Descriptive analysis and consumer acceptance of black walnut cultivars in a sugar cookie base

- Black walnut kernels were integrated in a simple cookie recipe for sensory analysis.
- Emma K cultivar was significantly lower in several descriptive flavor attributes.
- Remaining cultivars were similar to one another in flavor profiles.
- Four consumer clusters emerged based on cookie liking scores.
- Brown Nugget cultivar may be suitable compromise for cookie incorporation.

Researchers incorporated seven black walnut cultivars (Brown Nugget, Davidson, Emma K, Football, Sparks 127, Sparrow, and Tomboy) into sugar cookies, a commonly eaten nut product, to characterize their flavor attributes by trained assessors and acceptance by consumers. Nine of the 25 attributes differed significantly (P ≤ 0.05) across cultivars: black walnut ID, overall nutty, nutty-buttery, brown, toasted, acrid, rancid, overall sweet, and sweet. Lower mean scores in black walnut ID, overall nutty, and sweet and higher mean scores in rancid and acrid characterized the Emma K cultivar. The remaining six samples were more similar to one another in flavor characteristics. Four clusters of consumers who differed in their acceptance of the cookie samples were found. Cluster 1 preferred Football, clusters 2 and 3 each showed no overall preference, and cluster 4 preferred Emma K suggesting a set of niche consumers for black walnuts used in cookies.