Hickory nut
Carya ovata · Nut
Top 10 pairings
A hickory nut is the hard-shelled, sweet, oily seed of a hickory tree (genus Carya) — the same North American genus that gives us the pecan, its larger and softer-shelled cousin. The prized eating kinds, above all the shagbark (Carya ovata), yield a small, pale-gold kernel that tastes like a richer, more intensely nutty pecan — buttery, sweet and deeply woody — locked inside a thick, four-ribbed shell that is famously hard to crack.
Picking a good onedrag
Freshly cured, heavy, soundLight, hollow, rancid
Shop-freshEveryday bestThe all-rounder: raw in salads, toasted for pies, cakes and candies, or pounded for hickory milk. Shell only what you will use.
The shellDull or weather-stained, still tight
Heft and shakeHeavy, the faintest shift inside
Crack one openGold a shade deeper, still plump
Smell the kernelQuieter, still clean and nutty
What you get from one
32%
Edible part
The thick shell is 68% of the nut - what is left still wears its thin brown skin