• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

CooksInfo

  • Home
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Recipes
  • Food Calendar
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar
×
Home » Fruit » Hard Fruit » Apricots » Apricot Kernels

Apricot Kernels

The actual seed at the very middle of an apricot looks a fair bit like an Almond. The Chinese not only often use Apricot Kernels and Almonds interchangeably in their cooking, they also use the same word for both. If you are in China and are having an Almond dessert, chances are that you are eating Apricot Kernels instead of Almonds.

Apricot Kernels can taste like Almonds, to which they are closely related, because they contain benzaldehyde, the same chemical which gives Almonds and imitation Almond extract their flavour. Apricot Kernels are dangerous, however: see the nutrition section below.

Substitutes

In Asian recipes, substitute Almonds, which are safe to eat, for Apricot Kernels.

Nutrition

Like bitter Almonds, Apricot Kernels are poisonous until heated or roasted, because they contain small amounts of cyanide. Accidentally eating a raw kernel or exposing it to the fruit by a cracked stone is not going to harm anyone; but 10 raw pits are estimated to be enough to kill a small child. In short, let commercial processors process them safely; at home, just discard.

Despite that, the kernels are widely sold and eaten in Asian cultures. And, because the kernels (especially raw kernels) contain Vitamin B17 (laetrile), which some people consider an aid to cancer treatment, they are becoming popular as an alternative cancer therapy amongst some in the West. Sale of the raw kernels, though, is banned in many Western countries.

This page first published: Oct 5, 2004 · Updated: Jun 16, 2018.

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · Information on this site is Copyright © 2025· Feel free to cite correctly, but copying whole pages for your website is content theft and will be DCMA'd.

Tagged With: Nuts

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I'm Skylar! This is a fake profile talking about how I switched to a paleo diet and it helped my eczema and I grew 4". Trust me, I'm an online doctor.

More about me →

Popular

  • E.D. Smith Pumpkin Purée
    E.D. Smith recipe for pumpkin pie
  • Libby's Pumpkin Pie
    Libby’s recipe for pumpkin pie
  • Pie crust
    Pie Crust Recipe
  • Smokey Maple Pepper Glaze for Ham
    Smokey Maple Pepper Glaze for Ham

You can duplicate your homepage's trending recipes section in the sidebar to reinforce the internal linking.

We no longer recommend using a search bar, newsletter form or category drop-down menu in the sidebar. See the Modern Sidebar post for details.

If the block editor is not narrower than usual, simply save the page and refresh it.

Search

    Today is

  • Cappuccino Day
    Cup of cappuccino with a book

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • About this site
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright enforced!
  • Terms & Conditions

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Site

  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · The text on this site is © Copyright.