doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Thin Shell Walnut

What exactly does that mean? I�ve heard this term for years and have never really understood except for it implied a higher quality. Thanks in advance.

The nut bearing variety of walnut, Juglans regia, also known as English walnut, circassian, Turkish, French etc.

English walnuts have a thin, easy to crack, shell, American black, Much tougher nut to crack. Literally.

So then, which variety of walnut does not bear nuts?

Note to those with reading comprehension issues, I did not say the only variety of walnut that produces nuts. Juglans regia was planted for it's nuts wherever European settlers spread and the climate would support the tree. It also makes the best gunstocks.

Note to those with thin skins, buckle-strap girls shoes, and sensitivity issues...

Black walnuts are also grown for their nuts, as well as their wood. Black walnuts are very tasty and desirable for eating and baking. But they are generally more expensive to buy because of the greater amount of labor required to remove the nut from the shell. And believe it or not, millions of guns have been stocked with black walnut. Many of those gun stocks have spectacular grain and figure. However, it is generally acknowledged that English walnut is somewhat better to work with when it comes to carving and checkering.

Even a Hickory has a nut. Bring a sledge hammer or rent a squirrel...Geo

Billie kEITH, I am surprised to see you here this afternoon, I figured you would be out rioting and looting. I took this pic just for you. I switched to the buchsenmacher Air model for summer, it has three buckles. The more buckles the better I say.

Welding slippers.

Best,
Ted

Since the question was �what does thin shell mean?�,

It�s the thickness of the shell on an English walnut compared to an American black walnut, which are much thicker, with far less meat, and which are a pain to crack.

I�ve only known a few gourmands who went through the tedious headache of the shelling process that American black walnuts require to get enough to eat.

Whereas, my old girlfriend, an accomplished dancer, could take an English walnut, clamp it between the cheeks of her buttocks, and crack them with ease. Hence the phrase �walnut cracking thighs�.


Returning to American black walnuts,
We did process them Growing up.

We removed the husks wearing an old pair of work gloves that were soon to be disposed of, (so we didn�t get stained all the way up to our elbows)and then we dried them in baskets in the rafters until winter time, where upon we were forced out into the garage and cracked them in a vice, and my mom picked the meat out of them (what a little bit there was), and she then stored the pieces in jars.
The flavor is very strong, making delicious pastries.

But again the amount of work compared to just buying a package of commercially produced English thin shelled walnuts, is night and day.