Green pickled walnuts are a specialty from the Palatinate that you can make yourself with a little effort and a lot of patience. "Black nuts" are a sweet delicacy that is usually served with desserts or cheese platters.
Black nuts are a delicious sweet dessert
Where can I get green walnuts from?
You will not find fresh or pickled green walnuts in the supermarket. The black nuts are a very special specialty that you can either buy in specialist shops or make yourself in early summer. Since unripe walnuts cannot be found at the weekly market either, you have to use a ladder and scissors to harvest the green walnuts from the tree yourself. If you keep your eyes open, you will come across walnut trees in many green belts and parks.
The green walnuts are suitable for pickling as black nuts if the nutshell, which is under the green shell, is not yet lignified. This is usually the case in June, when the fruits are about the size of grapes. In some regions, black nuts are also called "currant nuts" because they are harvested around St. John's Day on June 24th. Use a wooden skewer to check whether you can still pierce the green nut without any problems. If that works, you can start inserting!
Black nut recipe
You need:
- 1 kg unripe walnuts
- plenty of water for watering
- 1 kg of sugar
- 600 ml water for the broth
- Spices like cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, cardamom
- mason jars
Step by step:
- Wash the green walnuts and discard any damaged ones.
- Take a wooden skewer and pierce the nut halfway in several places.
- Place the prepared nuts in cold water, changing twice a day. There they lose their bitter substances within three weeks.
- Pour fresh boiling water over the walnuts just before pickling, and after a few minutes, rinse them in cold water.
- Make a sugar stock by boiling water, adding the sugar and spices and stirring while boiling until the sugar has dissolved.
- Stir the soaked walnuts into the finished sugar solution and cook for half an hour.
- After the cooking time, skim off the nuts and place them in sterile jars.
- Boil the sugar stock again and then fill the glasses with it so that the walnuts are covered with liquid.
- Close the jars tightly immediately, allow them to cool and then set them in a cool, dark place to steep.
- After six months at the earliest, you can risk a first taste. However, the black nuts only develop their full aroma after about two years of steeping.
The garden journal freshness ABC
How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?
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