Methods for cracking hickory nuts?

[lhfarm]

Beat the squirrels to some hickory nuts this year and getting ready to process them. As a kid, my mom had me place the nuts in a sack and go at them with a hammer. Then a lot of time was spent picking out the small pieces of meat. Anyone have a better method or a recommendation for a really good nutcracker?

Thanks!

 

[SandburRanch]

Beat the squirrels to some hickory nuts this year and getting ready to process them. As a kid, my mom had me place the nuts in a sack and go at them with a hammer. Then a lot of time was spent picking out the small pieces of meat. Anyone have a better method or a recommendation for a really good nutcracker?

Thanks!

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This link from Mother Earth News says to use a hammer but I believe my thumb would be mighty sore in just a few minutes.
https://www.motherearthnews.com/Modern-Homesteading/1980-09-01/Hickory-Nuts-The-Inside-Story.aspx

 

[czechsonofagun]

are they edible?

 

[RTII]

are they edible?

Definitely edible. Good taste even. Just a lot of trouble to get to the meat as the thread would suggest. Hopefully I'll learn something from the thread but I suspect it'll just boil down to labor and patience. The up side is that they may be one of those foods that entail burning more calories than you're taking in! :thumbsup:

 

[jbooth]

I got my Dad one of those lever crackers for black walnuts and our native pecans. It was adjustable so the the complete mashing of the nuts was avoided. They work great and the purchase was made so he would quit using our rifle rloading press. Didn't hurt the rifle press, but the press always needed cleaning prior to reloading shells. I thought the cracker was a bit pricy but he used it for 20 yrs and now my sister is has used it for 10 more years. I'm still in the 50s and 60s so everything seems pricy to me.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Enter Tchaikovsky, the expert on nut cracking

 

[seymojo536]

Vise, just ease into the nut or at least wear a face shield, cause they will shoot out sometimes.

 

[beenthere]

I find the vise is the best tool, that gives a controlled break. Depending on how dry the nuts are, sometimes they crack best if squeezed end to end, and sometimes the longest side squeeze yields larger pieces - - often full halves.

I use the same vise method with walnuts as well.
My grandmother would always use a hammer and an anvil that had a slight depression. She was cracking black walnuts and hickory nuts until she was 95 years old. Lived to 99.

And as seymojo said, use eye protection.

 

[sixdogs]

Lehman's Hardware in Kidron, Ohio sells a good nut cracker for around $33 that works great.


Kitchen*|*Helpers and Accessories*|*Utensils and Tools*|*Our Best Nutcracker - Lehmans.com

The link is the cracker I mentioned. Life is too short to pick little pieces out of sharp-edged shells.
I tried to link to their whole page of nut crackers but it won't work. Just search nut crackers and leave a note with the milk and cookies for Santa.

 

[SARG]

This thread brings back lotsa memories .......... my Uncle Henry knew were every hickory tree was for miles and miles.

Towards the end of his life he would spend most of his free time going from tree to tree collecting 5 gallon pails full of nuts ............. and then spent a good part of the winter sitting with his favorite ironwood stump between his knees.

 

[kyspartan]

got yard full of them, i just use a bfh

 

[jonyyuma]

Black walnuts, use a large 6 point or 12 pt. socket. large enough to hold one nut. take a pair of safety glasses, and another socket that fits into the one with the nut. then tap the top socket with ball-pean hammer.Use 4 inch or larger vice in shop if you don't like sockets. Yumm. Jy.

 

[om21braz]

They work great and the purchase was made so he would quit using our rifle reloading press. Didn't hurt the rifle press, but the press always needed cleaning prior to reloading shells.

I thought I was the only one with that idea LOL!

 

[gauthier]

NO big deal,,just work,,hammer and block of something ,,,concrete or rock,,tapp tapp,nut busts in half,than you gotta get the nut out,,more tapping,so you than pick the nut out of shell,in as few a pieces as you can but....be carfull about mixing hulls with nuts,,make you teeth break,,hard work if you plan on getting a 1/2 pt or so,,but the flavor will beat about anything going.

 

[jinman]

Where is Euell Gibbons when you need him? Remember, he used to say that Grapenuts taste like wild hickory nuts.

I actually like the small vise idea. It can apply pressure without a crushing/shattering blow.:thumbsup:

 

[Bird]

I don't think I ever worked with hickoy nuts or chestnuts, but I've sure had lots of experience cracking and shelling pecans, and a little less experience with walnuts and other nuts. I think I may have tried just about every kind of nutcracker made at some time or other and the Texas Native Inertia Nutcracker was the best I ever used. It's also designed so it cannot crush the nut and ruin the meat. I had 2 of them when I had a dozen pecan trees before moving back to town 8 years ago.

 

[beenthere]

Pecans and English (CA) walnuts are easy compared to hickory nuts and compared to black walnuts.

 

[Bird]

Pecans and English (CA) walnuts are easy compared to hickory nuts and compared to black walnuts.

As I said, no experience with hickory nuts, but many years ago, I just about decided that black walnuts just weren't worth the effort.:laughing:

 

[tglass]

So have I Bird, and never saw one of these rubber band machines. Still..pretty slow. What do the commercial suppliers use? There used to be places that would shell nuts for a minimum price in Texas, but after another I can do it cheaper eppisode I gave up.

 

[Bird]

So have I Bird, and never saw one of these rubber band machines. Still..pretty slow. What do the commercial suppliers use? There used to be places that would shell nuts for a minimum price in Texas, but after another I can do it cheaper eppisode I gave up.

Yep, that rubber band machine is still pretty slow, but it's the fastest I ever used. I've cracked quite a few 5 gallon buckets full with it. Of course, there are quite a few places with machines to do the job. In fact, the last 2 or 3 years we had the pecan trees, I'd take the pecans to the Bancroft Pecan Company in Powell, TX (about 9 miles east of Corsicana, TX, on S.H. 31). They had one price per pound to crack pecans, a slighter higher price to crack and shell, and a third and higher price to crack, shell, and clean pecans. Of course they also bought and sold pecans, so I'd sell them enough to pay for the cracking of the ones we wanted, then my wife and I would finish the shelling and cleaning.