acorn flour?

[Firecraft]

Here is how you do it:
Soak the acorns in water if you already didn't, but this is a common process in making acorn flour so you probably already did this.
Second is add a pinch of sugar or sweetener to the flour. This will make it lose it's bitterness.
Next, if you'd like, you can bake that acorn flour into a nice acorn cake.

[Shalako]

I don't think that'a gonna work out. Acorns have a rank, horrible bitter taste. What Acorn flour could do to your digestive track could be mind bending.

[crashdive123]

Have you tried it?

[Rick]

Acorn flour was a staple for indigenous North Americans. Stone mortars have been found literally everywhere that were used for making acorn flour. Here are some examples.

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Drying acorns

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Pretty common throughout Europe, too.

[Shalako]

I have never tried Acorn Flour, have merely bitten into the meat of Acorns a few times-not good, but any Port in a Storm.

[crashdive123]

This is why the tannins must be removed from the acorns before you either make flour or eat them.

[mouse111111]

You can completely bypass the soaking if only you use red acorns, which is any oak that has pointy leaves, they actually have a pleasant taste,sweet. I havent ever made flour though, I could never get the moisture out completely.

[Backwater Bill]

You can completely bypass the soaking if only you use red acorns, which is any oak that has pointy leaves, they actually have a pleasant taste,sweet. I havent ever made flour though, I could never get the moisture out completely.

I have not processed acorns for palatable nut meats nor flour yet because I've not learned enough to feel at least semi-confident that I will produce some good results, but I'm pretty sure that the White Oak species contain less tannins than the Red Oak varieties. That being said, I think Rick pointed out that the Red Oak species contained more fat, so Native Americans would take more time to process the Red Oak varieties to remove the tannins.

This source here:

http://herb.umd.umich.edu/herb/search.pl

mentions that Native Americans would leech the acorns in Basswood ash.

Another gentleman wrote this to me on at another place after I found out about the Basswood ash:

Bill that is an excellent point that you make. Native American tribes found that the acorns that had the most tannins coincidentally also had the highest nutritional value and so they accepted the extra work to get a higher return.
There are two major types of tannins that exist in plants such as Oak trees, the dominant one being Gallic Acid which is a hydrolyzable acid; when it is reacted with a sufficiently basic compound it will hydrolyze into carbohydrates and phenols! which are both nutritional and healthy for you. You mention adding the ashes of Basswood, ash contains large amounts of calcium carbonate; a highly basic material that will react and neutralize any acids when added to the boiling pot.
So it seems that the addition of ashes would help in the reaction that breaks down tannins as they are boiled/pressed! Thanks for the tip!

I hope this information helps. I will be trying it this fall and will post results.

[LowKey]

You got that mixed up. It's the white oak acorns that are sweet. They have lobed leaves.
Although there may be pointy versions of sweet oaks outside my area I suppose. (I'm in the northeast.) You have to work really hard to make red oak acorns edible. I haven't managed yet. LOL.

[Rick]

I think his point is the red acorn contains more fat, which it does. That offers a higher nutritional yield. It's sort of like me eating Brussel Sprouts. I know they are good for you but yuck.

[mouse111111]

I don't think you're right, I've eaten both back-to-back and the white oak was almost impossible to swallow, the red one was just fine. The species were northern red oak and white oak. I live in Missouri.

[Amateur]

Hello, community. My first post but I like your site and your topics. Anyway, by coincidence, I happened on a Kickstarter project about this very topic. On their website they talk about using a microwave to extract the tannin. I have not tried it myself but I looks interesting.

http://www.iloveacorns.com/eating.html

[Backwater Bill]

Interesting about the microwave. What makes me question this source though is that it makes no effort to distinguish between Oak species when selecting acorns for food. I'm skeptical you can just pick any type of acorn, put it in the microwave and then magically it will remove all the tannins. Seems to me it would fry them in even more.

I'm not entirely convinced either way not to mention all the variables that come into play it seems after reading the opinions on the "White" VS "Red" Oak tannin subject. I just harvested a few early Burr Oak acorns and tasted them (I realize they are not ripe yet and just did it for kicks. They are very bitter but within that bitternes was a note of sweetness which encourages me to go back when they have ripened). However, it is reported in many books that they are the largest in southern Indiana where I am from and contain the least amount of tannins within the "White" oak species.

Many variables going on here. I realize they need to be soaked, drained, soaked, leeched and so forth so my tasting the early raw nut is not a good indicator of it's future possibilities but just thought I would throw that out there.

[Thaddius Bickerton]

Has anyone tried drying the nuts somewhat then crushing / pre-grinding them up some then soaking / boiling them with multiple rinses?

Perhaps more surface area will more thoughtfully leech the tannins out?

Also has anyone tried wood ashes, and had good or bad success?

With acorns so easy to obtain, and the history that it has been used successfully for food in the past, learning how to process them now may be of great benefit in the future.

I know that the tannin in oak is used to treat dysentery, thus I would be concerned for the digestive process if to much eaten unless loose bowels was a problem. (and yes that "tea" tastes horrible, but living is worth the taste.)

Anyway, I guess I will be experimenting this fall. (nice to have kids to do the gathering :-) ]

[jcullen24]

has anyone tried to make acorn flour? i tried it last year and it was not very tasty, actually it was nasty and had a after taste that was horrible. any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hey bud, I'm defionatly a NEWB, but I've read that you have to chop and flush the acorns under cold running water for some time before use.
I would guess the process is to coarsly chop your acorns, the flush them with cold running water, then dry and pound into flour.

[Rick]

He hasn't logged on in almost a year. Probably not gonna see your post.

[jcullen24]

He hasn't logged on in almost a year. Probably not gonna see your post.

DOH!! I'm going to have to pay more attention to those post dates!

[Rick]

No big deal I just didn't want you to expect a response.

[Thaddius Bickerton]

Might be my fault, I forget I'm reading a lot of the cool older posts and sometimes I type an answer to a old one without realizing it.

I think this topic is a valuable one however.