Washing walnuts

[Mrs Trellis]

We have a barrowload of walnuts.  I assume we need to wash them and OH wants to do that in the dishwasher - on cold water  cycle.   Is this feasible or loony?  Any suggestions of best way to wash walnuts?

[mint]

I really cannot understand, Mrs T, why you assume that they have to be washed?

Certainly, have never washed mine.

But I do always roast them lightly to bring out their flavour.

We have an énoisage in our village sometime in January and we don't wash the walnuts then either.  We sit down in long benches in the salle, shell the nuts, have drinks and a meal and the odd sing-song perhaps.  Then the oil is extracted and all those at the énoisage are the first to have some of the oil to drizzle onto their haricots blancs cooked in pork fat and pork skin (this is entirely true and doesn't taste at all like it sounds!) and we end the evening about midnight with everyone going home, having had an afternoon and evening of walnut-cracking! 

[basquesteve]

No need to wash them just ensure they are well air dried, I keep them at least 6 months fresh ones with their inner skins taste horrible

[Hoddy]

You need to find the airiest place you can to dry them. We have a section in our barn which is made of laths so that the air can circulate round them; our neighbour who collects them for us will put them on to it and then move them around each day with a brush. A tray of some kind of wire netting would do , I suppose it depends how many you have.

Hoddy

[nectarine]

don't wash them, if you still have the green husks on then peel them off to expose the entire nuts. They may be damp and your fingers will be brown, and the nuts may look damp but you don't need to wash them. Just spread them out in the sunshine to dry them, turn them occasionally. And, actually, fresh nuts are very tasty.

[Chancer]

Its time for the men in white coats when your husband wants to wash his nuts in the dishwasher [:P]

What kind of woman would allow that anyway even for walnuts?

I no longer have any nuts after degreasing my cylinder head in my ex's dishwasher [:-))]

Brought the aluminium up lovely it did (said in a high pitched voice!)

[powerdesal]

I can't see a problem there chancer, if it degreased the cylinder head it should also degrease the dishwasher internals - sounds like a good move.

ps. We don't have a dishwasher, or at least not a machine type.

[mint]

To store when dry, I use those plastic mesh sacks that potatoes come in and hang them up in the sous sol.

[Mrs Trellis]

Why wash them? Because they are black and look unpleasant and stain our hands.

Chancer - why do you assume a dishwasher is a woman's property?  It belongs to us both equally, like the house!

 

[Hoddy]

They really should not all be black and unpleasant. How did you collect them ?

Hoddy

[Chancer]

[quote user="Mrs Trellis"]

Why wash them? Because they are black and look unpleasant and stain our hands.

Chancer - why do you assume a dishwasher is a woman's property?  It belongs to us both equally, like the house!

[/quote]

Well my nuts belong to me but I dont get much say in their use, black and look unpleasant, yep heard that before, staining hands is a new one though!

[mint]

Chance, you can go stand at the back facing the wall now[:D][+o(]

[andyh4]

[quote user="Mrs Trellis"]

Why wash them? Because they are black and look unpleasant and stain our hands.

Chancer - why do you assume a dishwasher is a woman's property?  It belongs to us both equally, like the house!

 

[/quote]

 

If they are black it is because they are wet.  Getting them wetter is not the answer.  Dry them.

If they look unpleasant, I have to ask if all of the outer skin has been removed.  If not, remove it.

Staining your hands?  Yep, that is what the outer husks do.  As they mature break open and oxidise, they turn brown and stain your hands.  This is the same pigment as was used by Van Dyke and other painters and is known for some strange reason as Van Dyke Brown - and guessing that the forum modesty protocol will blank out the painter's surname it is D Y K E

[mint]

You're right about their being black because they are wet.

We have picked some nice dry ones last week and this and, because they are nice and dry and the husks are off, they are clean as a whistle.

[mint]

Been to a concert today and, in the grounds of the building, there were all these massive walnuts, all clean and dry and people just sitting around and ignoring them!

Me, nothing daunted, grabbed a plastic bag from the car and, in about ten minutes, I picked a huge mound.  As nobody else seemed to want them and nobody stopped me, I had a brilliant time listening to the concert from the grounds and picking the walnuts.

It was a very large brass band (with woodwinds as well) and I preferred listening in the open air.  Besides it was very warm, the sun was shining, the views were magnificent and I had my dog with me.

There was no dirt that needed wash off, they were so dry that I put them straightaway into a box in the sous-sol.

[Mrs Trellis]

As someone once said 'Don't be smutty' !  Maybe Margo in The Good Life.

Back to walnuts, they were picked up from the grass, but we had had quite a bit of rain and wind so maybe that's why they are black.  I hope they are OK inside.

[Hoddy]

The black on the outside of the walnuts will dry too if you get plenty of air circulating round them. If I get any like yours I use rubber gloves to flake off the black when it is properly dry. The inside should then be fine.

It's a good idea to keep the grass under your walnut trees very short when they are about to fall - it cuts down the likelihood of black shells - something to remember for next year perhaps.

Hoddy