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!
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. But it's great in co*cktails too. We recommend using it in a Milk Punch, Walnut Manhattan, and Nocino Sour.
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.
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.
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.
Nocino may be stored unrefrigerated, out of the sun now, for several years. The flavor improves with age, so let it rest for a couple months, if you can, before enjoying it.
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 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.
A Note on Green Walnut Harvesting & Cutting for Nocino
It's time to harvest them when the green walnuts are about the size of a small lime. This falls between mid-May and early July, depending on how hot your spring is. If it's a warm Mediterranean-like spring, you'll be harvesting sometime between mid-May to mid-June.
Unlike amaro, whose varieties are made with dozens of botanicals, nocino is meant to be austere, with a natural, subtle bitterness and a flavor that tastes singularly of raw walnuts.
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!
Even though the contents of the jar seems to be black, it's actually still a bright green color if you shine enough light through it. The reason for this is that the jar was kept well closed. Once the nocino is filtered and thereby exposed to plenty of air the color will change to dark orange brown.
Firstly, liqueurs have much lower alcohol content than distilled spirits, and hover around the 15% to 30% ABV mark. While liquor has an alcohol content of usually over 38% ABV.
Coffee liqueur is a drink which is categorized under the beans liqueurs. The alcohol percentage is always around the 20 percent. The liqueur is made out of 96% alcohol, sugar, coffee beans and other ingredients.
Amaretto can range in terms of its alcohol content, but like many liqueurs, it is often between 20-28% alcohol by volume, making it an easy sipper when served neat or on the rocks.
Introduction: My name is Rueben Jacobs, I am a cooperative, beautiful, kind, comfortable, glamorous, open, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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