Nuts

Paste

Shea paste, in food contexts, is the intermediate pounded shea kernel on the way to butter— or a thick edible shea preparation in traditional West African cooking—not a chocolate-hazelnut dessert spread. The celebrated end product is semi-solid shea butter for soups and frying; cosmetics use other grades of the same fat. Getting here means drying kernels, crushing them, and working the mass through traditional or small-plant butter methods. A good food paste or butter is clean-smelling, correctly rendered, and sold as edible. A bad product is smoky from poor fire control, rancid from age, or cosmetic-only stock wrongly put in a soup pot. Use edible shea to enrich stews and sauces; melt gently and taste before seasoning heavily. Always read the label for food grade. Store sealed and cool. Kernels exist mainly to become this fat, not to be eaten like cocktail cashews.