Cookbook advice: Eat walnuts, live longer!

UW pair translates French neighbor’s nutty recipes

America’s favorite nut can settle into our tummies in many different forms thanks to UW–Madison English professors and administrators Betsy Draine and Michael Hinden.

Sample recipe Roasted guinea hen

The couple has translated The Walnut Cookbook (Ten Speed Press, paper, $14.95), a collection of recipes by Jean-Luc Toussaint, their summer neighbor in Perigord, a town in southern France. The cookbook, which is possibly the first dedicated exclusively to walnuts, also chronicles the walnut and its prevalence in France’s rural culture.

“Long before we did the book we were interested in walnuts,” says Hinden. “In the Perigord region, they have a mystique as being an important food.”

Uses of the walnut have evolved with the passage of time. The history of the walnut can be traced back to Egypt, where walnut oil was utilized to preserve mummies. Today, people are still finding creative uses for it. NASA, for example, uses pulverized walnut shells as heat insulation in the nose cone of rockets.

Eating walnuts also has health benefits. Recent studies suggest that moderate walnut consumption can help reduce cholesterol levels. In fact, inhabitants of the Perigord region have the second lowest heart attack rate in the world even though their diet is laden with rich, heavy cuisine such as goose liver pate and truffles fried in goose fat.

Although Americans are much more familiar with walnuts in their cookies and candies, Toussaint provides a variety of tantalizing walnut recipes that even the more inexperienced cook can try.

According to Draine, people like to eat walnuts but, “we just haven’t been innovative with them.”

The book provides a mixture of traditional recipes along with new creations by Toussaint. For those who are looking for some unique treats to spice up a holiday party, the cookbook includes an array of hors d ‘oeuvres (such as avocado-walnut toasts) desserts (caramel-walnut custard and honey walnut spice cake) and even liqueurs (walnut-leaf wine and walnut husk liqueur).

Better still, according to Draine and Hinden, walnuts complement Wisconsin cheese especially well.

Notes on substitutions and variations are provided because not all of the local ingredients are available in the United States.

“The book is written so you can make it,” says Draine. “As long as you can find the walnuts, the recipe is going to work.”