I just found out you can make hickory oil from pignut hickory nuts. Some people call them yellow bud hickory nuts or bitternut hickory. The tannins that make the nuts bitter are water soluble and easy to remove. The nuts are mostly meat and can can be cracked bare handed.

The oil is supposed to be fantastic for cooking. It sells for over $16.00 for 5 ounces. A 5 gallon bucket of nuts makes 98 ounces of oil.

I'm going to try to make some oil if it's a decent year for the nuts and I can locate some.

Keith

There are a few pecan growers here in Georgia doing cold pressed pecan oil.

Pecan is a hickory.

Here's a video of pressing the oil.



Keith

Here's a video on making hickory milk, which I would like to try too.



Keith

I have what I think is a pignut hickory in my back yard, your not breaking those things by hand,and theres not much meat in them, even the squirrels got to work on them for a meal....the good thing is I have a ready supply of smoking wood from the fallen branches.

Not pig nut.

Bitternut hickory makes great oil! Actually they all do, but bitternut have a lot more nutmeat per nut volume and the shells are thin.

You dont need to remove tannins at all. Since the tannins are not oil soluble they do not come out when the nut is pressed for oil as long as the nuts are bone dry. It is quite a surprise that the nuts, when eaten, are bitter, but the pressed oil is sweet and oh so yummy. Its like everything that is good about a hickory distilled into wonderfully amber colored goodness.

The first 4 oz bottle I had came from a friend in Wisconsin. His name is Sam Thayer and he writes wild edibles books and does workshops and such. I opened the bottle, took a little sip, and that was it - over the course of a few days I drank it all right from the bottle. Its that good.

It is a wonderful use for a nut that is plentiful and generally considered non-edible because it is so bitter. Another good thing is that the squirrels eat them last, if at all because they prefer the sweeter shagbark and pignut. Sometimes it can be difficult to get many good hickory nuts because the squirrels eat them before they fall. Some pignuts are good eating, some aren’t - it varies by the tree. Up north we basically have three hickories - Bitternut (C. cordiformis) - also called yellow bud hickory, Pignut (C. glabra), and Shagbark (C. ovata). In some areas here in north IN I find a few Shellbark (C. lacinosa). Down south there are more varieties but I am not as familiar with them.

Is the oil good for you?

All I have locally is Bitternut Hickory. I might give this a whirl.

Supposedly:

"Health Benefits of Hickory nut oil
Besides its pleasant taste, this oil possess various health benefits which are discussed below:

Put on weight
Hickory nut oil assists in adding body weight to those who are trying to gain weight. It is high in calories which could be stored in the body.

Enhance energy
Hickory oil has high concentration of carbohydrate which provides enormous energy when broken down.

Assist growth and development
Protein is essential for the body’s development and growth. Hickory nut oil has adequate amount of protein which assist the body in the growth and development.

Metabolic functions
Hickory oil has Vitamin B that assist in the functions of body metabolic activities. It prevents muscles, heart and nervous system.

Bone health
This oil has magnesium which is essential for the bones growth as well as development. It promotes the balance of minerals in the body with the regulation of calcium level.


Supports digestion
Hickory oil has natural fiber that supports digestion. It also has minerals that assist in digestion"

Supposedly bitternut hickory is the 5th most common tree in Kentucky's forests. It seems like making hickory oil may be a good money maker if you have access to the trees. I could see Catherine doing it in West Virginia.

Keith

Nice! always looking for healthy oil options
Thanks

You're welcome.

The taste of hickory oil is supposed to be great. My mom has a large bitternut tree, but nothing was dropping when we were there yesterday. A friend of mine has a large woods, with lots of hickory trees, 6.8 miles from here. I need to go check to see if they are dropping yet.

I don't have any hickory trees on my farm.

Keith

Pressing the oil will require some special equipment.

Sam Thayer told me he spent several years perfecting his press rig.

You might look him up if you would like to try some.

Thanks. Sam Thayer's name has come up frequently in searches of hickory oil.

Keith

Unfortunately, most of the health claims in what you've quoted are not true; it looks like the information was generated from the nut itself, rather than the hickory nut oil.

Hickory nut oil will have these benefits:

1. It tastes good.

2. You can cook with it, and then your food will taste good. And be cooked.

3. The one thing that list had right: it has a lot of calories, which your body will use as either building blocks of fatty materials in the body, or as an energy source.

4. Because it is local (if you make it), renewable, and fresh, it will avoid the pitfalls involved in the opposite: it will not take energy, time, and money to transport it. It will not destroy a rainforest in Thailand to plant a palm-oil orchard. It will not have the weird chemical transformations that take place in "shelf-stable" oils at the grocery store.

Personally, I think benefit number one is good enough reason.