North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

You may have to experiment a bit. 

 

I’m afraid the Choctaw portion of my ethnic mix is back far too many generations to have detailed steps handy.  But I have some thoughts:

 

The traditional method was to crush the nuts – shells and all – and boil in water.   “Hickory milk,” rich in oil, floated to the top and could be skimmed or drawn off.  The equipment here is simple: a hammer and a stockpot.  I would imagine you want a large proportion of nuts to water.   I would crush (by one of several methods) the whole nuts, boil them, strain through cheesecloth, and decant .  For a very small quantity, you could use a gravy separator separate water from the creamy hickory milk.  For a larger quantity, I would use the reservoir from a steam juicer, letting the water run out through the tubing, stopping, then removing the milk; or I would try a cream separator. 

 

In modern times nut milks are made using a blender.  The general portion is about a third cup of nuts to a cup of water, but the blender hickory milk recipe I found uses a cup of shelled nuts to 1½ cups water. That would make quite a slurry, but might yield a creamier/oilier product more similar to the traditional.  It could be a challenge for a blender.  I might try a food processor at that proportion, unless I had (and I do) a high-powered blender such as Vitamix or Blendtec.  Hot water’s very likely to get a better/oilier product, but starches in the nuts may thicken the slurry.   Strain the milk through cheesecloth (tight-woven, or triple thickness, I would think).  I would try different proportions, but a higher proportion would be what I would be looking for; it’s going to be less watery, and if too thick, would store as a bit of a concentrate that could later be thinned.    Thicker and colder will strain slower than thinner and hotter.

 

As for putting up your milk: I think it would probably freeze well for about 3 months.  I wouldn’t preserve it any other way.  But you can lengthen the time of storage and the quality in storage by vacuum-sealing then freezing.  You can freeze in a shallow bowl or pan, then use hot water on the bottom of the pan to release it, place in a cheap plastic bag, then put that bag in a vacuum-sealer bag, seal and freeze.

Or freeze in jars with lots of headspace, and use the jar sealer attachment to a vacuum sealer, and freeze.  Or heat the hickory milk, pour into clean canning jars, apply lids and rings and boiling water bath for fifteen minutes.   You’re not trying to can (although it won’t hurt to sterilize your jars and lids first), just to evacuate – get the air out.  Let the jars cool thoroughly – probably overnight – check the seals and freeze.  Vacuum-sealed then frozen I would guess it would last a year.  Generally vacuum sealing will extend freezer storage by about 5 times. 

 

All this is guesswork, but I assume you’d be thawing and using the product throughout the year, so you’d have an idea of whether a batch was losing quality.  Of course, depending on how troublesome it is to make the milk, it may be easiest to store the nuts and make batches as needed.

 

In all this I’ve been assuming you want the oil-rich hickory milk.  If you want a milk substitute, just do the blender method and start with about a 3:1 water-nut ratio, a tiny pinch of salt, and a bit of honey to taste, then adjust the water:nut ratio until you get a product you like (this is the ‘universal’ recipe for nut milk – I think hickory will want a higher proportion of nuts).

 

If you happen to have a soy milk maker, it might just automate the entire process, substituting nuts for soybeans.   It does the cooking, grinding, and straining.

 

~ Stephen

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of kelly@theravenrocks.com
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 7:58 AM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: [NAFEX] Making Hickory Milk

 

I need detailed steps for making hickory milk. I especially want to know if it can be stored (maybe frozen?) for several months.

 

Thanks.

 

Kelly Coffey

western North Carolina

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