Homemade Black Walnut Liqueur Recipe (Nocino) | Homestead Honey (2024)
This black walnut liqueur recipe will teach you how to make your own walnut liqueur from immature, green walnuts! Perfect for sipping, or gifting.
Our homestead is blessed with a number of mature black walnut trees, from which we make cutting boards for our Etsy shop, dye fibers, make syrup, make ink, and eat the nut meats.
Last year we added another black walnut product to our growing list – a homemade black walnut liqueur (also known as nocino). Made from immature, green walnuts, nocino hasa dark, nutty flavorthat is perfect for sipping, or gifting. This black walnut liqueur recipe will teach you how to make your own!
According to the book Preserving Wild Foods byMatthew Weingarten andRaquel Pelzel, green walnuts are traditionally harvested on June 24th, to be enjoyed six months later as a Christmastime ritual.
With that date right around the corner, let me share with you the process by which we make this Black Walnut Liqueur recipe.
The photo above shows the immature (green) black walnuts. We did indeed harvest the green walnuts on June 24th, but you may need to adjust the date for your location and climate.
Simply look for walnuts that are about the size of a small lemon. You will need about 25 walnuts for this walnut liqueur recipe.
We loosely followed the nocino recipe in Preserving Wild Foods, which calls for the addition of lemon rind, cinnamon sticks, and star anise, but you could also omit the spices for a purerblack walnut flavor.
Homemade Black Walnut Liqueur Recipe
To begin making your homemade black walnut liqueur, slice approximately 25green walnutsinto quarters and place them in a half gallon or gallon sized mason jar.
Add 1 cinnamon stick and afew star anise pieces.
Add the zestof one lemon, peeled into large strips.
Cover the ingredients with vodka. We used about 3 cups ofvodka – no need to purchase quality vodka, the cheap stuff will do just fine! Place a lid on your mason jar and shake. Set the jarin your pantry, or another cool place, to steep.
After two or three months, strain the contents and add a sugar syrup, made by dissolving 1-2 cups of sugar in 1/2 to 1 cup of water. (You can adjust the proportions to make a stronger or sweeter end result.)
Placethe resulting liqueur into a jar or bottle, again covering and storing in a cool place for another 3-4 months.
It’s hard to describe this unique dark, sweet, slightly nutty flavor. It’s lovely sipped, it’s very nice mixed in cold milk (think Baileys and cream or Kahlua and milk), and a friend of ours creatively crafted a new nocino-inspired co*cktail. Cheers!
Collect immature walnuts in May or June and make nocino, or black walnut liqueur to enjoy at the holidays! Give this simple and delicious recipe a try!
Prep Time20 minutes
Resting 3 months2 seconds
Total Time3 months20 minutes2 seconds
Ingredients
25 green walnuts
1 cinnamon stick
a few star anise pieces
1 lemon
3 cups vodka
sugar syrup (dissolve 1-2 cups of sugar in 1/2 to 1 cup of water)
Instructions
To begin making your homemade black walnut liqueur, slice approximately25green walnutsinto quarters and place them in a half gallon or gallon sized mason jar.
Add1 cinnamon stick and afew star anise pieces.
Add thezestof one lemon, peeled into large strips.
Cover the ingredients with vodka(we used about 3 cups ofvodka – no need to purchase quality vodka, the cheap stuff will do just fine!), place a lid on and shake.Then set the jarin your pantry, or another cool placeto steep.
After two or three months,strain the contents and add a sugar syrup, made by dissolving 1-2 cups of sugar in 1/2 to 1 cup of water. (Adjust the proportions to make a stronger or sweeter end result.)
Placethe resulting liqueur into a jar or bottle, again covering and storing in a cool place for another 3-4 months.
Notes
It’s hard to describe this unique dark, sweet, slightly nutty flavor. It’s lovely sipped, it’s very nice mixed in cold milk (think Baileys and cream or Kahlua and milk), and a friend of ours creatively crafted a new nocino-inspired co*cktail.Cheers!
