I usually buy a big bag of walnuts at Costco. I’ll open the bag, put some in a serving bowl and stash the remainder on the pantry. They usually last about a month or two.
While I was at the store today, I considered buying almonds too. My wife was looking the bag and read, “refrigerate after opening”. Hmm. Screw that then.
But in reading the walnut bag it says the very same thing. Been eating them for years and never refrigerated them and never had a problem.
Just want to mention that we keep walnuts and pecans in the freezer until we are ready to consume them. We remove what we need and return the remainder to the freezer. They keep for a year or longer. We primarily use them in baking.
Yours keep for a month or two on the counter. Mine keep for years in the freezer. If you expect to finish them within a month, why bother chilling them? If you want to keep them longer, then yes, your nuts should be cold.
This is the answer. That said, I always keep my nuts in the cupboard, and consume them before they get rancid. But you should be able to go at least a month, in my experience. I don’t think I’ve ever had them last much longer than that before I’ve eaten them, but I don’t recall any rancidity.
You could always put them under a nitrogen blanket, but that strikes me as a lot of effort to achieve what you could get by keeping them in the freezer.
As do I. We don’t use them that quickly, but walnuts don’t seem to go south all that fast. I just keep them closed up with a fat rubber band and they seem to last quite a long time.
