Acorn Recipes

[GirlNextDoor]

It is important that I communicate how important leaching out the tannins is. Even if a recipe does not have the process posted ALL these recipes are with leached acorns. If you eat too much tannic acid you will die. Hogs fed too many acorns are no good because their meat will be bitter.

http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/miscella...les-acorn-flour

 

 

Egg Noodles with Acorn Flour Recipe

 

 

Like any recipe that utilizes the gluten of wheat flour as a binding agent, noodles can be flavoured with a range of non-gluten flours whilst still keeping the essence of the original. Here, wild acorn flour is added to the recipe at a ratio of 2:1 wheat flour to reedmace pollen to make a very interesting and rather unusual noodle.

 

 

Ingredients

100g plain flour

50g acorn flour

1 egg

4 tsp cold water

1/4 tsp salt

 

 

 

 

 

Egg Noodles with Acorn Flour Preparation:

 

 

Method:

To make acorn flour: During the autumn collect ripe acorns. Place on a baking tray and dry roast them in an oven on it's lowest setting for at least 5 hours. When the acorns are done crack and shell them. Place them in water in a large bucket and allow to soak for at least a week. Change the water at least twice a day. This process leaches away the tannin which is what makes acorns bitter (tannin in large quantities is toxic so you need to complete this process carefully).

 

When you think you have soaked the acorns long enough bite into an acorn. If it still tastes bitter then soak for longer. If you can only detect a trace of bitterness, or no bitterness then the acorns are ready. Grind the acorns whilst still wet either in a cofee grinder or a blender. Place the resultant meal in pans or on baking trays and place to dry either in the sun or in an oven on its lowest setting. When dry you can store the flour in sealed jars.

 

Now you can make your noodles: Sift the flours into a large mixing bowl then form a well in the centre and add the egg, cold water and salt. With a fork (or your fingers) gradually mix the flour into the liquid ingredients until the dough can be brought together into a ball (add more water if the dough is too crumble).

 

Turn the dough onto a lightly-floured work surface and knead for about 10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Wrap in clingfilm (plastic wrap) or waxed paper then set aside to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.

 

After this time divide the dough in half. Place on half on a floured work surface and flatten with the palm of your hand into an oblong about 2cm thick. Dust the top of the dough lightly with flour then roll lengthways before turning the dough and rolling across the width. Repeat the process of turning and rolling until the dough is paper thin.

 

Dust the dough with a little more flour then set aside to air dry for 10 minutes. Roll the dough into a thick, compact, cylinder then using a very sharp knife cut crossways into strips 3mm wide. Unroll each strips into long noodles and set aside on waxed paper. Repeat the noodle making process with the second half of the dough.

 

Home-made egg noodles can be cooked immediately or they can be wrapped securely in clingfilm (plastic wrap) and refrigerated for 24 hours. To cook, bring a large pan (about 6l) or water to a rapid boil then add the noodles and boil for about 7 minutes, or until just tender (but still firm to the bite). Drain thoroughly and use.

 

 

 

 

 

Acorn Cookies Recipe

 

Acorn Cookies Ingredients:

 

1 c Butter, melted 3/4 c Brown sugar, firmly packed 1 1/2 c Pecans, chopped fine,* 2 1/2 c All-purpose flour, sifted 1/2 ts Baking powder 1 c Semi-sweet chocolate chips Acorn Cookies Instructions:

* divided in 3/4 cup portions This is an easy yet elegant butter-pecan cookie shaped to resemble an acorn and dipped in melted chocolate chips and chopped pecans.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar, 3/4 cup chopped pecans and vanilla on medium speed until well blended.

Add flour and baking powder and mix well, using low speed.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls.

Slightly flatten by pressing balls onto ungreased cookie sheets; pinch tops to point to resemble acorns.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees.

Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

In top of a double boiler over simmering water, melt chocolate chips, stirring until smooth.

Remove from heat; keep double boiler over water.

Dip large ends of cooled cookies into melted chocolate, then roll in chopped pecans.

Cool to set chocolate.

 

 

Acorn Bread Recipe

 

 

Acorn Bread Recipe

Ingredients 1 cup acorn meal

1 cup flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk

3 tbsp oil

 

 

Directions

 

Sift together, acorn meal, white flour, baking powder, salt and

sugar. In separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, and oil. Combine

dry ingredients and liquid ingredients. Stir just enough to moisten

dry ingredients. Pour into a greased pan and bake at 400F. for 30

minutes.

 

Servings: 1 loaf

 

 

 

 

<h3 class="post-title"> Acorn Griddle Cakes </h3> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1956/1597/1600/pancakes.jpg">

3 tbl melted butter

3/4 cup milk

2/3 unbleached flour

1 teas bakeing powder

1/3 teas salt

1 tbl honey

1 egg beaten

1/3 cup finley ground leached acorn meal; (*)

 

Combine dry ingredients. Mix together.. egg & milk then beat into dry

ingredients, forming a smooth batter. Add butter. Drop batter unto hot

greased griddle. Bake turning each cake, when it is browned on

underside,puffed and slightly set on top. makes 12-15 cakes.

 

(*) Grind acorns. Spread meal 1/2' thick on porous cloth and pour HOT water

over the meal. repeat several times OR boil acorns for 2 HOURS, pour off

Black water. Soak in cold water 3-4 days, then grind into a paste or

pulverize acorns. Allow water to trickle thru meal ( put meal in Muslin bag

and place bag in clear running stream ) for 20 hours. dry & grind again.

 

A SIMPLE way is to go to any KOREAN asian store or market and buy acorn flour.

Do not buy or use acorn starch for this recipe.

