Nuts vs. Seeds and nutmeat vs. Shell

I’m googling, but not hav ing instant easy luck: on average, what percentage of a pecan is shell vs. meat? Asking for the obvious reason: what am I paying to have someone else shell them. A local nut seller charges exactly double for shelled vs. unshelled. So does that mean that a pound of unshelled pecans will normally yield a half a pound of nuts?

And is “unshelled” the best way to refer to them? “Whole” is correct, but I think people would mistake that to mean “unbroken” meats, not nuts in the shell. “Unshelled” seems clumsy…I dislike using “UN” to refer to something.

Second question: actual definition difference between nuts and seeds? My guess is that nuts are the seeds of a tree encased in a hard shell without any fruity/fleshy coating. Seeds are the seeds of a tree with a hard shell that IS encased in a fruity/fleshy coating.

And as long as I’m on the subject: Peanuts are WEIRD. They are like alien life forms come to earth. Does ANY other plant grow like a peanut? (Tey flower, fall over, and the peanut grows from the flower IN the ground. WEIRD.)

No, you’re not on the subject. Peanuts are not nuts.

Beans. Peanuts are beans.

No, peanuts are peanuts, and are members of the legume family. All true beans are legumes (I think!) but not all legumes are beans (I know for sure). Peas and peanuts and lentils are all legumes.

And come to think of it…beans and peas are also seeds!

So I am definitely on topic, since all of these are the seeds of plants. AND…peanuts are legumes but they are referred to and thought of and stored with and sold along side of…nut-nuts.

Good points. I stand corrected.

BTW, what you refer to as “nut-nuts” are more commonly called “tree nuts”.

The shells are 47% of the weight of the pecans. footnote