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 has a dark, nutty flavor that 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 by Matthew Weingarten and Raquel 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 purer black walnut flavor.
Homemade Black Walnut Liqueur Recipe
To begin making your homemade black walnut liqueur, slice approximately 25 green walnuts into quarters and place them in a half gallon or gallon sized mason jar.
Add 1 cinnamon stick and a few star anise pieces.
Add the zest of one lemon, peeled into large strips.
Cover the ingredients with vodka. We used about 3 cups of vodka – no need to purchase quality vodka, the cheap stuff will do just fine! Place a lid on your mason jar and shake. Set the jar in 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.)
Place the 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 cocktail. Cheers!
★ Did you make and love this Walnut Liqueur recipe? Give it your review below! And make sure to share your creations by tagging me on Instagram!
Homemade Black Walnut Liqueur
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!
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 approximately 25 green walnuts into quarters and place them in a half gallon or gallon sized mason jar.
- Add 1 cinnamon stick and a few star anise pieces.
- Add the zest of one lemon, peeled into large strips.
- Cover the ingredients with vodka (we used about 3 cups of vodka – no need to purchase quality vodka, the cheap stuff will do just fine!), place a lid on and shake. Then set the jar in 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. (Adjust the proportions to make a stronger or sweeter end result.)
- Place the 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 cocktail. Cheers!
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Well…
I made it.
I guess I will know in about a year if I made a weapon of mass destruction or if I end up with a peace prize.
I have been watching that black walnut tree drop walnuts and fill the yard with baby flies until a pup showed up that eats everything in the yard. The owners of the chip in him wouldn’t answer. Two weeks later he was a giant beast and nobody wanted him. We should have named him Goat but he is a moose so he is Moose. At any rate we have had Moose a year now and he has eaten every walnut and pecan on the property. I figured he should be dead but he is just fine and does a great job as a weed eater. Literally. Now that I had a purpose for the walnuts today, while on the ladder I missed the bucket three times. I was in battle with Moose who figured he’d run if I began to climb down. He wanted the walnuts and so did I. I need more recipes for black walnuts though.
So can you do this with pecans? I hate ANYTHING going to waste.
Sounds like Moose is a smart dog, and it’s likely that the black walnut is keeping him worm-free!
Here are some more uses for Black Walnuts! https://homestead-honey.com/uses-for-black-walnuts/
I started this two weeks ago and followed all steps to a tee, but two of my three jars developed mold on the top surface.
Any idea what I’m doing wrong?
They are developing mold on top of the vodka? Is everything completely submerged under the vodka? That would be the first thing I would check.
This is a Great article! I am wondering if the Black walnuts in Ohio in end of September are too hard to use in the wine. Like you said, did the crushed pieces macerate nicely? I was also uncertain if the hull went into the wine.
Thanks,
Charles
Hi Charles,
No, you will want to harvest the black walnuts next June when they are green. But in the meantime, you can enjoy the nuts, use the hulls to dye fiber, make some black walnut tincture, etc.
It’s the end of August. My neighbor gave me a basket of black walnuts, but by this time they were impossible to cut with a knife. So I went outside, took a granite block and a hammer and smashed them one by one, then put them in a mason jar and poured in 1.5 liters of Trader Joe’s vodka. They’re not cut neatly, but I’m guessing they will macerate OK.
I’d be curious to hear how your experiment goes! I’ve only used the softer “green” walnuts and it sounds like yours were closer to the large yellow/brown exterior of a an almost ripe nut!
The walnuts in the picture look like Butternut (Juglans cinerea), not black walnut (Juglans nigra). When ripe, are they long instead of spherical, and deeply furrowed? The trees are very similar, thought butternut are becoming rare due to a canker disease.
I can see why the photos would be misleading, but they are definitely black walnut trees. I wish we had both!
How big should the immature walnuts be? I only have a few on my trees this year’s and I want to make sure I get them at the right time
The ones we harvested were about the size of a golf ball.
Great Article! Thank you for sharing this step by step procedure for making homemade black walnut liqueur recipe. Now anyone can able to prepare black walnut liqueur at own home. Yes Black walnut is also best for health and prevention for diseases. I am also big consumer for black walnut tincture. And also always take this tincture in daily basis and it’s really beneficial.
I have never heard of this before. We used to get black walnuts from our aunts trees but she has died so we no longer get them. We will have to find someone else that we can get some from to be able to try this but I am definitely interested in trying it. Worse case scenario we will have to plant some and wait- patience is not my longsuit :-)lol