black walnut processing

hqueen13

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There are some great YouTube videos that I've watched on the process of shelling black wants.
I have a question though.
firstly, the basic steps they list are:
Hulling
washing
drying (2-4 weeks)
Shelling
sorting/cleaning

I am curious if there is some reason that they must be dried in the shell before they can be cracked. I cracked one open today (had to try my brand new Lehmans nut cracker! ) and it tasted fine, tender and good. I haven't dealt with black walnuts before, so I figured I'd check.
I'm a little late anyway, I gathered them but they've been sitting on my porch drying in the hulls for over a month. Since I finally got the nut cracker, I wanted to use them in some banana bread for Christmas. Hoping I can skip the drying time.
 

k15n1

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I thought it was mainly because of the messiness after removing the husks.
 

Britesea

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I remember seeing an article about using your car to crack a bunch of black walnuts at once. You put a piece of clean plywood or an old door over the top of a single layer of nuts, then drive over it with your truck or car. I never tried it, so I have no idea how well it works, but it it does work- what a labor savings!
 

Denim Deb

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I've heard of doing something similar, but you need a solid surface under the nuts as well. Otherwise, they're basically just pushed into the dirt.
 

hqueen13

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The cracking isn't a problem. This nut cracker from Lehmans makes Short work of them. Of course you have to pick them as well, but the crackling isn't an issue. I just need to know if they have to cure after being hulled or if they are ok to eat right away.
Heres the nut cracker: https://www.lehmans.com/p-437-steel-nutcracker.aspx
 

k15n1

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I've heard that car-driving-over trick before. Haven't tried it but I bet it works if you get the details right. My grandfather knew of a rut where he's throw the nuts and use the car to husk them.

Really, it's not so hard to just put on a pair of dish-washing gloves and peel the husks.

I've tried using the cement mixer. That was a disaster. There's SO MUCH husk. It just turns into a big blob. Probably could be made to work with the right amount of gravel, water, etc. There's tricks to everything, right?
 

hqueen13

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So the nut cracker DOES work well. We shelled about 2+ cups of walnuts in about 4 hours. Thats pretty darn good for walnuts! We were getting fairly large pieces, I was happy anyway. The BF figured out how to turn them on end and crack them that way, I can't manage the cracker with that much force, so I would keep them on their side. We also figured out the finesse of not crushing the nuts, so that the pieces stayed together. I hardly needed a nut pick, we just kept cracking the pieces down smaller and smaller to get the meat out. It worked really well all things considered. I did learn quickly to throw a rag over the top of the cracker with each nut to keep the pieces from splintering off and getting thrown into the air. There was a ring of destruction around me for a while... even with the rag it was still dangerous!
So, yeah, you don't actually HAVE to wash them, and you don't actually have to let them dry for weeks either. Who knew!?
 

Britesea

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I think they are supposed to be dried at least AFTER shelling, to keep them from molding. At least, that's what happened to mine the one time we tried it that way.
 

hqueen13

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Huh. Well, all the youtube videos that I found said to wash them, then dry them for 2-4 weeks before shelling. I didn't see anything about drying them after shelling, though I guess that is what roasting is, isn't it? LOL I put them straight in banana bread, so I don't think I have to worry about mold yet :)
 
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