Nut crackers are tools used to crack the hard shells of nuts. English walnuts have a softer shell and can be cracked with hand-held tools, while black walnuts require more complex tools. Nuts are technically seeds encased in a hard shell, and nut crackers are designed to open the shells for easy consumption. Basic nut crackers are carved stands, while more advanced ones look like tongs. Commercial nut farms use specialized machines for efficiency. English walnuts are not native to England, while black walnuts have a tough outer shell.
Nut crackers are any type of tool used to crack the thick shell of a nut. There are two main varieties of walnut: English and black. English walnuts tend to have a softer shell that is fairly easy to crack with hand-held, tong-like tools. The black varieties are generally much more difficult, often requiring complex levers or mechanized systems to open. Any tool that opens these nut shells can qualify as a nut cracker, no matter how rudimentary.
Nuts usually meet consumers in the form of nut meat, such as ready-to-eat or ready-to-use nut pieces. However, they don’t grow nuts this way, as the flesh is contained within the hard shell of the nut. Nuts are technically seeds, and the nut meat is encased in a hard, wood-like pod on the tree. Ripe nuts fall to the ground and are then harvested by nut-pickers or eventually re-embedded in the ground for new trees to sprout. The hard shell protects the nutrient-rich nutmeat that will support the seedling as it grows.
Just as the shell protects the nut from predators and environmental degradation, so it protects against easy human opening. Cracking walnuts with your bare hands is often extremely difficult, but eating or cooking with walnuts requires them to be cracked open in some way. Nut crackers are specially designed to open the shells, revealing nut halves that can be removed and eaten with ease.
The most basic nut crackers are little more than carved stands that hold the nuts in one final position. This allows you to strike accurately with a mallet, mallet, or other blunt object. Walnuts, like most types of nuts, crack more evenly directly along the centerline.
The more advanced and commonly used nut crackers look like tongs more than anything else. Two metal handles join at the top, each usually with a central indentation about the size of an average diameter of a walnut. Placing the nut in the recess and then squeezing it on the handles breaks the nut. The more flexible the shell of the nut, the less force is required. This type of nut cracker usually works best for English nuts.
Black walnut crackers usually involve a crank and lever. Most are metal and require the nut to be placed between two screws or plates which must be driven progressively closer and closer together until the built up pressure cracks the shell. Early models usually incorporate large cranks, while more modern innovations use simple push levers.
Commercial nut farms and mass cracking operations often need more specialized tools for efficiency reasons. Professional-grade nut crackers usually bear little resemblance to personal or portable tools. When hundreds of thousands of nuts need to be shelled, they are usually fed through precise hulling machines or pressed between cracker plates. Specialized machines separate the nut meat from the hull, and quality control specialists usually sift the final product to remove bits of the shell that may have slipped through before the nuts were packaged for sale.
English walnuts, despite their name, are not native to England. They are indigenous to much of Central Asia, especially China, but spread rapidly east, then west, following the normal routes of ancient trade. These nuts are the most popular in Western markets and feature a tan shell that is tough, but not impossible to crack.
Black walnut is a related North American species that grows in limited regions, particularly in the American South. This variety of nut has an extremely tough outer shell which is often prized for its use in abrasive cleaners. Opening a black walnut is usually a much more complex endeavor.
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