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October 04, 2012
How to Eat Acorns: The Ultimate Survival Food - 11
by Tim MacWelch
Acorns and other tree nuts are the most valuable food we can get from any wild plant. There are many different types of tree nuts that offer a great back-up food supply at home and in the wild. Black walnut, butternut walnut, pecan, hickory, beechnut, hazelnut and even Pine nuts can be eaten after picking the meat from shattered shells The common and abundant acorn requires only a nut cracker. But these high calorie nuts were a staple crop to many of our ancestors around the Northern Hemisphere. Coming in at 2,000 calories per pound, this abundant food crop is too valuable to ignore. Just make sure you know an acorn from a buckeye, as buckeyes (and the very similar looking horse chestnut) are poisonous for people to eat. To prepare palatable acorns, crack them out of their shell and break any large pieces into “pea-sized” chunks. Then soak these acorn chunks in water to remove the bitter and irritating tannic acid. Note that some books instruct us to boil acorns, but this locks in some of the bitterness. You’ll have the best results with warm water. Soak the acorns for a few hours. If the water was safe to drink, taste a piece of acorn to see if it is still bitter. If you don’t like it, dump off the water (which should be brown like tea), add fresh warm water and soak the acorn pieces again for a few hours. Repeat this a time or two, or three depending on the acorn’s bitterness. Once they taste “OK” (read: bland), let them dry out for a few hours. Then you can run them through a grain grinder, flour mill, or the classic mortar and pestle to make acorn flour. Add this flour to existing recipes; or try your hand at making acorn porridge or hard, brown biscuits. How do you tell if you picked the right tree nuts? Ever try to eat acorns without removing the bitterness? Or, use them as a flour or animal feed? Let us know in the comments section! |
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Comments (11)
» Write a CommentI used to eat acorns when I was a little in Arizona, just for fun.And I've always wanted to try making acorn flour since I was a kid & read the book 'My Side Of The Mountain'. Living in Oklahoma, I've noticed we have Burr Oaks, with HUGE acorns! It seems a shame to see so many rotting on the ground & I've wondered if they can be dried & turned into flour like other acorns or eaten any other way.Also, what is the best time of the year to gather them?Thanks!
as a child we ate all sorts of tree nuts in the forest. the best acorns are from wateroaks growing in creek bottoms. they are sweet enough to be eaten right off the ground when green. just dont eat too many. acorns from a mature red oak are nearly as bad as persimmons
sasquatch recipe book says that you don't have to soak the nuts... you just have to bend the branch over first before you pick the seed.
So I just tried this the first time last week. Here's what I did, based on online research. After gathering from white oaks, I toasted them a bit in the oven so they would crack open easier (otherwise the shell just kinda mushed under the cracker. Skins were brown and thin.). I pulled out the meats, pulled them in half (they are kinda rubbery at this point) and put them in a pan of water and boiled them, dumped water and repeated about 4 times. The water never did become clear, but the nuts were softer and softer. I then drained them off, and dumped them on a tray in my dehydrator for about an hour. Dried fast (I would also roast in the oven at this point in the future? Just so happened my dehydrator was out on the table). I whirled them up in my vitamix (they were ROCK hard after the dehydrator. My small food processor couldn't handle it) and it made a beautiful flour/meal. Despite what others said above, they aren't totally bland. In fact, after boiling they had a beautiful soft, nutty flavor. But think of this more as a flour/meal grain than a full flavor nut. I now have just a couple cups of "flour" on my counter that I will try baking up today. I've read to substitute equal parts flour in recipes with this. Maybe not the WHOLE amount of flour, but perhaps half. Saw a recipe for an acorn meal coffee cake I think I'll try.
to puffy and birddog---no to puffy, you don't have to allow them to dry. bdog, as far as the book I have says-- the old timers would soak AND roast before pounding into flour and it recommends the white oaks over any of the others.
You beat me to the punch, Bazemore, about white oak acorns being sweeter than red oak acorns. As far as identifying the type of acorn you're looking at, note that the leaves of a white oak tree have rounded lobes. A red oak leaf has lobes that are pointed.
Koreans make acorns into a brown, bland paste and eat the resulting cake/pastry with a mix of red pepper, soy sauce and some spices I couldn't identify.
I was turned on to acorns a few years back. Yes the white oak is much better eating than red but my taste buds tell me that the best, least amount of tannic acid, is from the Burr Oak tree. They are not bad off the tree and are very good after one or two soakings.