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Once you have a bottle of nocino at home, using it in co*cktail is a great way to enjoy its complex flavors. Nocico pairs very nicely with brown spirits like whiskey, Scotch or brandy, and it can be used as a creative substitute for sweet vermouths like Carpano Antica.
Nocino is a dark brown liqueur from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It is made from unripe green walnuts. The walnuts and the liquor are handled using ceramic or wooden tools (to avoid oxidation) and placed in an alcoholic base.
Instructions: In a co*cktail shaker without ice, combine 1 ounce of walnut liqueur, 1 ounce of bourbon, 1 ounce heavy whipping cream, 3/4 ounce simple syrup, and 1 medium-sized egg. Shake all that up without ice — that's called a “dry shake” — and then with ice, to chill (that's the “wet shake”).
Walnut liqueur is a dark brown, bitter and appealing beverage, often served as an aperitif or being used as a tonic and digestive aid with beneficial effects against stomach trouble and digestion inconveniences (Alamprese et al.
Nocino is light in body but rich in flavor, bitter with a sweet finish and a distinctive earthy, herbal note. While nocino is defined by the flavor of green walnuts, its overall taste depends on the botanicals used by each distiller.
For years, nocino had been nearly impossible to find in the United States. Many people have thought they were drinking it when they bought Nocello, but there's a difference. Nocello, produced by Toschi, is a lower-proof walnut-hazelnut liqueur. It's not bad: a reasonable substitution for nocino in some drinks.
Green walnuts – Nocino, the diminutive of noce (walnut in Italian) gets it flavor from macerated green walnuts. Grappa, a brandy made from grapes, serves as its base ingredient. Picked early in the season, sliced walnuts still in their husks soak in the grappa to develop its flavor.
Traditionally, Nocino is sipped on its own as a digestif (an after-dinner drink) - just a little pour of something special that warms you from head to toe.
For Nocino you need to harvest the nuts just before they begin to form their interior nut shell. I broke one open and they were perfect. A foraging we go!
Most opened (and well-sealed) liqueurs should last for six months to a year (or even longer), depending on the alcohol content and preservatives. Once you notice sugar crystallizing on the bottom, discoloration, curdling, or other changes, throw the bottle away.
Black walnut is used to treat parasitic worm infections and certain other infections including diphtheria and syphilis. It is also used for leukemia. Some people use black walnut as a gargle, apply it to the scalp as hair dye, or put it on the skin to treat wounds.
Rich, bold American Black Walnuts combine with pumpkin, apples, caramel, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg to bring a tantalizing twist to favorite recipes. This season, sweet and savory tastes are crossing boundaries and getting intermingled across all kinds of desserts and entrees.
Nocino is not only delicious (after proper aging) and easy to make, unripe walnuts are high in polyphenols and have many medicinal benefits, most historically noted among them as a digestive and anti-parasitic. Vin de noix, walnut wine, is nocino's near relation traditionally made in France.
To make the Nocino, it is said that the walnuts must be gathered by the woman most skilled at preparing the drink. This woman must climb barefooted into the tree and pick only the finest nuts by hand without damaging the skin. The walnuts are then left in the evening dew throughout the night and infused the next day.
Black walnut is an important tree commercially, as the wood is a deep brown color and easily worked. Walnut seeds (nuts) are cultivated for their distinctive and desirable taste. Walnut trees are grown both for lumber and food, and many cultivars have been developed for improved quality wood or nuts.
What it is: Nocino is a more bitter digestivo made from not-fully-ripened green walnuts, not to be confused with its sweeter cousin nocello. Of note, nocino also has ties to when the Roman Empire converted to Christianity under Emperor Constantine. Traditionally, the green walnuts are harvested on June 24th (St.
Although people enjoy a mix of sweet and savory flavors with walnuts, a sweet combination is most liked by all: (1) Dark Chocolate, (2) Sesame Cayenne, (3) Vanilla, (4) Sea Salt Caramel, (5) Coffee.
Nocino, The Black Walnut Liqueur. A dark, sweet liquor that tastes a little like Jaegermeister, nocino is a traditional Italian liqueur made from unripe walnuts.
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