The inshell walnut has its own moisture standards and is not just a recommendation when selling the walnut. Humidity of the walnut affects the shelf life and processing.
Depending on the humidity, the walnut is:
- wet – at the beginning of the season, when it was just harvested. Also, the walnut may be wet if it was stored in conditions with high humidity or specially wetted;
- moderately dry – a walnut that has gone through the drying process and has reached a moisture content of 10%;
- over-dried – the drying or storage conditions were not followed and the humidity fell below the recommended minimum.
How to distinguish an overdried walnut?
An overdried walnut becomes brittle, its shell cracks easily. In this case, the kernel also loses its elasticity.
Increased brittleness does not allow to obtain a whole kernel even with the most careful split. And if you managed to get a “whole kernel” it can break in your hands or when moving.
When processing overdried walnuts, you should not focus on the integrity of the kernel. Since the labor costs for careful manual splitting are not always justified. At industrial enterprises, such a walnut is processed into a fine fraction with minimal use of manual labor. Thus, earnings are obtained on large volumes of processing.
How to increase the moisture of a walnut?
There are no industrial ways to increase the moisture content of walnuts. All methods are aimed at maintaining optimal humidity until the time of processing and sale.
At home, inshell walnuts can be soaked before splitting so that the shell and kernel absorb the missing moisture. After splitting, the kernel must be dried to prevent mold.