Butternut (white walnut)
Juglans cinerea · Nut
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The butternut, or white walnut (Juglans cinerea), is the sweet, oily kernel of a North American walnut tree — milder and gentler than the black walnut, with a soft, buttery richness that gave the nut its name. Long gathered from wild and farmstead trees, it is eaten raw, candied, or folded into maple-sweetened breads and confections.
Picking a good onedrag
Freshly cured, heavyLight, dark, rancid
Sound in the shellEveryday bestThe all-rounder: raw, toasted, ground into maple breads. Leave them in the shell until you want them, and freeze what you crack.
The shellSound and dry, husk flecks in the grooves
Heft and rattleSolid, the faintest shift inside
Seam and tipSeam tight, a scuff or two on the ridges
Crack one openKernel still pale, the smell fainter
What you get from one
27%
Edible part
3 g kernel · in shell, 73% of it shell
11 g
Weight each
each one