Cashew Nuts?

Question

I have never seen Cashew Nuts sold in their shells (as peanuts, walnuts etc are). Is there a reason for this?

Answer 1

Yes, I believe there is.....in the meantime here is a link to a photo of cashews in their shells or whatever. (first link down below)

And here is some more info I found (hey thanks for asking a question where I actually learned something )

Long ago the U.S. passed laws against importing the nuts in their shells (all cashews sold here are imported from China, India, or Brazil). On the hoof, they're toxic.

Cashew grove: Imagine a tree covered with small, yellow-red apples. From the bottom of each grows something that looks like an inflated lima bean. That's the nut. It has a thick outer shell and thin, membranous inner shell, between which is an oily liquid that is quite irritating and potentially toxic. When cashews are processed, the outer shell is removed, the liquid drained off, the nuts are dried, and the membrane shell is removed, and the detoxed nuts are packed in tins for export. The oily liquid is recycled into bug spray. Lurking in the branches of the cashew's family tree are a couple of nasty relatives: poison oak and poison ivy.

Answer 2

The Cashew (Anacardium occidentale) is a tree in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The plant is native to northeastern Brazil, where it is called by its Portuguese name Caju (the fruit) or Cajueiro (the tree). It is now widely grown in tropical climates for its cashew "nuts" (see below) and cashew apples.
It is a small evergreen tree growing to 10-12 m tall, with a short, often irregularly-shaped trunk. The leaves are spirally arranged, leathery textured, elliptic to obovate, 4-22 cm long and 2-15 cm broad, with a smooth margin. The flowers are produced in a panicle or corymb up to 26 cm long, each flower small, pale green at first then turning reddish, with five slender, acute petals 7-15 mm long.
What appears on the tree to be the fruit of the cashew tree is an oval to pear-shaped accessory fruit or false fruit that develops from the receptacle of the cashew flower. Called the cashew apple, better known in Central America as "marañón", it ripens into a yellow and/or red structure about 5–11 cm long.
The true fruit of the cashew tree is a kidney or boxing-glove shaped drupe that grows at the end of the pseudofruit. Actually, the drupe develops first on the tree, and then the peduncle expands into the pseudofruit. Within the true fruit is a single seed, the cashew nut. Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense the fruit of the cashew is a seed. However, the true fruit is classified as a nut by some botanists. The seed is surrounded by a double shell containing a caustic phenolic resin, urushiol, a potent skin irritant toxin (also found in the related poison-ivy). Some people are allergic to cashews, but cashews are a less frequent allergen than some other nuts.

Answer 3

Yes. There are resins in the shell of the cashew nut that are very toxic, they even say to roast them outside. The stuff will irritate your skin too.

http://www.thenutfactory.com/kitchen/facts/facts-cashews.html

http://www.nutnutrition.com/allaboutnuts/cashew.htm

Answer 4

Yes!
They don´t have shells but a very tight and sticky envelope. The envelop has to be burned, so the nut will be free. And this envelop contains an acid that harms your skin.
As a child my brothers and me used to do this all the time. They are delicious when green and fresh.
It was a surprising question!

Answer 5

You will not see them in the shells. Part of the reason that they are so expensive is due to the shelling of them. They (I think) are related to the poison oak family. The shells are toxic to the skin.

Answer 6

No shells but a thin skin.

Answer 7

cashews are the exception -they don't have shells

Answer 8

they don't have a shell. they grow out of the end of what looks and tastes like a peach or a mango.

Answer 9

idk.Pics:http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?ei=UTF-8&fr=slv1-&p=Cashew%20Nuts&fr2=tab-web

Answer 10

They don't have shells.