The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel, small, round, cinnamon coloured shell and white-yellowish flesh, sweet flavoured and rich in oil. The fruit is consumed raw, roasted or as an ingredient for different product processing, mainly nougat and chocolate.

Nutrition and eating

Hazelnuts are a rich source of unsaturated fat, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamin E, folate and vitamins B pantothenic acid and biotin. Vitamin E is an antioxidant and a body’s free radicals cleaner, helping to the protection against some types of cancer.

The fruit

The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel, small, round, cinnamon coloured shell and white-yellowish flesh, sweet flavoured and rich in oil. The fruit is consumed raw, roasted or as an ingredient for different product processing, mainly nougat and chocolate.

It is a dry fruit popularly known and appreciated in all the countries, with a high consumption due to its multiple applications. In addition to the fresh, roasted, fried and salted consumption, as an appetizer or in salads, sauces, etc., the hazelnut is used to make different products; thus, for instance, it is used with cacao in chocolates and creams, with almonds to make nougats, cakes, ice creams, liquor, and even a white oil, with a very appreciated pleasant flavour.

The dry hazelnut is very nutritious and its consumption provides around 670kcal for 100g.

The hazel’s fruit is small, usually 2cm of diameter, oblong or ovoid and sometimes round, with a tip in the end (apex), with a ligneous and thin pericarp, cinnamon coloured. Inside it we find the edible seed, a fleshy and white-yellowish round almond, very oily, of sweet pleasant flavour and surrounded by a thin brown layer that peels off easily.

There are different varieties gathered in three different groups whose fruits are more or less small, from slightly variable shape and with a different hardness of the shell.

In Spain, the fruit ripens between August and September, and it is in December, for Christmas, that reaches the greater demand. Hazelnuts are commercialized with or without shell, peeled or not. In the market there are also whole hazelnuts, cut up or grounded, natural, roasted and salted.

Hazelnuts contain little water and must avoid moisture in order to improve preservation; therefore, it should be preserved in hermetically closed containers, in a fresh and dry place. The best results are obtained when they are preserved in low oxygen content environments, that prevent them to become rancid. They are better and longer preserved in the shell, although it is possible to preserve them peeled under refrigeration for 3-4 months, or frozen for a year.

In Reus, the most traditional area of hazelnut culture in Spain, although the importance of this culture has diminished, there is still the custom for families to gather during the winter days to peel and eat hazelnuts.

The plant

Hazels can reach 5m of height and they have a bramble appearance. The great leaves alternate, hairy in the upperside and with sawed edges; they are deciduous.

The hazelnut comes from a small tree or shrub called hazel that belongs to the Corylus species, from the family of Betulaceous or Cupuliferous, and has a height between 2 and 5m.

The hazel has a low and bramble structure because of its tendency to produce very branched twigs in its neck. The crust is smooth, reddish brown, with clear spots and it scales in thin laminae. The young branches are erect and covered with reddish hairs.

The root system is little deep and very branched, with tendency to yield sprouts.

The deciduous leaves are big, alternate, with a short stalk , smooth surface and rugose venation on the reverse , hairy in the upperside, with a heart shape in the base and pointed in the apex . Sawed edges.

The masculine flowers, that is to say, those that lack gynoecium , coexist in the same plant with the feminine flowers, that lack androecium . The masculine ones are grouped in catkins , whereas the feminine ones gather in small heads with a scaled bud that lets only the red stigmas outside.