 

<h3 class="post-title"> Acorn Hominy Bread </h3>

2 cups hominy; drained

2 tbl sorghum syrup

2 tbl oil

milk; to make loose paste

1/2 cup masa

1/2 cup hominy paste

1/2 cup acorn flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 pc egg

1 tbl sorghum syrup

1 tbl oil

1/2 tsp pumpkin spice

1 tbl gluten flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup dried cranberries

 

1. Blend first four (4) ingredients in a blender set at puree until a

smmoth loose paste is accomlished.

 

2. Mix the remaing ingredients with 1/2 cup of the homony paste and beat

with about 50 to 70 strokes adding more milk if to tight.

 

Devide into 3x5 oiled (spray) pans bake at preheated oven 375 F for 30

minutes or a tooth pick comes out clean.

 

Serve with vanilla ice cream drizzle with a huckleberry or blueberry sauce.

 

Contributor: Burning Tree Native Grill

 

Yield: 1 small loaf

 

Please let me know if you try out this acorn pancake recipe. Hundreds of people have visited this page since I first posted my recipe, but I've never heard from any of them. I'd love to know what you do for your own acorn pancakes!

 

Recipe for a perfect Sunday morning: Start with a bowl of softened acorns - removed from their hulls, and boiled until they're leached of tannins.

 

Most recipes call for roasting the acorns and grinding them into flour, but we simply took the softened acorns and ground them into a moist meal with fingers. (It was much less laborious and, I think, made for a nice pancake.)

 

Acorn Pancake Recipe:

2 1/4 cups white flour

3/4 cup acorn meal

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 cup dried cranberries

2 beaten eggs

1 tbsp melted butter

1 1/4 cup milk

1/3 cup applesauce

3/4 tsp vanilla

 

We mixed these ingredients to combine and then cooked them on a griddle until they were nice and browned on both sides.

 

The pancakes were incredibly flavorful, earthy, and delicious served with maple syrup. This was just made up on the fly. You may need to add more or less flour or milk depending on how moist your acorns are. It's enough for 3-4 hungry people.

[GirlNextDoor]

http://www.grandpappy.info/racorns.htm

 

Grandpappy's Basic Acorn Recipes

 

Acorn Information, Identification, Processing, and Recipes

 

History of the Common Ordinary Acorn

The common, ordinary acorn is one of the ancient foods of mankind. The first mention of acorns for human consumption was by the Greeks over 2,000 years ago. Over the course of human history it has been estimated that people have eaten more acorns than both wheat and rice combined. The acorn has served as an important famine food for many centuries. Acorns may be eaten alone or in a wide variety of acorn recipes.

 

Native American Indian tribes all across North America, such as the Cherokee, Pima, and Apache, used acorns as one of their primary staple foods in the same way they used corn. American Indians understood the food value of the acorn and how to prepare it for human consumption. Some Indian tribes would bury their acorns in the mud for many days and then dig them up and dry them in the sun. Other Indian tribes would put their acorns inside a reed basket with a few heavy rocks and then put the basket in a fast moving stream for several days. Both of these methods removed the tannin in the acorns and made them fit for people to eat. There is now an easier, more scientific method and it will be described in detail as you continue to read.

 

Acorn Facts

One tall mature oak tree can produce almost one-thousand pounds of acorns in one growing season during normal weather conditions. Acorns have a low sugar content and therefore help control blood sugar levels. They have a sweet nutty aftertaste. Acorn meal may be used in bread and stew recipes, substituting acorn meal for approximately one-fourth of the flour. Since acorns contain natural sweetness, reduce any other sweeteners in the recipe by one-fourth. Acorn grits can be used in place of nuts in cookie, brownie, and bread recipes. Acorns are a reliable source of carbohydrates, protein, 6 vitamins, 8 minerals, and 18 amino acids, and they are lower in fat than most other nuts. One handful of acorns is equivalent in nutrition to a pound of fresh hamburger.

 

Oak Trees

White Oak: White oak trees live between 450 to 650 years (and longer). They can exceed 4 feet in diameter and 100 feet tall. The white oak is the most common species of oak tree. The leaf has a dark green glossy top side and a light green under side. The leaf lobe ends (edges) are rounded. White oak acorns mature in one growing season. Acorn production is heaviest approximately every third year. The inner shell of white oak acorns is smooth and the inner nutmeat is whitish in color. Split one of the inner nutmeats in half and you will see the whitish color. This is why the tree is called a white oak. White oak acorns are low in tannic acid and are naturally sweet and may be eaten with minimal processing. They are the best acorns for use in acorn recipes.

 

Red Oak: A red oak tree leaf has a glossy green top side and a fuzzy under side. The leaf lobe ends are very pointed. Red oak acorns require two years to mature. Red oak acorns have a hairy lining inside the shell and the nutmeat is yellowish in color. They are very high in tannic acid and therefore taste very bitter. Red oak acorns MUST be processed before eating. Generally red oak acorns are not harvested for human consumption except during serious famine conditions. (Caution: Excessive amounts of tannic acid can lead to kidney failure. Therefore, if you must consume red oak acorns, you should process them for the maximum amount of time.)

 

There are several other varieties of oak trees, but the white oak is the most common oak tree throughout the United States, followed by the red oak.

 

If all the oak trees in your area are exactly the same, then they will all produce acorns that taste the same. But if you have different varieties of oaks, you will have different varieties of acorns which will taste different. Therefore, when you harvest your acorns, keep the ones you collect under each oak tree in a separate bag or container by themselves until you do a taste test to determine if any have a more agreeable taste than the others. If so, note which tree(s) they came from, and focus your next year's collection efforts there. You MUST harvest your acorns VERY soon after they fall to the ground or the squirrels, deer, and other wildlife will eat them. If the acorns stay on the ground very long, they will become infested with insect larva, and they will also absorb ground moisture and begin to mold.

 

Acorn Collection

Collect your acorns every day from September through October as soon as possible after they have fallen off the oak tree onto the ground. They may be green, or green and tan, or brown. The green ones aren't fully ripe yet, but collect them also because they will ripen to a dark brown in a few more days. In my opinion, the green ones are better because they have just fallen off the tree and therefore they have had less time to absorb ground moisture or be attacked by insects. If you happen to notice that an acorn is defective when you pick it up, then toss it into the woods where there are no oak trees. Otherwise, there is a good chance you will be picking up that same acorn every day for many weeks to come.

 

After collecting all the acorns you can find each day, sit down and go through your new batch of acorns. Remove and discard the cap or crown of the acorn. Inspect the acorns (first inspection) and discard any that have an obvious defect, or signs of mold, or a tiny hole because it probably contains a worm. The acorns should feel firm between your fingers. Discard any that are soft.

 

Acorn Drying Methods

Spread the good acorns you collect each day onto a tray, board, or screen. You can then dry the acorns using any one of following three methods:

1. house drying at normal room temperatures, or
2. the sun, or
3. a conventional oven.

- - - - - - -

 

House Drying at Normal Room Temperatures: Allow the acorns to dry gradually inside your home at normal room temperatures. The acorns should only be one layer thick on the drying trays. If the acorns are relatively green, this drying method normally takes between two to four weeks.

 

The advantages of room temperature drying are:

1. The inner acorn nutmeat retains most of its original moisture which adds to its flavor and chewability.

2. If your home is free of flying insects, then you will not loose any more acorns to insect larva.

 

The disadvantages of room temperature drying are:

1. It can take as long as four weeks to properly dry the acorns.

2. Each day you will need MORE house space to dry additional acorns.

3. Periodically you will have to inspect your acorns for tiny worms.

4. Future acorn nutmeat mold problems are more likely to occur.

 

- - - - - - -

 

Sun Drying: Place the tray of acorns in direct sunlight for two to five consecutive days, depending on how "green" your acorns are when you collect them. Bring all your acorns inside each night. Drying in the sun is the traditional method. If the sky is partly cloudy or overcast, then you may need to dry your acorns for more than five days in the sun. (Note: If your acorns are not completely dry, they will soon be covered with mold and you will have to throw them away. Any acorns that are still partially green after a few days of drying should be separated from the rest of the acorns. Continue drying any partially green acorns until they turn completely brown.)

 

The advantages of sun drying are:

1. It helps to kill insect larva, and

2. It helps to reduce future mold problems.

 

The disadvantages of sun drying are:

1. Flying insects will lay eggs in some of the acorns and they will have to be thrown away.

2. The inner nutmeat looses some of its moisture and flavor.

3. The shelf life of the nutmeat is between four to six months.

 

If you have windows facing the sun, then you can place your tray of acorns in the sun inside your house and eliminate the flying insect problem above.

 

- - - - - - -

 

Oven Drying: Place the tray of acorns in a warm oven (175ºF) for about 20 minutes with the oven door slightly cracked to let the moisture escape.

 

The advantages of oven drying are:

1. Drying can be done very quickly.

2. It effectively kills all insect larva.

3. It eliminates future mold problems.

 

The disadvantages of oven drying are:

1. The inner nutmeat looses most of its moisture and flavor and it becomes very hard to chew.

2. The shelf life of the nutmeat is only two or three months.

 

- - - - - - -

 

Of the above three different drying methods, I now prefer sun drying inside my home in front of a window that faces the sun.

 

Acorn Storage

After drying your acorns, inspect them again (second inspection). The drying process helps to reveal cracks or insect holes you couldn't see when the acorns were still damp. Discard any acorns that don't have a good exterior shell, or process and use those acorns immediately. Acorns with a cracked outer shell will dry out quickly on the inside, and the nutmeat will be lost.

 

It is also possible that small flying insects may have laid eggs inside some of your acorns while they were drying in the sun, if they could find a convenient entrance to the nutmeat area, such as a crack or hole or other imperfection. Those eggs will hatch in a short time and you will be able to identify the bad acorns when they do (they will have a small hole in them).

 

If you discover tiny holes in your acorns after they have dried, then discard the bad acorns and place the acorns without any holes on a cookie sheet and dry them in a warm oven at 175ºF for 15 minutes with the oven door slightly cracked to let the moisture escape. The heat will kill any remaining insect larva inside the acorns.

 

Approximately one-week later, inspect your dried acorns for the third time and look for mold or worms or other major problems. Discard any acorns with mold (or process and use them immediately), or the mold will soon spread throughout your entire batch.

 

Approximately one-week later, inspect your dried acorns for the fourth time. Remove and discard any defective or moldy acorns (or process and use them immediately).

 

If you discover mold on your acorns at this point, then they were not thoroughly dry at the beginning. If the mold is not severe, then place the batch of acorns on a cookie sheet and dry them in a warm oven at 175ºF for 15 minutes with the oven door slightly cracked to let the moisture escape and to kill the mold.

 

You may now store your thoroughly inspected, dried acorns in a cool, dry place until you need them. Store your acorns in several different containers. (Note: Ziplock freezer bags work extremely well for storing acorns.) If the acorns in one container become unusable, your other acorns should still be okay. Properly dried and stored, acorns still in their original shell will remain edible for several months.

 

As time passes, the inner acorn nutmeat gradually dries out and loses most of its flavor and it becomes too hard too chew. Therefore you should process and eat your acorns as soon as practical after collecting them. The longer they are stored, they more they will continue to dry out and become unfit for human consumption. Even under the best storage conditions at room temperature, most acorns will not be edible after six-months of storage.

 

If you have freezer storage space available, then you may remove the acorn nutmeats from their exterior shell and freeze only the nutmeats inside a ziplock freezer bag. This will help to preserve the moisture content of the nutmeats and significantly extend their shelf life and flavor.

 

 

Acorn Preparation

Acorns must be processed before they can be used in acorn recipes.

 

Do NOT remove your acorn nutmeats from their protective outer shell until you are ready to process and eat them. The inner acorn nutmeat kernels will dry up and shrivel after a few days of exposure to the air.

 

At the top of the picture on the right there are several acorn nutmeat kernels after they have been removed from their shell.

At the bottom of the picture on the right there are several acorn nutmeats which have been split in half. The inner white nutmeat gradually darkens and begins to dry out the longer it is exposed to the air.

 

First crack the thin outer shell of the acorn. It will crack easily with an ordinary nut cracker, or pliers, or by squeezing firmly with your thumb and forefinger. Only crack the shell. Peel off the shell and save the inner nutmeat kernel for future processing. Sometimes you will split the inner acorn nutmeat in half as you crack the outer shell. That is okay. You may taste one acorn nutmeat kernel from each batch of acorns to determine if one of your local trees produces sweeter acorns than the other trees. After chewing and tasting, you should spit it out.

 

Our bodies are all different and we can not all eat the same foods as everyone else. For example, some people are allergic to milk and milk products. It is always a good idea to eat a very small amount of any new food that you have never eaten before to determine whether or not your body will have an adverse reaction to it. Therefore, if you have never eaten acorn nutmeats before, then you should only eat ONE and see how your body reacts. If you are allergic to other nuts, then you will probably not be able to eat acorn nutmeats. And you should NOT eat and swallow an acorn nutmeat until AFTER you have removed the tannic acid from the acorn nutmeats.

 

Tannic Acid

All acorns contain tannic acid (or tannin). White Oak acorns contain very little but Red Oak acorns contain a lot. The good news is that tannic acid is water soluble and it can be easily leeched out of the acorns using either:

1. boiling, or
2. cold water flushing.

Too much boiling will result in a loss of nut flavor and it will change the consistency of the nutmeats into a gooey mess. There are also two ways to process the acorn nutmeats:

 

 

1. as whole nutmeat kernels, or
2. as ground nutmeats.

Whole Nutmeat Kernels

If your original taste test of the raw unprocessed acorn nutmeats revealed little or no noticeable bitterness, then you may process your nutmeats as whole kernels. This preserves the appearance of the nut and it is useful because some recipes specify whole nuts. It also makes eating the nuts as a snack much easier.

 

Ground Nutmeats

If your original taste test of the raw unprocessed acorn nutmeats revealed an unpleasant degree of bitterness, then grinding the nutmeats is necessary because it allows the tannic acid to be removed with minimum boiling or flushing. Begin with whole acorn nutmeat kernels (without the cap and without the shell). Crush or grind the acorn nutmeats into smaller pieces or into a coarse meal using a hand grinder, or a flat rock, or a blender. If you use a blender, then add a little water to make a liquid mush.

 

Boiling Method

(May be used with whole nutmeat kernels or ground nutmeats.)

Fill two pots with clean fresh water. Each pot should contain enough water to completely cover the acorn nutmeats (but don't add the nutmeats yet). Turn on the heat to the first pot of water. Taste one of the unprocessed nutmeats to determine the degree of bitterness it contains before boiling.

 

Note: Add pickling or canning salt to the final pot of boiling water before adding the nutmeats. The salt enhances the flavor of the nutmeats and it also increases their storage life.

 

Note: It is NOT uncommon for many white oak acorns to contain little or no noticeable bitterness. However, we are not all gifted with the same degree of sensitivity in our taste buds. What may taste pleasant to you may taste slightly bitter to someone else. And regardless of how they taste, all acorns contain some tannic acid. Therefore, you should boil all acorn nutmeats at least ONE time. But you may stop after one boiling if your original taste test revealed little or no bitterness in the original unprocessed acorn nutmeats. If you are only going to boil one time you will not need the second pot and you should add the salt to the first pot of boiling water BEFORE you add the nutmeats.

 

First Boil: When the first pot starts to boil, add the acorn nutmeats to the first pot of boiling water and immediately turn off the heat to the first pot. Turn on the heat to the second pot to start the water in the second pot boiling. Wait 30 minutes and the water in the first pot will be brown. Pour the acorns and the brown water through a strainer or coffee filter to separate the nutmeats from the brown water. (Note: Save the brown water from the first boiling for one of the uses suggested elsewhere in this summary.) (Note: If there was no noticeable bitterness to begin with and you are only using one boil, then skip down to the drying instructions below.) Taste one of the nutmeats. If the bitterness is almost gone then you will not need a third boiling and you should add the salt to the second pot of boiling water.

 

Second Boil: Put the nutmeats into the second pot of boiling water and immediately turn off the heat. Rinse the first pot and fill with fresh water for the third boiling. Wait 30 minutes. Strain the nutmeats from the brown water in the second pot. (Discard the brown water unless you want to keep it for another purpose.) Taste one nutmeat. If the bitterness is gone, then skip down to the drying instructions below. If the bitterness is almost gone, then add the salt to the third boiling. However, if the bitterness is still unpleasant, then wait until the fourth boiling to add the salt.

 

Third Boil: Follow instructions for second boil. Then taste one nutmeat. The original bitterness should be gone and it should have a sweet, nutlike flavor. (If the nutmeats should fail your taste test at this point, then boil a fourth time.)

 

Dry the nutmeats following the drying instructions below.

 

Note 1: If you switch the nutmeats from boiling water into cool water and then bring the water to a boil, you will lock in the bitterness and you won't be able to get it out.

Note 2: Do NOT let wet nutmeats sit for hours between boilings. The nutmeats will mold if you do.

 

Cold Water Flushing Method

(May be used with whole nutmeat kernels or ground nutmeats.)

Put the acorn nutmeats inside a clean pillowcase and leech in cold running water (faucet or stream) for several hours until the bitter taste is gone. Periodically squeeze as much water out of the pillowcase and acorn nutmeats as you can without damaging the nutmeats. Then continue rinsing. When the nutmeats no longer taste bitter, you can stop rinsing. Then dry the nutmeats following the drying instructions below.

 

Drying

If you need the damp acorn nutmeats in a bread recipe you may use them immediately without drying. However, if you are not going to use the nutmeats until later, you MUST dry them.

 

After removing the tannin using either boiling or flushing, spread the damp nutmeats in a thin layer on a baking tray and dry slowly in a warm oven (175ºF to 200ºF) with the door slightly cracked to let the moisture escape. Or place the tray of damp nutmeats in the sun near a window. (If you dry them outside in the sun, cover them with a clean screen or the wildlife will steal them.)

 

If you are drying ground nutmeats, the dried meal will be caked and it will need to be ground again.

 

If you are drying whole nutmeat kernels, you may eat them like nuts. Or use them in recipes that use whole nuts. Or you may process some of them into grits or meal on an as-needed basis.

 

Acorn Grits

Follow the tannin removal and drying instructions for acorn nutmeats above. Then pound or grind into course meal or grits. Acorn grits may be used in acorn recipes in place of chopped nuts.

 

Acorn Meal (or Acorn Flour)

Follow above Grits recipe but grind the acorns into a fine meal.

 

Storage of Acorn Grits or Acorn Meal

Store in a sealed, glass jar in a cool, dark place. They will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator or for several months in the freezer. Frozen nutmeats will retain their original flavor for about 10 months (or until the next crop of acorns is ready to be harvested). Because they contain nut oil, they will go rancid if left in a warm environment after they have been processed.

 

Caution: If stored for a very long time, smell them before using. If a musty smell is present, throw them away.

 

 

Uses for the Brown Acorn Water

Save the brown water from the first boiling (discussed above). The brown water should be stored in the refrigerator. With the passage of time a mold will form on top of the water and you will need to boil the water again to kill the mold. Then refrigerate the water again until needed. The brown water may be used in any of the following ways:

 

Laundry Detergent: Two cups of the brown water can be used as laundry detergent for one load of clothes. Your clothes will smell very good but lighter colors (and whites) will take on a tan tint.

 

Traditional Herbal Home Remedies: The brown water has both antiseptic and antiviral properties.

1. It can be used to wash the skin to ease the discomfort of skin rashes, burns, and small cuts.
2. It can be used externally to help treat hemorrhoids.
3. Pour some of the water into ice cube trays and freeze it. Then rub it on poison ivy blisters. It soothes and heals the blisters and helps reduce the itching. It is very effective on about 95% of the people who try it and the poison ivy is cured in three days. The cold ice helps to soothe the inflamed tissues.

Hide Tanning: The brown water can be used in the process of animal hide tanning. Just soak the clean, scraped animal hides in the water. The reason the bitter ingredient in acorns is called "tannic acid" is because it was originally used to tan animal hides.

 

 

 

Grandpappy's Basic Acorn Recipes

Acorn grits may be deep fried and eaten as a side dish.

 

Acorn grits may be added to soups or salads.

 

Acorn grits may be fried briefly in a skillet and then used as one of the ingredients in a granola snack recipe.

 

Acorn meal may be used in most recipes to replace 1/4 of the flour or 1/4 the corn meal. However, since acorn meal contains natural sweetness, you should reduce any other sweeteners in the recipe by 1/4.

 

100% Acorn Bread will be hard if baked too long and crumbly if not baked long enough.

 

Ground acorn nutmeats may be roasted and then used as a weak coffee substitute.

 

Indian Acorn Griddlecakes

2 cups acorn meal1/2 tsp. salt3/4 cup water Preparation: Combine everything and beat to a stiff batter. Let stand for one hour.

Cook: Heat 1 tbsp. of fat or oil in frying pan. Drop batter into pan to form cakes about 3 to 4 inches across. Brown cakes slowly on both sides. These cakes will keep for several days.

 

Mexican Acorn Tortillas

2 cups acorn meal3/4 cup flour2 tsp. salt Preparation: Mix ingredients. Add just enough water to make a stiff dough. Let stand for 30 minutes.

Cook: Squeeze into small balls and then press each ball into a very thin flat cake. Fry in a lightly greased skillet until brown on both sides. Use just enough fat or oil to prevent sticking.

 

Acorn Pemmican Tortilla

1/2 cup acorn meal1 pound lean meat, cut in thin stripsSeveral tortillas Cook: Boil the lean meat in salted water until tender. Drain and allow to dry. Grind the meat and the acorn meal together using a fine grinding blade. Mix well and then grind a second time. Heat and serve wrapped in a tortilla, or on any flat bread.

Variation: Add cooked white rice, or cooked beans, or hot sauce, or grated cheese as part of the tortilla stuffing.

 

Pioneer Acorn Bread and Acorn Muffins

1 cup acorn meal1 cup flour1 tsp. salt 3 tbsp. baking powder3 tbsp. oil1 cup milk (or water) Optional: You may add 1 egg to the above ingredients.

Preparation: Combine milk, egg (if available), and oil and beat until smooth. Mix in the acorn meal, flour, salt, and baking powder and stir into a smooth dough. Place in a greased bread pan.

Cook: Bake at 400ºF for 30 minutes. Cool and serve.

Variation: Acorn Muffins: Fill greased muffin tins about 2/3 full with above mixture and bake at 400ºF for 20 minutes.

 

Pioneer Acorn Pancakes Preparation: Use the above recipe for Pioneer Acorn Bread, but use 2 eggs and 1 1/4 cups milk.

Cook: Drop batter from a ladle onto a hot greased grill. When bottom is brown, turn once and brown other side. Serve with butter, or syrup, or honey, or jelly, or fresh fruit.

 

Breakfast Acornmeal (Similar to Oatmeal)

1 cup acorn meal2.5 cups water1/8 cup hickory nuts or black walnuts, crushed 1 tsp. salt1 tsp. honey or sugar

Boil the water with the salt. Add the acorn meal and continue boiling for 15 minutes. Turn off heat. Allow to cool for about five minutes. Stir in the honey and nuts. Very satisfying and delicious, and it will provide enough energy for a day of rigorous physical activity.

 

Acorn and Corn Meal Mush

1/2 cup acorn meal4 cups water 1 cup corn meal1 tsp. salt Cook: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in the top half of a double boiler. Add the salt. Sprinkle the acorn meal slowly into the boiling water and stir continuously. Then add the corn meal. When the mixture starts to bubble, it should be able to support a plastic or wooden stirring spoon in the center without the spoon falling over. If too thick, add a little water. If too thin, add a little more cornmeal.

Then put the mixture which is in the top half of the double boiler into the bottom half of the double boiler which contains boiling water. Simmer about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to break up any lumps, until the mush becomes thick. Serve hot for breakfast, lunch, or supper.

Variation: May be served with a topping of milk, or butter, or grated cheese, or bacon bits, or honey, or sugar, or fruit, or jam.

Variation: Pour above finished, cooked mush into a greased loaf pan and put in the refrigerator for about 8 hours. It will become solid and then it can be sliced with a knife into 1/2 inch thick slices. Coat each slice with flour and fry in a very thin layer of oil, one side at a time. Serve with butter, or syrup, or jam (similar to French toast).

 

Acorn Bread

2 cups acorn meal1/2 cup milk (or water)1 tbsp. baking powder 2 cups wheat flour3 tbsp. butter or olive oil1 egg (optional) Optional Sweeteners: Add 1/3 cup honey or maple syrup or sugar, if available.

Preparation: Combine all the above ingredients and pour into a loaf pan.

Cook : Bake at 400ºF for 30 minutes or until done. Yields a moist bread with a sweet nutty flavor.

 

Glazed Acorn Treats

Boiled dry whole acorn kernels2 cups sugar1/2 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar1 cup water

Preparation: Mix and dissolve the sugar, salt, and cream of tartar in 1 cup of water.

Cook: Bring above mixture to a boil in a small pot. Continue to boil until the mixture first begins to show signs of browning. Then immediately put the small pot into a larger pot of boiling water to keep the mixture in a liquid state. (Or use a double boiler.) Use a pair of tweezers to dip individual whole acorn kernels (previously shelled, boiled and dried), one at a time into the mixture and then put each acorn onto a sheet of wax paper to dry and harden. Serve as a candied covered nut.

 

Acorn Cookies

2 cups wheat flour1 cup white (or brown) sugar1 tsp. baking powder (or baking soda) 1 cup acorn grits1/2 cup shortening1 tsp. salt Preparation: Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, cream the shortening and the sugar. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Then blend in the acorn grits. Pinch off walnut sized pieces of dough and roll into balls. Place 1.5" apart on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Cook: Bake at 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly colored. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Variation: Add 1 egg and/or 1 tsp. vanilla extract.

 

 

Nutritional Information About Acorns Acorn Nutmeats, Shelled, Dried

Actual Lab Analysis Results Vary for Different Acorn Varieties

and from One Growing Season to the Next

 

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 ounce (28.4 g)

Minimum and Maximum Values Shown Below

 

CategoryAmount% RDV Calories109.7 to 144.57 % Calories from Fat60.9 to 80.3

Total Fat6.8 to 8.9 g14 % Saturated Fat0.9 to 1.2 g45 % Polyunsaturated Fat1.3 to 1.7 g

Monounsaturated Fat4.3 to 5.7 g

Cholesterol0.0 mg0 % Total Carbohydrate11.5 to 15.2 g5 % Protein1.7 to 2.3 g5 % Vitamins

Vitamin A11.06 to 11.14 IULess 1% B1, Thiamin0.03 to 0.042 mg3 % B2, Riboflavin0.03 to 0.044 mg3 % B3, Niacin0.52 to 0.68 mg3 % B5, Pantothenic Acid0.20 to 0.27 mg3% Vitamin B60.15 to 0.20 mg10% Vitamin B120.0 mcg0 % Vitamin C0.0 mcg0 % Vitamin D0.0 mcg0 % Vitamin E0.0 mcg0 % Minerals

Calcium, Ca11.62 to 15.34 mg2 % Copper, Cu0.18 to 0.23 mg12 % Iron, Fe0.22 to 0.29 mg2 % Magnesium, Mg17.58 to 23.29 mg6 % Manganese, Mn 0.38 to 0.39 mg10 % Phosphorus, P22.40 to 29.25 mg3 % Potassium, K152.81 to 201.36 mg10% Sodium, Na0.0 mg0 % Zinc, Zn0.15 to 0.19 mg1 % Amino Acids

Alanine0.100 to 0.131 g Arginine 0.135 to 0.177 g Aspartic Acid0.181 to 0.238 g Cystine0.031 to 0.041 g Glutamic Acid0.282 to 0.369 g Glycine0.081 to 0.107 g Histidine0.049 to 0.064 g Isoleucine0.081 to 0.107 g Leucine0.140 to 0.183 g Lysine0.110 to 0.143 g Methionine0.029 to 0.039 g Phenylalanine0.077 to 0.101 g Proline0.070 to 0.092 g Serine0.075 to 0.098 g Tryptophan0.021 to 0.028 g Threonine0.067 to 0.089 g Tyrosine0.053 to 0.070 g Valine0.099 to 0.129 g Other

Ash0.386 to 0.506 mg Folate, DFE24.66 to 32.66 mcg

 

Click on www.grandpappy.info/indexrec.htm for more Basic Recipes.

 

Click on www.grandpappy.info for Robert's Home Page.

 

Send e-mail to RobertWayneAtkins@grandpappy.info

 

[GirlNextDoor]

Acorn Flour Recipes:

 

 

 

 

 

Acorn Pancakes

 

 

 

1 cup acorn flour

 

1 cup white flour

 

1 tsp salt

 

2 tsp baking powder

 

2 eggs

 

¼ cup oil

 

½ cup honey

 

2 cups milk

 

 

 

1. Mix dry ingredients first.

 

2. Add wet ingredients and mix together thoroughly (Note: the secret of keeping pancake batter from getting lumpy is to be sure to add all the wet ingredients before mixing.)

 

3. Adjust consistency by adding a little more milk or a little more flour if it’s too thick or thin. Pancake batter should be thin enough to pour, but not runny.

 

4. Cook on oiled grill.

 

5. Top with butter and Maple Syrup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acorn “Corn”bread

 

 

 

1 cup acorn flour

 

1 cup white flour

 

2 tsp baking powder

 

¾ tsp baking soda

 

1 tsp salt

 

2 large eggs

 

½ cup or honey

 

¼ cup oil or butter

 

1 cup milk (buttermilk is best!)

 

 

 

1. Mix dry ingredients together.

 

2. Add all the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.

 

3. Pour batter into a 9x9 baking pan, or 10-inch cast iron frying pan

 

4. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

 

5. Serve hot with plenty of butter! Honey or maple syrup is good on it too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acorn Brown Bread

 

 

 

This bread is baked by steaming it in empty tin cans for 2 hours. It was a popular way to make bread in the olden days when the woodstoves were hot all day long. It method of baking bread is a bit foreign to us nowadays, but this bread is unimaginably moist and delicious. You used to be able to buy it in a can at the grocery store but I never see it for sale anymore. Using Acorns instead of cornmeal makes this an extra special treat!

 

 

 

1 cup Acorn flour

 

2 cups whole wheat flour

 

2 tsp baking soda

 

1 tsp salt

 

2 cups buttermilk

 

3/4 cup molasses

 

1 cup chopped raisins

 

 

 

1. Mix all the ingredients together to form your batter.

 

2. Take some clean empty 16-oz tin cans and grease them inside.

 

3. Pour batter 3/4 full into each can. This recipe will fill 3 or 4 cans.

 

4. Put a layer of aluminum foil over each can and secure it tightly with rubber bands.

 

5. Set the cans on a canning rack in your canner and put a couple inches of water at the bottom.

 

6. Put the lid on the canner and let the cans steam for 2 hours. Be sure to check the water occasionally and replenish if needed.

 

7. Let cans cook completely before removing the 'loaves' of bread.

 

8. Slice and serve.

 

 

 

Acorn Molasses Cookies

 

 

 

These cookies are heavenly, although the spices and molasses tend to dominate the flavor of the acorns, so a person wouldn’t know they had acorns in them unless you told them. A good way to sneak some into a skeptic!

 

 

 

¾ cup brown sugar

 

¾ cup butter

 

1 lg. egg

 

¾ cup molasses

 

1 1/4 cups acorn flour

 

1 ½ cups flour

 

1 tsp baking soda

 

½ tsp salt

 

1 ½ tsp ginger

 

1 tsp cinnamon

 

1 tsp nutmeg

 

½ tsp allspice

 

 

 

1. Cream the brown sugar and butter together.

 

2. Add egg and molasses, and mix thoroughly.

 

3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, acorn flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

 

4. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix thoroughly. Batter should be soft rather than stiff, but not runny.

 

5. Drop by rounded spoonfuls on to a cookie sheet. Flatten then with your palm and sprinkle with sugar crystals.

 

6. Bake at 325 for 8-10 minutes. Be sure not to over-bake, as the bottoms burn easily.

 

 

 

To make these cookies extra special good, cream together 1 package of softened cream cheese and 3 Tablespoons of maple syrup. Frost the bottom side of a cookie and stick another cookie on, creating a cookie sandwich. Scrumpdillyiscious!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Acorn Muffins w/ Wild Apples and Hickory Nuts

 

 

 

This recipe uses 4 wild ingredients if you sweeten it with maple syrup. These are non-dairy muffins and very moist and good.

 

 

 

2 ½ cups grated wild apple, peeled and cored first

 

2 cups raisins

 

1 ½ cups boiling water

 

3 Tbsp. oil

 

 

 

1 cup + 2 Tbsp maple syrup (or honey)

 

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

 

1 ½ tsp allspice

 

½ tsp cloves

 

1 ½ tsp salt

 

 

 

1 ½ cups Acorn flour

 

1 ½ cups flour, white or wheat

 

1 ½ tsp baking soda

 

¾ cup hickory nuts (or walnuts)

 

 

 

1. Pour boiling water over grated wild apples and raisins. Top with oil and let stand for 10 minutes.

 

2. Add honey and spices (including salt), then allow to cool.

 

3. Sift together dry ingredients, add walnuts and combine with the wet ingredients.

 

4. Spoon into well-greased muffin pans.

 

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350.

 

 

 

 

 

Acorn Gingerbread

 

 

I got inspired to make this recipe after making the Acorn Molasses cookies. Acorns and molasses are a match made in heaven!

