Anyone here ever processed acorns?

[Crooked Bird]

Ever processed acorns? I hear you have to leach the tannin out, possibly in several changes of water, but I've never tried it. I'd love to know if anybody has, and what they learned.

[mountainmark]

I have cold leached acorns from red oak and found the results desireable.

1. shell the acorns
2. dry the acorns (some prefer to dry first)
3. coarsely grind the acorns
4. place ground acorns in a finely woven cheese cloth suspended over a large container
5. throughout the day pour water over the grinds (when you happen to be passing by)
6. continue this "washing" until the acorns are no longer bitter (may take a few days)
7. dry the ground acorns
8. grind them finer (if desired)

pretty simple really. Some folks submerge a cloth bag in a creek and leave it there far a while. But they tell me you still want to dry them before this type of leaching. Another option is to boil them in several changes of water, but the resultant flour will no longer stick together well for baking and it requires fuel to accomplish.

Hope that helps.

mark

[RangerXanatos]

It's on my list of things to try. First time I've seen about drying them before "washing" them. One way I've seen on youtube to see if they're still too bitter is watching the water. When the water flows clear through the acorns and cloth, the tannins should be gone and not be bitter. I also saw that they seemed more palatable when the acorn mush bread was slightly burnt.

[SARKY]

I've processed white oak acorns.
1: shell acorns
2: cut into 1/4s
3: put into loose knit cloth bag
4: put bag into stream for 3 to 5 days
5: pull bag out of water and dry the acorn 1/4s
6: grind to the size you want.
7: use

[intothenew]

Any in the "White Oak" family have less tannin to start. And I'll add that I have never dried them first.

If you don't have a stream to put them in, the toilet tank is a good substitute. That assumes well water, I have never done that on a city/chlorinated system.

[1776]

Save the water you use to leech if you are using a container it is a primitive antiseptic. Can be use to clean wounds and as a mouth wash. Prior to leeching you should filter or boil the water so that it won't give you any nasty waterborne intestinal diseases particularly if you aren't going to cook the acorns prior to consumption. Also you want purified water if using for medical purposes.

[Psalm25]

If you take black walnuts with the husk and soak them in water, then strain and pour it on the ground there is a chemical in it that will make the worms bubble out of the ground instantly. We use to do it to catch worms for fishing... I think the natives use to use it to poison fish to catch. I know there are other nuts it works with... not sure if it works with acorns? Acorns don't have a husk but it still might work, never tried though.

[hunter63]

Quite a few years ago, we/ (I had a partner in doing "interesting stuff"), and had read about doing this.

Gathered acorns, shelled them, kinda mashed them up, put in old sock, and let sit in a stream for a couple of days........did leach them some.

Kinda dried the mush out, mashed up some more, pretty fine, and made patties.
Cooked them over a open fire in a steel pan...

They were edible,,,but still bitter.
Didn't get sick, but I'm thinking we didn't do that good of a job, as we didn't really try it again.
These days I don't know if leaving them in a stream would be such a good idea, never know what they would collect.....the toilet tank has merit...

Also, I'm not sure how city water would do either, as we had problems with certain pickles getting soft ....city water being the variable....????

So this thread is kinda interesting.....

[mountainmark]

A friend of mine who has leached acorns different ways insists that they leach much faster if they are dried first. But I haven't tried leaching them fresh. The great thing about acorns is you can gather as much as possible during the fall and wait until winter where there is less gathering to do in order to process them. It's a decent amount of work but what else are you going to be doing buried in several feet of snow??

[hunter63]

That make sense, and I'm sure that our crude way wasn't really correct, but were trying to do a "use what we had at the time"....we didn't know that it was "survival skills".....LOL, but was fun to try at the time.

We have to remind ourselves that doing the work, be it processing, food hides, or even knapping out a blade "was" the work of the day, not something you can crowd in on a saterday afternoon.

I can see how a dried acorn would leach out faster, but would that be after grinding, or whole?

[Desert Wanderer]

If you take black walnuts with the husk and soak them in water, then strain and pour it on the ground there is a chemical in it that will make the worms bubble out of the ground instantly. We use to do it to catch worms for fishing... I think the natives use to use it to poison fish to catch. I know there are other nuts it works with... not sure if it works with acorns? Acorns don't have a husk but it still might work, never tried though.

LOL - You are correct. However in some states it is against the law to fish with shells from Black Walnuts. I learned this the hard way. It is NOT illegal for Native Americans. I have never tried the acorn thing.

[mountainmark]

That make sense, and I'm sure that our crude way wasn't really correct, but were trying to do a "use what we had at the time"....we didn't know that it was "survival skills".....LOL, but was fun to try at the time.

We have to remind ourselves that doing the work, be it processing, food hides, or even knapping out a blade "was" the work of the day, not something you can crowd in on a saterday afternoon.

I can see how a dried acorn would leach out faster, but would that be after grinding, or whole?

Sorry Hunter, just noticed this question. I dry my acorns whole first(otherwise they would not sit on my dehydrator trays), then coarsely grind, then leach. Grinding increases the surface area and therefore greatly decreases leaching time. Hope that answers your question

[riverjoe]

I tried leaching Acorns from my Red Oak . Changed water about 8 or 9 times and water still dark brown with tannin .
Gave up and decided to wait until I could find some White Oak .

[coydog2]

I know you can eat the white oak raw I have at times when I was out hunting.,but do not eat alot ,but red oak is the one that need to do what is stated for the high acid in it .

[danmc]

What I have done is to shell the acorns, then slice very thinly. Put the slices in a pan with some water and bring to a simmer. The water will turn brown. Change the water and repeat several (2-4) times until the water quits turning brown. Gives one a whole new appreciation for the work required to just not starve if acorns were an important part of the diet.

-Dan