I would like to point out if you are going to try this, I would make darn sure the acorns I was collecting were from an oak in the 'white' oak section and not the 'red' oak section. 'White' oaks (i.e. white oak, swamp white oak, post oak, swamp chestnut oak, chestnut oak, overcup oak, etc.) have much fewer tannins in the acorns than 'red' oaks (i.e. southern red oak, scarlet oak, pin oak, northern red oak, Shumard oak, cherrybark oak, willow oak, etc.) and are therefore much more palatable to animals (and humans are soaking). The 'white' oaks were the ones mainly used by Natives as a source of flour, not 'reds'. Who knows how long or how many soakings it would take to make 'red' oak acorns halfway tolerable.
I notice that most of the acorns in the basket appear fairly dry and brown, but recently when I traveled to the mountains all the acorns on the ground I found were still green. Does this matter? Should I let green acorns dry out in a basket first before soaking and grinding them?
Darn bitter without soaking. I wonder what it would be like if you soaked them and then roasted them a bit. Any ideas, Tim?
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I would like to point out if you are going to try this, I would make darn sure the acorns I was collecting were from an oak in the 'white' oak section and not the 'red' oak section. 'White' oaks (i.e. white oak, swamp white oak, post oak, swamp chestnut oak, chestnut oak, overcup oak, etc.) have much fewer tannins in the acorns than 'red' oaks (i.e. southern red oak, scarlet oak, pin oak, northern red oak, Shumard oak, cherrybark oak, willow oak, etc.) and are therefore much more palatable to animals (and humans are soaking). The 'white' oaks were the ones mainly used by Natives as a source of flour, not 'reds'. Who knows how long or how many soakings it would take to make 'red' oak acorns halfway tolerable.
You beat me to the punch, Bazemore, about white oak acorns being sweeter than red oak acorns. As far as identifying the type of acorn you're looking at, note that the leaves of a white oak tree have rounded lobes. A red oak leaf has lobes that are pointed.
I notice that most of the acorns in the basket appear fairly dry and brown, but recently when I traveled to the mountains all the acorns on the ground I found were still green. Does this matter? Should I let green acorns dry out in a basket first before soaking and grinding them?
to puffy and birddog---no to puffy, you don't have to allow them to dry. bdog, as far as the book I have says-- the old timers would soak AND roast before pounding into flour and it recommends the white oaks over any of the others.
I was turned on to acorns a few years back. Yes the white oak is much better eating than red but my taste buds tell me that the best, least amount of tannic acid, is from the Burr Oak tree. They are not bad off the tree and are very good after one or two soakings.
Koreans make acorns into a brown, bland paste and eat the resulting cake/pastry with a mix of red pepper, soy sauce and some spices I couldn't identify.
Darn bitter without soaking. I wonder what it would be like if you soaked them and then roasted them a bit. Any ideas, Tim?
So I just tried this the first time last week. Here's what I did, based on online research. After gathering from white oaks, I toasted them a bit in the oven so they would crack open easier (otherwise the shell just kinda mushed under the cracker. Skins were brown and thin.). I pulled out the meats, pulled them in half (they are kinda rubbery at this point) and put them in a pan of water and boiled them, dumped water and repeated about 4 times. The water never did become clear, but the nuts were softer and softer. I then drained them off, and dumped them on a tray in my dehydrator for about an hour. Dried fast (I would also roast in the oven at this point in the future? Just so happened my dehydrator was out on the table). I whirled them up in my vitamix (they were ROCK hard after the dehydrator. My small food processor couldn't handle it) and it made a beautiful flour/meal. Despite what others said above, they aren't totally bland. In fact, after boiling they had a beautiful soft, nutty flavor. But think of this more as a flour/meal grain than a full flavor nut. I now have just a couple cups of "flour" on my counter that I will try baking up today. I've read to substitute equal parts flour in recipes with this. Maybe not the WHOLE amount of flour, but perhaps half. Saw a recipe for an acorn meal coffee cake I think I'll try.
sasquatch recipe book says that you don't have to soak the nuts... you just have to bend the branch over first before you pick the seed.
as a child we ate all sorts of tree nuts in the forest. the best acorns are from wateroaks growing in creek bottoms. they are sweet enough to be eaten right off the ground when green. just dont eat too many. acorns from a mature red oak are nearly as bad as persimmons
I used to eat acorns when I was a little in Arizona, just for fun.And I've always wanted to try making acorn flour since I was a kid & read the book 'My Side Of The Mountain'. Living in Oklahoma, I've noticed we have Burr Oaks, with HUGE acorns! It seems a shame to see so many rotting on the ground & I've wondered if they can be dried & turned into flour like other acorns or eaten any other way.Also, what is the best time of the year to gather them?Thanks!
Write a Comment Your comment (200 characters or less):