Hickory Nuts
The hickory nut got its name from the Algonquin Indians. The Indians called the nut "powcohicora" but white settlers shortened the name to "hickory". The nut is part of the walnut family and related to the pecan.
The settlers would grind the nuts, add water and produce a milky liquid which was used in soups, cornmeal cakes and hominy. They also made a beverage called "pohickory". The nuts were a useful food because they had a variety of uses and would store for up to a year.
Today hickory nuts are used in pies, nut breads and cakes. They are not widely used because they tend to have very hard outer shells with take a lot of work to crack and the yield is very low.
There are three types of
hickory with edible nuts. The
shagbark hickory
C.ovata bears nuts
that taste similar to pecans. The shagbark is coming into a revival since the
Hickoryworks
company started producing shagbark hickory syrup.
The
shellbark
hickory,
C.laciniosa is considered to bear some of the most flavorful
nuts.
The
mockernut,
C. tomentosa has a particularly hard
shell and is also referred to as the white hickory or bullnut
The Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson