Do those parts have names? I'm trying so hard to know what they're called.

In part because I just want to eat the crunchy pistachio skin pieces.

  • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    The "skin" you're talking about is the seed coat, made up of the testa (outer part) and tegmen (inner part). I'm unsure if the tegmen is roasted away somehow, or just sticks to the inside of the testa during the roasting process, but most of the "skin" is going to be the testa. This is the same part as the papery brown layer inside of a peanut.

    I think the difference you're referring to is basically the difference in thickness of the testa, being thicker and somewhat chunkier around the hilum, the point where the kernel attaches to the endocarp (shell). On a peanut, this is that little divot by the radicle (the small little piece of nut at the heel of the peanut in addition to the two main parts called cotyledons)

    Hopefully this makes sense, this would be way easier to explain if I was sitting there eating pistachios with you lmao. Having trouble finding helpful detailed photos of pistachios with visible parts that I can label.

    • Magician [he/him, they/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      This is really informative actually. I wanted to look up the right terms and now I learned a lot about peanuts too. Thank you!

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    There's got to be some kind of botany sub or a public botanist on twitter that could answer this. Or find out if a university works with pistachios and email one of the ag or botany professors.

    • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      The aril is a different thing. The juicy red parts around pomegranate seeds which we eat are arils, as is the white part of a lychee that we eat.

      The papery, fibrous part around the cotyledons of a peanut or pistachio is called a seed coat. If you want fun words, you can call this the testa.

  • YearOfTheCommieDesktop [they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    honestly no? Its been a while since I had pistachios but I don't remember any of that

    do you not get that if they're pre-roaste?

    E: I might just be dumb actually. I definitely never take the time to take the skin off though