# oak acorns.



## greenboy (Sep 5, 2005)

I was raised in the tropics, so I never saw an oak tree until recently, and now that we have their acorns, I wander if we could eat them?


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## lacyj (May 14, 2002)

No very easily. The American Indians prepared them but it is very time consuming and requires alot of water. The nuts are leached in running water for a long time. The Acron festivals are coming up in our area. They may have them in your area also, depending on where you live. I'm sure a google search would tell you much more.


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## Wildcrofthollow (Apr 20, 2005)

lacyj is right, they are a lot of trouble.

There are some things you can do to reduce the amount of work though.

There are 2 main oak groups, the white oaks which have rounded lobes on their leaves, and the red oaks which have pointed leaves or leaves with little bristles at the ends of the lobes.
Use only white oak group acorns. They have much less tannic acid in them which is the thing that makes acorns taste insipid. Tannic acid is water soluble so you can get the tannins out in several different ways. the best way that I have found (meaning the least work) is bash all the acorns and get the shells off of them. put them in a mesh bag, and put them in a running stream of good water (meaning water you can drink) leave them there for about 3 days or so, depending on how much you mashed them up. Get them out of the bag and spread out on cookie sheets to dry in the sun. Dry them out and grind them further and then use as a flour. I usually mix mine half and half with wheat flour and make muffins. I got the recipe for the muffins from Euell Gibbon's book "Stalking the wild asparagus" (I think, it might have been "Stalking the Healthful herbs")

hope this helps

David


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## Tamar (Feb 23, 2005)

Hi there!

We have just moved to MO and the parcel of land we have is filled with white and red oak trees. They have been producing bumper crops! We have been enjoying acorn cakes and breads here! Once you try it, you won't enjoy regular bread anymore 

Here's what I am doing.

I crack open the acorns...put one cup of acorns in the blender, fill it up with water, leaving enough room to grind without overflowing the blender.
Let your blender run on grind for about 5 minutes. It will look like a sand in a container of milk. Next, pour into a knee-high stocking. *grins*..
Let the milky looking tanning drain out while you squeeze it. Run cold water over this while you gently massage the "flour" until your water runs clear..about 5 minutes. Turn into a bowl. I repeat this over and over and then freeze the "flour" two cups per freezer baggie.

Now the fun starts.
If you have a good mixer,
Put 2 cups hot water, 
2 eggs (beaten),
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup honey
2 cups of "wet flour"
1 tsp salt,
2 tbsp yeast 
mix together,
now add, 3 cups whole wheat flour (freshly ground wheat berrries are the best)
then up to 5 cups unbleached flour...until you can finish kneading by hand, the dough will be nice and thick, not stick to your fingers as you knead it.
put into greased bowl, grease the lump lightly..cover let rise till doubled
Punch down, form into two loaves, put in loaf pans...let rise..bake 350 for about 40 minutes, when done....brush with butter soon as you take it out of your oven. We have been "living off" of this bread for the last few weeks!
If you have any questions..let me know..

You can freeze this "flour" and use it as you desire. I tried the boiling the acorns in four changes of water..and then roasting them, but we find the flavor of the fresh ground "wet flour" to beat the dry. Enjoy...let me know your thoughts 

Tamar


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## KatYares (May 10, 2005)

Here's the way we do it -

Gather the acorns and put them in a stainless steel pot. Set them on the wood heat stove to slowly roast over a couple of days. Crack the nuts (the roasting makes this simple). Put the nutmeats back into the pot and cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes. Strain and repeat twice. The nutmeats will swell to about three times the beginning volume.

After the final rince, put the nutmeats back in the pot and place back on the woodstove to dry. When completely dry, store in an airtight container and grind as needed.

This could also be done on low heat over a regular burner on a stove or in the oven on low in a shallow pan. Either way stir the nuts often to keep them from burning.

Our favorite recipe is to simply subsititue half acorn flour for cornmeal in any cornbread recipe.

Kat


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