Acorns

[Cortath OCS]

Does anyone know anything good you can make with acorns?? I know you have to leach all the tanic acid out of them or they will end up bitter, but does anyone have a dish that they have had with acorns? Acorns are dropping like bombs where I live, and all around my station at work. Seems a shame that they all just sit there on the ground through the winter.

[Goose OCS]

Squirrels will get them! 

[PureKnight OCS]

I found something on the website... something to start with becuase I never experiment with it ever. I know you can boil or roast them to get those bitterness out of that nut. Here is the recipe (below):

HARVEST AND EAT THE ACORNS:

QUESTION: Do you know of any recipes using acorns?

The reason I ask this: When I was a child, my grandfather had me pick up a small bucketful of acorns from under our pin oak tree. A day or two later, he asked me to come over to his house and he fed me acorns. The only problem I have is he never told anyone how in the world he prepared them.


Here is some information about eating acorns or rather acorn meal. The tannins have to be removed to avoid the bitterness. I don't know what your grandfather might have done to remove the tannins in whole acorns unless the type of acorn had less tannins to begin with and could have been removed by soaking the whole acorn.


ACORN PANCAKES from Sharon Hendricks

Break an egg into a bowl. Add:
1 teaspoon salad oil
1 teaspoon of honey or sugar
1/2 cup of ground and leached acorns
1/2 cup of corn meal
1/2 cup of whole wheat or white flour
2 teaspoons of double action baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of milk

Beak all together. If the batter is too thick to pour, thin it with milk. Pour pancakes into a hot, greased griddle and cook slowly until brown on both sides.

Serve with butter and syrup or wild blackberry jam. Delicious!!


PREPARATION OF GROUND ACORN MEAL

Pick up several cupfuls of acorns. All kinds of oaks have edible acorns. Some have more tannin than others, but leaching will remove the tannin from all of them.
Shell the acorns with a nutcracker, a hammer, or a rock.
Grind them. If you are in the woods, smash them, a few at a time on a hard boulder with a smaller stone, Indian style. Do this until all the acorns are ground into a crumbly paste. If you are at home, it's faster and easier to use your mom's blender. Put the shelled acorns in the blender, fill it up with water, and grind at high speed for a minute or two. You will get a thick, cream-colored goo. It looks yummy, but tastes terrible.
Leach (wash) them. Line a big sieve with a dish towel and pour in the ground acorns. Hold the sieve under a faucet and slowly pour water through, stirring with one hand, for about five minutes. A lot of creamy stuff will come out. This is the tannin. When the water runs clear, stop and taste a little. When the meal is not bitter, you have washed it enough.
Or, in camp, tie the meal up in a towel and swish it in several bucketfuls of clean drinking water, until it passes the taste test.

Squeeze out as much water as you can, with your hands.
Use the ground acorn mash right away, because it turns dark when it is left around. Or store in plastic for freezing if you want to make the pancakes later.

[Cortath OCS]

Mmmmmmmm.....pancakes.  Let the harvest begin!!!! 

[The Deacon OCS]

I leave the acorns where they are this time of year. They attract deer during our November hunting season. So I have my acorns prepared vicariously through the deer. 

[Meganator]

PLEASE do not listen to my husband  Cortath about acorns I will not cook them or eat them ill feed them to the deer but that is it. So  please do not give him recipies for acorns lol

[Cortath OCS]

I'm sure there are some tasty treats to be made. Native Americans had acorns as a staple......so there must be some good uses out there.

[LionOfJudah OCS]

yep, native Americans ate them all the time, it gave them the " QUICK STEPS" where they didn't have time to get to the bathroom!...but that is why they wore a  loin cloth.  jk lol

[Cortath OCS]

LOL!!!! Good one Lion! 

[RabidRabbit OCS]

Right on, Meg and Lion.

Don't fool with them unless you know what you are doing.

It is acorn season here in Southern Illinois too. They cover the yard and driveway like a sheets of ball bearings. Sometimes, you can turn your ankle. They shoot out of mowers like musket balls.

But, with the root fungus killing about half of my red and white oaks over the past years, I am glad to see the acorns everywhere.