Walnut is a useful product that must be included in the human diet. In this case, the taste of the fruits may be different. Why walnut is bitter is described in the article.
Causes of bitterness
Why is walnut bitter ? The reasons may be as follows:
- Early harvest when the fruits are still green.
- Long-term storage in the wrong environment.
- Failure to comply with transportation conditions.
For these reasons, the taste of a healthy nut spoils. Not everyone likes to use it with bitterness. Therefore, many are interested in eliminating the unpleasant taste. Why are fresh walnuts bitter? This is due to the fact that the fruits are not quite ripe.
Bitterness removal
You can get rid of this unpleasant moment. What to do so that walnuts are not bitter? To do this, the fruit must be filled with ice water and stand the night. If after this the defect has not been eliminated, it cannot be removed.
There is another way - the use of boiling water. Pour the nuts, and after 30 minutes check the quality. If it turned out to remove the disadvantage, then the product is suitable for cooking.
If the fruits are picked at an immature age, then their bitterness can be eliminated only if they are pierced with a thin needle, and then placed for a week in a pan with ice water. The fluid must be drained and changed every day. This method is one of the most effective.
Some nuts are even boiled, eliminating unpleasant bitterness. In this case, sugar must be added to the water. The boiling procedure includes bringing to a boil and almost instant removal of boiling water.
If green nuts are needed for jam, and they are bitter, then peel them. Then they need to be washed and filled with water. It is recommended to withstand them for 3 days. During this period, every 5 hours you need to change the water. After this procedure, the fruits are used in cooking. You can chop the nuts and add honey with lemon.
Collection
One of the nuances of why walnuts are bitter is early harvesting. To do this in a timely manner, you need to pay attention to the following nuances:
- A sign of readiness is cracking of the soft amniotic membrane. Nuts on the lower branches ripen faster.
- Foliage with ripening fruits dims and turns yellow.
- Estimated harvest dates can be determined by grade.
- The fruits of trees blooming in spring usually ripen in August, September, and flowering in June - starting from the 3rd week of September.
- Ripe fruits have a hard shell, the core under which is moist.
Collection time
When are walnuts harvested? Experienced gardeners believe that this should be done before cracking the shell. When walnuts are harvested depends on the variety. This usually happens from the end of August during 3 weeks of September. Before this period, nuts are hammered from a tree with a stick, collected and packaged in wooden boxes. Ripening is carried out in this form for 2-3 weeks. The main thing is to put the product in a cool place.
Before ripening in the boxes, you need to dry the fruits for their long-term storage. Walnuts are later collected in Krasnodar, as they ripen from around mid-September. But still they are harvesting a large crop.
Collection rules
If you do not use the method of knocking down branches, then the harvest lasts for weeks, since the fruits fall gradually. But the fallen nuts must be collected within a day. After that, they are cleaned of dirt and sent for drying.
If the products lay for a long time in the ground, then it is unsuitable for storage. Unfinished fruits with a hollow shell are knocked down with a stick and placed in buckets and boxes for ripening. They must be kept separately.
Storage
Why walnuts are bitter depends on storage conditions. After collecting it is necessary to dry it. For this, the fruits are spread for 5-6 days on the litter. It is preferable to do this on the street, but you can do it at home on the floor.
Storage efficiency is provided by drying in a warm oven for 50-60 minutes. It is important that the temperature is low. Therefore, you should open the door.
After drying, the nuts should be poured into boxes or bags of cloth and put in a dry place where there is no light. The temperature should be 15 degrees. Do not leave products on the balcony. There is usually high humidity. This leads to mold. The risk of infection appears at a humidity of 70%. Due to the high temperature and light, the product will not be stored for long.
You can save useful properties by placing them in a refrigerator in a glass jar. So the product can remain quality for at least 6 months.
Thus, so that the walnut does not bitter, it is necessary to observe the rules for its collection, storage and transportation. Only then will it taste good.