Nuts

Meal

Hickory meal is a coarse grind of nuts of Carya species native mainly to North America that still feels sandy and particulate rather than powder-fine. It adds visible flecks and a rustic crunch to cookies, coatings, crumbles, and hearty batters. Flavour is sweet to bitter depending on species—shagbark is prized, bitternut is not a dessert nut. Meal often keeps more skin and oil than refined flour, so it tastes fuller and darkens more in the oven. Toast meal in a dry pan to bloom aroma before folding into doughs. Useful wherever foraged American baking, regional sweets, and wild-food cookery. Storage: freeze sweet hickory kernels; quality varies wildly by tree. Process notes: species identification matters; crack hard shells; cure kernels. Do not grind bitternut hickory for dessert paste; species choice is the recipe. Treat as tree nut (walnut family). Choose meal for texture and flour for smoother crumbs and pastes.