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.