Since the question was what does thin shell mean?,
Its the thickness of the shell on an English walnut compared to an American black walnut, which are much thicker, with far less meat, and which are a pain to crack.
Ive only known a few gourmands who went through the tedious headache of the shelling process that American black walnuts require to get enough to eat.
Whereas, my old girlfriend, an accomplished dancer, could take an English walnut, clamp it between the cheeks of her buttocks, and crack them with ease. Hence the phrase walnut cracking thighs.
Returning to American black walnuts,
We did process them Growing up.
We removed the husks wearing an old pair of work gloves that were soon to be disposed of, (so we didnt get stained all the way up to our elbows)and then we dried them in baskets in the rafters until winter time, where upon we were forced out into the garage and cracked them in a vice, and my mom picked the meat out of them (what a little bit there was), and she then stored the pieces in jars.
The flavor is very strong, making delicious pastries.
But again the amount of work compared to just buying a package of commercially produced English thin shelled walnuts, is night and day.
