ISSUE 61, TENNESSEE FOODWAYS, Part 5: Black Walnut Dishes
Black Walnut Dishes
No state has a more elaborate set of dishes for black walnuts than Tennessee. They appear in confections, baking, and as an ingredient in savory composite dishes as well, providing both flavor and texture. Martin Rywell’s collection in his 1951 Tennessee Cookbook suggests something of the breadth of preparations. Some of the older recipes are quite interesting, revealing distinctive 19th century approaches to a dish, such as the adding of cooked rice to the mixture. The baking powder suggests a recipe genesis in the 1870s.
Old Timey Walnut Pancakes
1 cup bread flour 1 egg
4 teaspoons baking powder 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon brown sugar 2 cups milk
½ teaspoon salt 1 cup cooked rice, cold
2 tablespoons butter 1/c cup ground black walnuts
Sift flour, baking powder, sugar, salt. In another bowl beat eggs and egg yolk well. Beat in milk gradually. Beat in rice. Add walnuts. Now pour this mixture in a well formed in center of flour. Mix and beat. Add butter. Mix and beat. Fry as griddle cakes.
A decidedly much more modern recipe dates from the mid-20th century (probably thev1940s) when refrigerators had supplanted ice boxes, and the cold temperature controls enabled refined frozen desserts.
Frozen Black Walnut Dessert
2/3rd cup sugar ½ cup black walnuts, chopped finely
¼ cup water 1 pint cream
4 egg whites beaten stiffly
Boil sugar and water until syrupy. Cool. Pour gradually over egg whites. Whip cream. Combine with mixture. Add walnuts. Freeze for several hours.
Black Walnut pie is probably a creation of the 1930s since it uses a version of the recipe published on Karo Corn Syrup labels for Pecan pie, rather than using the older nut-custard formula standard in the 1890s-1920s.
Black Walnut Pie
Black walnuts, chopped ¼ teaspoon salt
1 cups corn syrup, dark 1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon flour ½ cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
Combine and mix. Pour into uncooked pie shell. Brush pie crust with white of egg. Put butter over pie and cover with walnuts. Bake for 40 minutes in very slow over. (250 degrees).
Black Walnut Layer Caker was a Tennessee classic. Perhaps not as revered as Blackberry Jam Cake or as widely attempted as Caramel cake, but a signature dish nevertheless. In the older days one taste of farm boys in the forested parts of the state was to hammer black walnuts into submission and extract meats. This was no easy task. While this cake could be iced, it was just as often served unadorned.
Black Walnut Layer Cake
4 egg whites ½ cup butter
3 cups flour 1 cup black walnuts
2 tablespoons cornstarch 1 cup milk
3 teaspoons baking powder 2 cups sugar
Sift flour, baking powder, cornstarch. Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg whites. Beat. Add alternately flour mixture and milk. Add walnuts. Bake in layers.
Commercial confectioners were responsible for the spiced nuts craze in the 1910s in the United States. Pecans were the more common southern nut treated in this fashion. Getting black walnut halves intact from the nut is an art.
Spiced Black Walnuts
1 cup black walnut halves ¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar 1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 egg white
Whip egg white slightly. Put nuts in mixing bowl. Add tablespoon egg white and stir until nuts are coated. Add cinnamon, sugar, salt. Bake nuts on cookie sheet in slow over for 20 minuts.
I have printed black walnut fudge recipes in a number of places, Tennessee of course had several versions of black walnut fudge. What is absolute particular toe Tennessee and found nowhere else to my knowledge was black walnut and sorghum candy. Muddy Pond Sorghum is a Tennessee Institution, so use that to make this classic candy.
Black Walnut and Sorghum Candy
1 cup sorghum ½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar ¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter 1/8 teaspoon soda
1 cup chopped black walnuts
Mix sorghum, sugar, and vinegar. Boil until hard. Add butter, soda, salt. Stir. Put in black walnuts. Sir. Pour out into buttered dish to cook. Cut into squares.