Pine Nuts

[Lemons2lemonade]

I have hated pesto all of my life. It makes me sick. I just had it tonight and it made me feel terrible. Potsy nauseous and all. So I looked up Pesto's ingredients, and I eat the others all the time with no problems. Except the pine nuts. So I went and looked them up and there apparently is some weird thing with pine nuts where they change your taste, by adding a metallic flavor. They think it is caused by this http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterohepatic_circulation which I think also is important to consider in pots.

[ramakentesh]

Interesting. Parmesian cheese is also one of the highest sources of glutamate in the human diet.

[martiz]

Interesting. Parmesian cheese is also one of the highest sources of glutamate in the human diet.

Yes it certainly is! And one of my son's favorite foods! When he was little (3 or so), he would open the fridge and pour the parmesan cheese into his mouth! Other than being unsanitary - I hated that habit and tried to get him to stop. He was addicted to the stuff! Now that we know that it is a high source of glutamates - it's off the menu.

He is off of it now (mostly). I have never been able to eat the stuff.

Marti

[Katybug]

Lemons,

My stepfather is allergic to nuts so we have to make our pesto without it. If you like the taste but just don't like the fact that it makes you sick and you think it is the pine nuts, you can try these alternatives:

1. Leave it out. It tastes very fresh this way.

2. Ground toasted seseame seeds.

3. Ground roasted pumpkin seeds.

The sesame or the pumpkin seeds add the depth of flavor to replace the pine nuts but I like it without too.