green walnut wine and nocino -- food preservation?

Has anyone tried any of these recipes for green walnut wine?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/20/WIG346O0371.DTL

never even heard of it! but I wanted to chime in and say that making wine is certainly considered food preservation in my mind 

I agree with Leah that yes, of course it's food preservation. Looking at those recipes with the flavor descriptions - both the walnut wines sound amazing!

Personally, I don't drink very often, but one Christmas, a co-worker gave out homemade lemon cello--an Italian, usually chilled, summer time liqueur. It was SO fabulous it made me wish I could grow lemons to make it!!

(Hint, hint to my sis in California...grow lemons m'dear!! Or maybe find a neighbor who grows them and who would trade for your eggplants!  )

according to a book I have..anything you PUT BY for later use is food preservation..whether it be cold storage, root cellar, under a bale of hay, frozen, dried, pickled, canned, frozen..or whatever..it is put by..or preserved for later use

Regarding nocino. It's an Italian liqueur made with unripe walnuts, still soft in their green husks. The time to make nocino is in late May, early June, when the shells have still not yet hardened. I've never seen green walnuts at any market, easier to find a friend with a walnut tree. You can also make green walnut pickles with the nuts, and even vin de noix or walnut wine.


Nocino Recipe
The juice from the walnuts will permanently stain anything it touches, so you might want to wear gloves while cutting them. Wash down the cutting board as soon as you are done cutting the walnuts.
INGREDIENTS

30 green walnuts, early enough in the season so that they are easily cut with a knife
2 cinnamon sticks
5 whole cloves
1-inch piece of vanilla bean
Zest of one lemon, cut into strips using a vegetable peeler
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 liter vodka
Other recipes I've found use orange peel instead of lemon, use spices such as mace, or include grappa. The next time I make nocino I may try the orange peel and even add a little star anise.
METHOD
1 Rinse and pat dry the walnuts. Cut them into quarters with a sharp chef's knife or cleaver. Be careful as you are cutting them; if you've waited too late in the season to pick them, their shells may have begun to harden and cutting through them may be a little dicey. Watch your fingers.
2 Put walnuts, spices, zest, sugar, and vodka into a large glass container. The vodka should cover the walnuts. Cover and shake to mix well. Store for 6 weeks, shaking daily. As the days go by you will notice that the color of the nocino gets darker and darker.

3 When you are ready to bottle, remove the walnuts and solids with a slotted metal spoon. (Again be careful where you do this as the walnuts and the nocino will stain.) Strain the liquid through several layers of cheesecloth into glass bottles. (I've seen recipes that call for straining the liquid through coffee filters which I think would work fine too.) Cork tightly. According to David, nocino will last for several years if stored in a cool, dry place. The nocino will initially be rather bitter, but it will mellow over time. It's best at least a year after it was first bottled.
Makes about 1 quart. Great for gifts.

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/nocino/

Would black walnuts work? 

Exciting to collect new ways of utilizing our trees.  Thanks for posting!

marina phillips wrote:
Would black walnuts work? 

Exciting to collect new ways of utilizing our trees.  Thanks for posting!

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2009/07/liqueur_de_noix_green_walnut_liq.html


Here's another blog of recipes.  I have found questions about using black walnuts but no recipes.  The only comment I read was that it might be bitter but it was suggested to go ahead and try.

I think the two major distinctions between black & English walnuts are shell thickness and level of tannins, so maybe some theoretical analysis would be helpful...what can I say, it's the hammer I have.

Greater shell thickness would force you harvest earlier in the season.

Tannins in wine are traditionally moderated by aging: air seeps around the cork over its years in the cellar, and the oxidized tannins gradually bind to one another, and settle out as sediment. Typically this must be done very slowly, or the oxygen will attack flavors other than the tannin, but there have been advances in quick-aging of wine via electrolysis.

I made some vin de noix a few years ago.  didn't have a recipe, but I liked the result.  nobody else did.  I'm sure using one of those recipes would lead to wider appeal.  I think I'll try again this year.

our walnut tree doesn't even leaf out until the end of June, so the harvest dates recommended don't apply.

I do want to try the green walnut pickles, too.  never looked at a recipe for those either, but I've heard that the tradition is to hang a sack full of green walnuts off of a dock where they would be underwater at high tide and above water at low tide.  ideally that would be in salt water free of nastiness, which is fairly hard to come by these days.

I use a lot of black walnuts picked off a neighbor's lawn. Two trees make enough for them, their parents, and us. We prefer the ripe ones when we can get to them before the squirrels. One trick we learned about storing them for easier shelling is to only shell Last Years crop, not the current harvest. Letting them sit in a metal garbage can on the north side of our house for an extra year keeps the nuts cool, the squirrels away (only after we tied the lid down!), and makes the nuts easier to shell out. I'd say that it might be due to shrinkage from moisture loss but the nuts appear just as plump as fresh ones.

Bob Dahse.

We have tons of tiny premature walnuts falling off the tree. They are perfect, no insect damage and from a healthy tree.  I wonder if they are too young to make noccino or something else with… anyone have experience? It makes sense that preserves would be made from early fruit drop if it’s a naturally occurring thing …

Have photos but not sure how to post (first timer!)

I HAVE to try this!  I know walnut "catsup" the fermented condiment that predates tomato ketchup as we know it.  It think walnut wine would be great!

I didn't know about walnut catsup so I looked it up. https://foragerchef.com/black-walnut-ketchup/ Interesting!

Aimee, I wondered about that, too. But Alan Bergo in a different blog post about using green walnuts https://foragerchef.com/cooking-with-green-walnuts/  says
"While it can be tempting, don't harvest green nuts directly from the ground- those have been rejected by the tree and are not good for eating. Look for nuts about the size of a small ping-pong ball, although sizes can vary a bit depending on the individual tree and time of year." I am still tempted to try!

I have made nocino and would think that dropped green walnuts would be fine for that application as long as you inspect them closely for weirdness. I would probably cut them into halves or quarters rather than just piercing them and would look to see if they look "normal" inside or if there is some shriveling or fungus any other oddness- they should look like white, semi translucent forming nuts. I might also just taste the tiniest bit of one to check for any other weirdness.

I can't imagine traditional recipes were only made from freshly plucked green nuts. I would definitely try some of the dropped walnuts myself, but maybe not as large a batch if I'm worried about the results.

I'll add that nocino is an absolutely top notch libation to sip from a tiny glass in darkest winter after infusing for 6 months or even better after a couple of years. Second only to spiced blackberry liqueur in my book.

Mercy Pergande wrote:I'll add that nocino is an absolutely top notch libation to sip from a tiny glass in darkest winter after infusing for 6 months or even better after a couple of years. Second only to spiced blackberry liqueur in my book.

Do you have a certain recipe or process you like to use for nocino? It sounds like you have experienced some very nice results from making this!

Well, its another year, and I made nocino.

I made three batches, one with only English walnuts, one with black walnuts, and one with both. The ones with black walnuts were intolerably astringent and unpalatable, but the English batch was quite nice after about six months of aging and continued to noticeably improve through the first year.
Other tastes or uses may differ, but I won't bother making it from black walnuts again.

Now is almost the right time of year to make it in many places, so I'll look for my recipe & process to share as I plan to make another batch. It's worth making if you have access to English walnuts!

Ooh - thank you for bumping this thread Rebecca! I do have a few English/Persian walnuts one of which fruited last year. I may never get ripe walnuts however but uses for green walnuts are very helpful! I do hope that I may get enough to be a useful harvest in time.

Here is the process I used and notes I made since 2023

English Walnut Nocino ((my process hasn't been extensively tested, just tested by my taste))

Gathering: Gather 20-40 English walnuts, rinse and half or quarter them.
I gather and rinse green walnuts in late June or early July in Western Oregon. This may be done as early as the beginning of June for parts of California. In some parts of western Europe it is done by June 24th, or St. Jean's feast day. Your location may vary. The main thing is to get the walnuts when they are still green with no black spots forming on the husk, and have not yet formed the woody shells inside, only beginning to form gelatinous nutmeats. The green walnuts should be between 1 and 2 inches in diameter, look vaguely like a Mexican lime, and the juices should run clear when it is sliced.
Wear gloves when handling them unless you don't mind the mother of all stains on your hands for days after!

The maceration process: Add "woody" flavor enhancers like spices at this time. I used I used about 1/2 tbsp of a mulling spice mix containing whole star anise, cinnamon sticks and allspice berries as well as roughly a dozen roasted coffee beans per jar.

Add halved or quartered walnuts into layers in pint jars and generously sprinkle each layer with white sugar over the layers of walnuts as they are added into the jar until it is mostly filled, make sure it at the least is over half full.

Cover with vodka or other high proof spirit (I used HRD Monarch 100 proof) leaving 1 " head space and covering the walnuts (aromatics may float)
Store for 6 weeks up to 3 months on a countertop in a warm room exposed to daily sunlight. Gently agitate the jar daily for the first two weeks, then every 10 days or so until you hit day 40. The sunlight is said to help extract flavor and color. You'll see the liquid in the jars change color from clear to green and darken, eventually turning brownish.

Bottling: Liquid flavorings like syrup, honey, molasses, vanilla etc can be added at this stage.

After your period of maceration for at least six weeks is complete, then pour off the jars, strain out the solids and keep the liquid only to bottle. I just do this when I have time and want my counter space back. but I have read that for black walnuts a period of 3 months or more maceration may make them tolerable. Good luck who anyone who wants to try that endeavor! But now you can store the bottles away in a cabinet and wait for them to age. It takes about a year to be really good and will continue to improve. We tasted my first batch from June 2023 several times and by Xmas 2024 it was really lovely and great to share.

Notes:
I don't see any reason that one couldn't make a smaller batch, as long as you can fill at least half a jar with chopped walnuts.
You can really use any liquor... 100 proof vodka is inexpensive and accessible, but grappa or brandy seem like popular alternatives that would likely result in a much smoother final result.
I have yet to test its shelf life past two years because we ran out of our supply. This year I will make more with just the English walnuts and not mess around with the black walnuts, or walnut pickles this time.
Its said that the best nocino is 12 years old, but I'm not sure we can leave it alone long enough to find out.