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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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.
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.
Nocello was first produced by Monasteries in the Middle Ages as a medicinal elixir. According to superstition, the green walnuts must be picked on Midsummer's Day. The harvested walnuts are shelled and then soaked in oak casks of neutral alcohol on their shells for two years.
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.
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.
Instructions: In a co*cktail shaker with ice, combine 1.5 ounces of Cognac (we're using Courvoisier VSOP), 1 ounce of walnut liqueur, 3/4 ounce of lemon juice, and 1/4 ounce of simple syrup. Add a dash of Angostura bitters. Shake all that up, strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice, and garnish with a thin lemon wheel.
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.
Compared with five other tree nuts, Black Walnuts contain the most proteins and the fewest carbohydrates and starches. On the vitamin front, Black Walnuts include the most Panthothenic acid and the highest quantity of Vitamin B-6 when compared to other tree nuts.
Nocino is an Italian amaro made from walnuts, while Pelinkovac is based on wormwood and is thought to be the first Croatian drink enjoyed in the court of Napoleon III. Virtually all amari were traditionally thought to have medicinal properties, and they were usually enjoyed neat or on the rocks as a post-meal digestif.
Nut liqueurs are typically created by crushing or crumbling nuts into small pieces then soaking them in the base spirit for an extended period. Since nut liqueurs usually contain at least a few other ingredients, there is considerable crossover with other members of the liqueur family.
The velvety chocolate and walnut-flavored Italian Nocello complemented by the rich sweetness of cold brew and Kahlúa is everything you want from a co*cktail and more.
Frangelico is a premium Italian liqueur distilled from locally-grown hazelnuts and blended with coffee, cocoa and vanilla distillate. According to the legend its origins date back more than 300 years to a hermit monk named Fra' Angelico who lived in the hills of the Piedmont region in Northern Italy.
The velvety chocolate and walnut-flavored Italian Nocello complemented by the rich sweetness of cold brew and Kahlúa is everything you want from a co*cktail and more.
Nocello is a walnut flavored liqueur from Italy. It is produced by the Toschi Vignola S.r.l. company of Savignano sul Panaro, province of Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The product originated in Emilia-Romagna.
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