Black walnut nuts off taste, bad processing?

I cracked some nuts from my trees a couple years ago and they tasted great. I don’t recall doing any special prep to remove the husks early but maybe I did. They were laying on a trailer in the shade until maybe xmas time when I cracked them.

This fall I spread uncleaned walnuts on the floor of my equipment shed to dry them without removing husks. I tried to pick them off the ground as soon as they fell. I cracked some this week and the meat looks great but they smell and taste awful. Maybe like a strong soapy taste. What might cause this? Not dehusking right away? Certain weather conditions? Too warm when drying?

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Dehull soon after harvesting. If hulls left on too long nut meats will taste rancid.

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We had a wet season. Either way has worked at times past for me. I didn’t harvest but half a dozen this year and husked them immediately…my white t-shirt will never be the same.
If they dry pretty quickly, remaining in the hull does not seem to aversely affect them.
That requires low humidity.

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We had a very wet stretch this fall, so maybe that’s part of it. Usually we are dry. Maybe I’ll have to build a walnut cannon for this years harvest :slight_smile:

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i agree.
quite unfortunate that the desirable quality of most tree nuts( being mainly of unsaturated fat) is the same exact thing which makes it undesirable: prone to rancidity. Bacon lard(saturated fat) may be unhealthy, but will keep so much longer at room temperature… Unsaturated fat is prone to microbial/photo oxidative reactions. Roasting nuts immediately after hulling then placing in dry, sterile, air-tight and opaque containers in cool conditions will delay onset of rancidity. Vacuum packing would also help; as oxygen has an affinity for the double bonds of unsaturated fat

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How black walnuts are harvested and handled after harvest has a major impact on flavor, more with some varieties than others. If walnuts lay in the green hulls until they turn black, tannin and juglone will penetrate the shell and stain the pellicle of the kernel leaving it with a distinctive bitter soapy flavor. This is the reason I always recommend removing the hulls immediately after the nuts fall from the tree while the hull is still green. There are a few varieties - such as Thomas - that can still be good flavored after drying with the hulls on. They are the exception, not the rule. Drying the nuts fairly fast after hulling is also important. If dried in full sun, the shells may split leaving the kernel exposed to mold and some insects. I usually dry them on a table in trays so they have good air flow but are not in direct sun.

The pellicle of a walnut can range from white to tan to brown. Any color other than white, tan, or brown should be carefully checked to see if flavor is still acceptable. I have a couple of varieties that routinely have dark brown to almost black kernels that are still good flavored.

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I have some walnuts falling now, and have picked up green husk nuts fresh from the ground and cleaned. We have been extremely dry since early July. They all have a soapy taste to me. Darn it. I swear I tasted some good ones two or three years ago, although it was xmas time and not straight off the tree. Do they need some curing time or something. Any ideas?

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Yes, walnuts need 2 or 3 (or more) weeks after the green husk (black if it lies around awhile) is removed…before tasting their best or cracking them and easily extracting them from the hard shell. I removed husks from three I removed from a goldfish pond last week. Will wait a few more days before cracking with a hammer to see if there are good kernels inside. Someone is supposed to be bringing me a handful that are “huge”…we will see how that plays out. Sometimes the “huge” ones don’t have well-formed nutmeats inside.

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The black walnuts that I cleaned this fall gradually developed a better taste over the winter. Not that good Jan 1, but fairly good by Feb 1, and excellent now.

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