Cracking Black Walnuts Is No Simple Job
Fall is black walnut season in North America, and when you come throughout a tree you’ll discover a whole bunch of the nuts on the bottom. You can also knock them from a tree with a stick, however watch your head. They’ll damage.
So, why are they referred to as black walnuts? That’s a great query. If you happen to’re ever seen a black walnut, then you already know that the outer shell is a deep, gentle inexperienced. However in case you deal with one, you’ll rapidly uncover that they stain your palms black. Thus, the title.
Eradicating the Outer Shell
Put on gloves when harvesting black walnuts, and gently press the inexperienced, outer layer. If it’s tender and your finger could make a dent, then it’s at its peak of ripeness.
In an effort to get to the internal nut, you will need to take away the inexperienced, outer shell. I normally put the walnuts on both a flat rock or my driveway and gently roll them forwards and backwards with my boots. Often the outer inexperienced husk will break off, leaving you with the internal nut. That is whenever you significantly wish to put on gloves, because the internal nut will stain your palms.
Different strategies for eradicating the outer shell embrace rolling them between two boards or placing them in a burlap sack and forcefully hitting the bag on a tough floor.
Rinsing the Nuts
Soak black walnuts in water to take away the black, outer bits of pulp. Fill a bucket with chilly water and dump the shelled walnuts into the water. If any of them float, discard them. Floating implies that the nut has both been compromised by bugs or the internal nut meat has dried or is spoiled. Good black walnuts sink. Soak them in a single day and within the morning, drain the water and refill. Proceed to repeat this cycle of refreshing the water till the water stays clear.
You’ll discover after the primary soaking that the water is kind of black. Don’t let any of this water get in your clothes; dump the water out of the best way, ideally on some black grime. Black walnuts have been utilized by our ancestors to dye clothes, and any of the black walnut stain that will get in your garments probably will probably be everlasting.
Drying the Nuts
After getting sufficiently rinsed the black walnuts, put them on a foil lined baking sheet topped with paper towels and allow them to dry for 2 weeks in a dry area. Preserve them out of the solar. I’ve discovered that the storage or basement is an effective place to do that. I additionally came upon in a short time that my spouse wasn’t keen on observing a bunch of black walnuts sitting on the kitchen counter for 2 weeks.
Cracking the Nut
Cracking Black Walnuts
If you happen to assume you should use a daily nut cracker to crack a black walnut, assume once more. These nuts are extremely powerful and have a really arduous, outer shell. Supposedly there’s a particular black walnut nut-cracker, however for the lifetime of me I haven’t been capable of finding one. Personally, I take advantage of a hammer. I’ll wrap a couple of nuts with a wash fabric or a chunk of burlap and gently smash them with the hammer till they open. You may then select the nut-meat and discard the outer shells. The explanation you wish to wrap them in some sort of cloth when doing this hammer approach is to keep away from the shrapnel and shattering that might strike your eyes.
Roasting Black Walnuts
When you’ve cleaned out the nut meat, you can provide your walnuts a light-weight roast. I normally rinse them in chilly water and dirt them with a finely, floor sea salt. Subsequent, I roast them for about quarter-hour at 325 levels Fahrenheit, however style them after quarter-hour to see in the event that they want extra time. I’d strongly advise that you don’t roast an unopened or un-cracked black walnut.
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The moisture within the nut-meat might trigger the black walnut to blow up and the toughness of its outer shell might ship shards flying in all instructions. If you happen to really feel you will need to roast them intact, do it in a Dutch oven with a heavy iron lid. That means, any fragments from an exploding black walnut will probably be contained.
Storing Black Walnuts
If the walnuts have been shelled, the nut-meat is greatest saved in a container with a tight-fitting lid or a canning jar within the fridge. They need to be good for as much as a month. If the black walnuts are nonetheless within the shell, there’s excellent news. They’ll hold for as much as two years if saved in a burlap bag or fine-meshed bag in a dry area like a again or entrance porch or an attic. Don’t put them within the root cellar, because the moisture could cause mildew to develop on the outer shells. As all the time, examine your black walnuts after they’ve been saved. In the event that they present any indicators of mildew or have a mildew odor, discard them.
Menu Concepts
Black walnuts are nice eaten proper out of a bowl like common walnuts. I like mine roasted and flippantly salted and that’s why I toss them in salt earlier than roasting. They’re additionally nice in salads, pressed into cookie dough earlier than baking or as a topping for a freshly baked loaf of bread. I’ve even put them on pizza.
If you happen to come throughout black walnuts in your neck of the woods, give them a strive. It’s a bit of labor, however they’re free and so they style actually, actually nice.
How do you crack black walnuts? Share your suggestions within the part beneath:
