Pangium Seeds Need Forty-Day Detox

The pangium tree, native to Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, produces large fruits and seeds containing deadly hydrogen cyanide. To make the seeds edible, cooks boil them and then bury them in ash, banana leaves, and earth for 40 days. Boiling and fermentation release the water-soluble cyanide so it can be washed away, turning the kernels from creamy white to dark brown or black. The processed kernels become a spice in Indonesian dishes such as rawon beef stew.

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