Comments on: Nocino – walnut liqueur (part I)

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:21:35 +0000

Naterejan:
I”m hoping you could help correct or explain why my recent batch of Nocino has a medicene taste to it. I believe in the adding of the sugar we used a sugar normally used for making of candy instead of the regular granulated we have used in the past. Our second thought is that perhqaps it is a fault of the walnuts themeselves which were smaller than noemal.
regards,
gabestogie@hotmail.com

By: Natarajan

Natarajan — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:46:41 +0000

Hi again; fascinating post!
The oxidative dimerization dimension reminds me of tea processing: after wilting to reduce moisture content, the leaves are (may be) bruised to rupture the cell walls, releasing polyphenol oxidase enzymes (and leaf juices). The green/yellow catechins polymerize into orange/red theaflavins and thearubigins, till the enzymes are inactivated by heat.

(There was a post to rec.food.drink.tea a few years ago about why some Darjeeling teas appear greenish despite black tea processing: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.food.drink.tea/msg/2f8cdd1418a3be84?hl=en )

I wonder to what extent is nocino’s oxidation enzyme catalyzed. If you, say, heat and cool the green nocino before it turns brown, would it stay green longer? I wonder how it’d taste

By: mzed

mzed — Mon, 18 May 2009 00:26:05 +0000

I’m just ordering my walnuts now for this; they’ll be picked next month. Looking forward to your part 2 for some tips…

By: Martin Lersch

Martin Lersch — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:40:36 +0000

Alan: You are absolutely right – thanks for reminding me! I’ve changed the sentence now to read:

Polyphenolic compounds are normally bitter or astringent. The low molecular weight compounds are typically more bitter. With increasing molecular weight bitterness decreases whereas astringency generally increases. The solubility in water decreases with higher molecular weight.

And if we were talking about wine it would be the medium and high molecular weight compounds that give wine it’s “body”.

And to the rest: Thank you so much for your kind comments

By: Lars@grydeskeen

Lars@grydeskeen — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:42:20 +0000

Martin: Very nice written post, your passion for the matter really shines through. Looking forward to part 2.

By: Alan McClure

Alan McClure — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:02:59 +0000

I was incredibly interested by your comment that, “In general phenolic compounds are bitter and astringent, and the bitterness generally increases with increasing molecular weight.”

It has been my understanding that lower molecular weight penolic compounds are bitter and as they increase in molecular weight they become less bitter and more astringent until finally at a certain molecular weight they are virtually insoluble in water, and hence neither bitter nor astringent.

Looking through my notes, I found only this little bit:

“Food Flavors: Biology and Chemistry” by Fisher notes that monomeric polyphenols are more bitter than astringent, and that as they complex to form larger polymers, they become more astringent and less bitter.

Unfortunately I don’t have the book available to me to confirm. Do you have any further information which would clarify things?

Best,

Alan
P.S. I love your blog.

By: Chemgeek

Chemgeek — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:57:26 +0000

I don’t comment often. I’m a chronic lurker after all. But, you have some of the greatest blog posts. Please, keep up the good work.

By: Gfron1

Gfron1 — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:24:40 +0000

Nocino is on my to-do list this year. In the US no one has availability til around June.