Hazelnuts are amazing, they taste amazing, they are incredibly healthy for you and they are even fun to learn more about. People wonder what is the difference between a hazelnut and a filbert, but the truth is that there isn’t one. A hazelnut is no more than a filbert and vice-versa.
Nutritional Value and Differences
Hazelnuts/filbers ate very small, around the size of a marble, and are encased in a protective shell that needs to be removed before the hazelnuts are eaten. Although healthy, hazelnuts are not exactly fat free food, since they do have over 600 kcal for only 100g of food. Even though they have such a high caloric value, they do have vitamins as well and that same amount of 100g contains enough vitamin E to fulfill your daily needs, not to mention the amount of manganese it contains, which is almost three times higher than what you should eat on a daily basis. They are, nevertheless, delicious.
The truth behind this is that some years ago the name got stuck because the hazelnut matures around St. Philibert’s day, the day of a French monk, St. Phillibert of Jumieges, a day that is commemorated on August 20th. Hence, the name filbert. But there are also other theories. Another popular theory is that the word filbert comes from the German word volbart, which means full beard. This would be a reference to the appearance of the shell of a hazelnut.
Other people claim that these are two different types of nuts. But once the shell is removed, their claims disappear because they are almost impossible to tell apart, if possible at all. At the end of the day, no one is really able to tell the difference, is there is any, between a hazelnut and filberts. Furthermore, no one is able to tell with precision what is the origin of the term “filbert”, since no one is really sure where it came from.
Nut Varieties
A variety of hazelnuts in Britain is also called “cobnuts”, and the origin of this name is really known; it came from a game kids used to play with the nuts, and in that game, whenever one was winning he was called the cob. Cobnuts are a little different from hazelnuts and filberts, since they are not dried and are usually sold fresh. Being sold fresh, they are a seasonal product that isn’t very easy to find, and it is certainly not a cheap one. They do have unique uses however, since fresh hazelnuts aren’t easy to find as well.
Finally, what keeps this naming scheme up is that people have preferences according to their geographical location. Some regions prefer cobnuts, others prefer filberts and other prefer hazelnuts. But, at the end of the day, they all want the same.