable.  You always could go ask the new residents of the house for a few of the fruit, if you want to try it.