Recipes & Facts

Southern Pecan Pie

3 eggs, slightly beaten
dash of salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups pecan halves
1 cup Karo Light or Dark Syrup
1 unbaked (9") pie shell
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

Mix eggs and sugar until combined then add syrup, butter and salt. Stir in pecans. Pour into pie shell. Bake in 350 degree fahrenheit oven 50 to 55 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean. Cool. Serves 8.

Pecan Trivia

The pecan, scientific name Carya illinoinsis, is a variety of hickory, native only to North America. American Indians traveled many miles to harvest pecans and subsisted for weeks on nothing else. Early Spanish explorers wrote about pecans in their journals as far back as 1533. George Washington, who always carried pecans in his pockets, planted pecan trees in 1774 that are still standing. A black slave in Louisiana by the name of Antoine was the first to graft pecans in 1846. Pecans were the first whole fresh food taken into space on Apollo missions, and were shared with the Russian cosmonauts on the Appolo-Soyus mission.

In Oklahoma, pecans are the Number 1 horticulture crop. They are grown commercially in over half the counties. Commercially productive pecan trees are intensively managed like other agricultural crops. A generation is required for native pecan trees to become commercially productive and the average commercial trees are 2 to 3 generations old.

Pecan Tips

• Pecans should be kept refrigerated.
• Pecans will keep indefinitely at 0 degrees F or below.
• Pecans can be kept about one year at 32 degrees F.
• Store dry pecans in moisture proof containers or bags.
• No need to thaw pecans before adding to recipes.
• Pecans may be refrozen many times without loss of quality.
• Four ounces chopped pecan meats equals one cup.
• Two to three pounds in-shell pecans (depending on quality) equal on pound of meats.
• Pecans make an ideal high energy snack food.
• Pecans Are America's Preferred Nut.

- Oklahoma Pecan Commission