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Processing Acorns

Processing acorns! Everyone does it a little bit different, and for me it seems like every year I’m somewhere different and do it in a little bit different way. This year I was in north central Texas, and luckily had myself some great help. You’ll follow from picking them up, to shelling them in my handy sheller, to letting them dry so that the papery sheaths can be removed, to grinding them up in my hand crank/hand powered blender, to leaching them with cold water to remove the tannic acid.

Click here for a recipe for Puffy Acorn Pretzels. Click here for a recipe for Acorn Black Walnut Bread. Click here for a recipe for Acorn ‘n Sagebrush Chicken. And click here for Acorn Hummus.

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2 Comments »

1. 

   OOOOH chestnuts! They look so fresh and tender!
   But how do you take the bitter flavor out of the acorns? Any suggestions LRD? Berry season is over here though I’m afraid.

   Love,
   Dove

   Comment by Dove — November 26, 2008 @ 8:23 am

2. 

   Hi Dove! Good to see you over here:)

   Love,

   LRD

   Following is some old information. When one is away from clean fresh water of a flowing stream to use.

   Processing Acorns for Food

   Collect

   Collect acorns off the ground. Lay the shells out to dry, one layer thick. Do not dry in the sun.

   Shell

   Remove the meat from the shells. The outer skin is removed with the shell if the acorns are dry enough. The shells can be cracked with pliers, a rock on a hard surface, pounded with a hammer or any method you find easy. The meat comes out of the cracked shell with a pointed knife.

   Grind

   Grind the meats to the coarseness of cornmeal. This can be done with a food processor, blender, or pistol and mortar. Be careful not to over grind and turn the meats into a butter.

   Leach

   Place ground meats inside four layers of cheese cloth. Tie to make a ball. Run or drip water through the ball until the tannin is gone so that the acorns no longer taste bitter. The ball can also be soaked in water and the water changed several times until the bitterness is gone.

   Cook

   The leached meats can be cooked like oatmeal or baked, taking the place of flour.

   Storing

   Native American Nations stored acorns before processing. By using cedar to keep insects away. An easy way to store acorns would be to put them in a net bag with bay leaves, cedar leaves, or rosemary keep out insects. Hang the bag in a cool, dry place.

   The processed flour can be stored if it is thoroughly dried.
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   leaching with minimal amount of water is:

   1. After shelling the acorns, use a food chopper to break up the acorns to small pieces, the size of a green pea or so.

   2.Dry this for a few days in a dry location.

   3.Take the dried nuts, let’s say a qt to a half a gallon and put it into a 5 gallon bucket of water, using only about 2 gallons of water to cover the broken acorn pieces. Mix up with a large spoon or your hands and go away. Come back and repeat maybe 5-6 times in a day.

   4. By the last rinse taste the bits to see if they are really that bitter.

   5. If done, spread out on a stoneware or stainless steel cookie sheet and air dry. If you have a wood stove, set the cookie sheets on metal/stone hot pads. When dry, use a grain/nut mill to grind into acorn meal. If you do not have a grain/nut mill use any blender.

   Comment by Ann LRD — November 29, 2008 @ 6:00 am

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