Pistachios, to salt or not to salt?

[Sugared Ellipses]

Hello all!

I know this may be an obvious question to some, but I'm new to this whole baking thing. I was wondering when a recipe lists pistachios as an ingredient in baking, should I be using salted or unsalted if the salt factor has not been specified? My instincts tell me unsalted, but I've had a tough time finding unsalted locally. Could I use salted? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can give!

Aimee

[Desiderio]

Hi Aimee and welcome on egullet!

I personally use unsalted when baking or chocolate making, I know sometimes its hard to find the unsalted ones, I finally found the st my local health store (vitamine cottage) and I buy the one with the shell, it takes little bit of work but they are cheaper and much better flavor.

I hope this help.

[beacheschef]

I purchase unsalted pistachios from a local Arabic grocery store. It's the only place that I could find them locally.

[rickster]

Generally recipes mean unsalted pistachios. If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, they sell unsalted.

[sanrensho]

Without question, unsalted for baking, unless specified otherwise.

[Darienne]

Without question, unsalted for baking, unless specified otherwise.

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Is it out of the question to rinse the salt off and redry the nuts?

[sanrensho]

Is it out of the question to rinse the salt off and redry the nuts?

I suppose it could work, but it seems like an unnecessary step, don't you think?

[Darienne]

Is it out of the question to rinse the salt off and redry the nuts?

I suppose it could work, but it seems like an unnecessary step, don't you think?

←

I was of course thinking if you could not get unsalted pistachios. Once we needed unsalted peanuts and couldn't get any where we were, and so bought the salted ones and rinsed them thoroughly and dried them. It was not for anything like confections, but it worked nonetheless.

[pastrygirl]

Without question, unsalted for baking, unless specified otherwise.

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Is it out of the question to rinse the salt off and redry the nuts?

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Cookbooks often recommend doing exactly that if unsalted nuts aren't available - like if all you can find are cans of salted macadamia nuts but salty is not the desired outcome.