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Opening Black Walnuts?

Ross6860

Ross6860

Super Member
Anyone have a trick?

I have some "cured" wild black walnuts. Enough for one pie. They are hulled, but not shelled.

I decided to try one last weekend. Well, no $2 nutcracker is going to open them. I finally used a 2# hammer.

Well, it opened it but the results were far from favorable. The nut meat was absolutely delicious, FWIW. Nothing like those store-bought walnuts you can crack in your hand.
 
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Hammer was the only way I could get into them.....before I decided they were too much work. I too would like to know the secret.
 
Trained squirrel? ;);)

I don't have a vise, but maybe that would work.

I thought hickory nuts were tough...
 
My late dad told how he would spread them in the driveway & run over them repeatedly to de-hull them ( avoiding the stained hands). I never heard what the trick was for getting them out of that tough shell.
 
Problem is any force strong enough to crack them usually destroys the meats.

A vise is good, or try putting a few in a rag or handkerchief and whack them on something like bricks or concrete.
 
I used a hammer and a chisel to split them open, then a pick from a nut cracker kit. Vise grips work good so someone else helping can hold on to the walnut so it doesn't go flying into no man's land.
 
Believe it or not, my dear old dad would sandwich them between heavy plastic, then run them over with the car. He was retired then, and would sit on the patio for hours picking the meat out of the shells. Mom would usually add them to banana bread and cookies. Wear rubber disposable gloves, unless you don't mind walnut stained hands for a week or so.
 
Hey
As a kid we had 2 walnut trees in the yard. We'd pick them up when they fell (green) . Put them in front of the garage (gravel drive) to de-husk them then put them in a gunny sack and take them to the basement. We would crack them on a flat rock using a hammer. Then mom and us kids got pick them out in the evenings. Good times.
When mom passed away I found probably 10 pounds of the damn things in the bottom of her deep freeze. Stail as hell.
I buy English walnuts now. The black ones are a little to strong for me now. Eric
 
There are a couple of black walnut trees about 1/4 mile from here. The local crows used to pick them up, come over to our house, hover over our concrete driveway, and drop them. Took 'em awhile to get the altitude right, but they eventually figured it out.

Now that there's an almond orchard behind us, they leave the black walnuts alone.
 
Most vivid memories I have from preschool, Kansas City, circa late 50's: Recess on the playground: When the teachers would break out the tricycles for riding and the hammers for the large walnut tree that was right in the middle of it.
 
I tried it when I first moved here but they were so much trouble to get out that I'd rather buy a few ounces now and then.

Lots of folks will pick them up and fill the truck bed and haul them to a walnut mill and sell them. A lot of kids made a few bucks that way in MO.

I did learn a cool way to hull them from a MO native. Take a piece of 1x10 about 2 ft. long and add 1x2 to the long edges. Park your car/truck on the driveway, jack up the rear wheel, spike that board into the ground under the wheel, start 'er up and put it in gear. Adjust the jack height so when you toss walnuts in from the front, it rips the husk off and tosses the nuts and husks out the back. Here's an example from YT.


I got one of these boards if anyone needs it. Fancy walnut stain on it, even. :biggrin:
 
I have a bunch of black walnut trees on my property, and an old (relatively unsecured) outbuilding with bins built into one wall--not sure why, but there were there when I bought the place, so the squirrels can get in there. We have a deal--they store their walnuts in the bins--and they know how to pick the good ones! So at Christmas time when I am baking, I raid their stash (a little) and use them in cookies. Hammer, concrete floor or block and patience is all it takes to get the meat out. If you think you are going to get black walnuts out of the shell in nice neat halves, you are delusional--ain't happening.
 
My grandparents lived in Stockton MO, home of Hammon's Black Walnuts which supplies 70% of the worlds black walnuts. Stockton has a Black Walnut Festival every year, anyway they used to. We went many times when I was a kid growing up in the 50's. If I want black walnuts I just buy them ready to use.
 
I have had good results using a bolt cutter. Gives you lots of leverage but allows you to maintain control over the motion of the blades to the extent that the walnut does not explode once the shell cracks.
 
Chris Brown said:
I have had good results using a bolt cutter. Gives you lots of leverage but allows you to maintain control over the motion of the blades to the extent that the walnut does not explode once the shell cracks.
Click to expand...

Holy Crap!

How big of a bolt cutter do you have? I think mine has 36" handles and it doesn't open nearly wide enough for black walnuts. Maybe hickory nuts.

I'll take them to work this weekend (on my time) and try the bench vise. That sounds like the bestest/easiest method;)

I guess this is why they are so darn expensive.
 
I'm not sure what they use at the processing plants, but somehow they are able to shatter them without pulverizing the nuts too much.
 
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