The walnut is the secret star of the pre-Christmas period. Wherever there’s a tangerine lying around or a mulled wine steaming away, the wrinkled orb of energy is within reach. Santa Claus brings them, they are emblazoned on the biscuits, and the children use their natural packaging to make tree decorations and matchstick figures or even recreate entire nativity scene scenes of epic proportions. Decorative shell, healthy at heart – the walnut is the ideal snack in Advent. Even though it’s more than half fat and has four times the calorific value of cooked spaghetti, 100 grams about 650 kilocalories, it lowers the dangerous LDL cholesterol while being powerfully filling.
But how do you get at it without crushing the nut in such a way that its edible particles can only be picked up from the tablecloth with moistened fingertips and splintered shells rattle in the vacuum cleaner pipe when cleaning behind the television?
If you abuse them with guillotines, clamps, tongs or crushers, all that is often left is mud
Many nuclear researchers have racked their brains over this. Because of their wrinkled shape, the fruits are commonly considered good for the brain. But if you abuse them with guillotines, clamps, pliers or crushers, all that’s left is mud – regardless of whether you use the handy standard model with the rubber handles from the discounter or the nostalgic red king of wood with a back lever from the Ore Mountains. The problem is the dosage of the pressure. If you press too little, the nut will not give way, if you squeeze too much, there will be crumbs. And the good old vise method – holding two nuts seam to seam in one fist and using the other hand to press together so that both shells open cleanly – is probably only mastered by people who open beer bottles with their teeth. Specialists who, on the one hand, have the power in their hands like cement mixers, but who know how to dose it precisely like pianists. Time-consuming cooking nerd tricks like 12-hour soaks in lukewarm water or freezing to soften the shell and make it brittle are also out of the question if you have other plans before Christmas Eve.
Much like an oyster, the hard shell is then carefully pryed open into two intact halves
If you really want to crack the nut without breaking the shell and splitting the nucleus, you need less strength than a steady hand: if there are no children watching who could do it but shouldn’t, you put a knife with the edge on the seam. The nut has a slightly more pointed end and a flatter, slightly notched end, which often has a small, soft gap into which the knife can be easily inserted.
Much like an oyster, the hard shell is then carefully pryed open into two intact halves and the intact core recovered. It is best to use only a blunt table knife, alternatively use a nail file, never use a filleting blade. Your fingers thank you. But not every nut can be cracked this way. Some shells are too hard and the seams are tightly closed. Then the tool box is needed. Instead of using a knife, carefully poke at the gap with a flat screwdriver. If that doesn’t help either: forget the shell and concentrate on the core competence.
The halves of the core lie perpendicular to the seam of the shell. Therefore, whoever takes the seam in the pliers will almost certainly destroy the core. Cracking the seamless top or bottom goes easy on the core, on the other hand. The shell is then of course cracked and only beautiful for a short time: when it dies down in the tiled stove.
Jochen Temsch likes to solve the problem with the bowls in no time at all. A ratchet – and the bag with the walnut kernels from the supermarket is open.
(Photo: Bernd Schifferdecker (Illustration))