 

 

 

1 ¼ cups Acorn flour

 

1 ¼ cup flour (wheat or white)

 

2 tsp baking soda

 

½ tsp salt

 

1 tsp cinnamon

 

1 tsp ginger

 

½ tsp cloves

 

2 eggs

 

½ cup sugar

 

1 cup molasses

 

½ cup oil

 

1 cup boiling water

 

 

 

1. Sift dry ingredients together

 

2. Combine eggs, sugar, molasses, and oil in separate bowl.

 

3. Mix together, add boiling water and stir until smooth.

 

4. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes,

 

 

 

Acorn Gingerbread is really good served warm with fresh whipped cream on top!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whole Acorn Recipes:

 

Acorn Hotdish

 

4 cups Acorns

 

1 small onion, chopped

 

½ tsp thyme

 

1 tsp salt

 

½ tsp pepper

 

2 cups soft breadcrumbs (4 slices of bread)

 

2 eggs

 

¼ cup sesame seeds

 

¼ cup oats

 

3 cups cubed cheese (1 lb)

 

 

 

1. Cook acorns in water until they are soft. (Skip this step if using frozen acorns).

 

2. Mash acorns somewhat with a potato masher.

 

3. Combine with remaining ingredients.

 

4. Add a little water if it seems dry.

 

5. Spread into a greased 9x9 square pan or 9x5 loaf pan.

 

6. Sprinkle sesame seeds and oats over the top.

 

7. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

Acorn Burgers

 

This recipe is an old favorite of mine from The Farm cookbook. It is originally intended for leftover soybean pulp from making soy milk and tofu, but it adapts quite nicely to acorns!

 

 

 

5 cups rehydrated acorn meats

 

2 tsp salt

 

1 cup oats or 1 cup flour

 

½ tsp pepper

 

1 Tbsp garlic powder

 

2 tsp oregano

 

1 tsp basil

 

1 onion, finely chopped

 

 

 

1. Mash the acorns with a potato masher

 

2. Mix all ingredients together. The batter should be quite stiff.

 

3. To make patties, roll into a ball about the size of an apricot, flatten to about ½” thick.

 

4. Fry in a generous amount of oil so they’ll be crispy on the edges.

 

 

 

Serve just like a hamburger or veggie burger, on bread with all the fixings.

 

 

 

Chili Con Acorn

 

I have to give credit to Sam Thayer for this one. He serves up Acorn Chili every year at the Midwest Wild harvest Festival here in Wisconsin. This isn’t his recipe, but it’s his idea, and it’s a good one!

 

 

 

4 cups acorns, rehydrated

 

1 lg onion, chopped

 

2 cloves garlic, minced

 

1 Tbsp chili powder

 

½ tsp salt

 

1 tsp ground cumin

 

1 tsp oregano

 

½ tsp Tabasco sauce

 

1 can (16oz) chopped tomatoes

 

1 can (16 oz) kidney beans

 

 

 

1. Saute acorns with onion and garlic in a heavy-bottomed pot.

 

2. Stir in remaining ingredients.

 

3. Heat to boiling, reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour.

 

 

 

Note: A crockpot works great for this recipe, you can give it a long slow simmer that way without having to worry about scorching it.

 

 

 

Acorn "Meat"loaf

 

If using dried acorn meats, you will need to rehydrate them before mixing the ingredients. I rehydrate them by simmering in water until they are soft, much like cooking beans.

 

 

 

4 cups Acorns, somewhat chopped or mashed

 

1 cup milk

 

1 tsp dried sage leaves

 

1 tsp salt

 

½ tsp dry mustard

 

¼ tsp pepper

 

3 slices of bread, torn into small pieces OR ¾ cup oats OR ½ cup dry breadcrumbs

 

1 egg

 

1 clove of garlic, minced

 

1 small onion, chopped

 

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

 

½ cup barbecue sauce

 

 

 

1. Mix together all ingredients except barbecue sauce.

 

2. Shape mixture into a loaf pan.

 

3. Spoon barbecue sauce over the top.

 

4. Bake at 350 for about an hour.

[GirlNextDoor]

Traditional Venison Acorn Stew

 

To make venison stew, you will need the following:

 

2 lbs venison, cut up

1 Cup finely ground acorn meal

 

Cover venison with water in pot or basket; Add hot rocks to simmer until meat almost falls apart. Remove meat from broth and chop into fine pieces. Return to pot with liquid and stir in acorn meal. Serve hot.

 

Acorn Stew

 

To make stew, you will need the following:

 

1 lb stewing beef

1/2 C finely ground acorn meal (tannin removed)

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Place beef in heavy pan and add water to cover. Cover with lid and simmer until very tender. Remove from liquid and cut meat into very fine pieces. Return meat to the liquid. Stir in the acorn meal. Add salt and pepper as desired. Heat until thickened and serve.

 

Ethnic food enthusiasts like to substitute acorn meal for corn meal when making muffins -- usually using 1/2 corn meal and 1/2 acorn. Some have substituted 1/2 of the flour in a biscuit recipe with 1/2 acorn meal. Experiment carefully, remembering that a good portion of the work performed by flour has to do with the gluten in the floor. Acorn has no gluten, so you'll have to keep this in mind.

 

Here is a modern Acorn Bread recipe from the book "Cooking with Spirit, - North American Indian Food and Fact", By Darcy Williamson and Lisa Railsback Copyright 1987 by Darcy Williamson. Published by Maverick Publications, Drawer 5007, Bend, Oregon 97701.

 

Acorn Bread

 

To make bread, you will need the following:

 

6 Tbl. cornmeal

1/2 C cold water

1 C boiling water

1 tsp sale

1 Tbl butter

1 pkg active dry yeast

1/4 C lukewarm water

1 C mashed potatoes

2 C all-purpose flour

2 C finely ground leached acorn meal

 

Mix cornmeal with cold water, add boiling water and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add sale and butter and cool to lukewarm. Soften yeast in lukewarm water. Add remaining ingredients to corn mixture, along with yeast. Knead to a stiff dough. Dough will be sticky. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk. Punch down, shape into two loaves, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes.

 

Acorn Griddle Cakes

 

To make cakes, you will need the following:

 

2/3 C finely ground leached acorn meal

1/3 C unbleached flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/3 tsp. salt

1 Tbl honey

1 egg, beaten

3/4 C milk

3 Tbl melted butter

 

Combine dry ingredients. Mix together egg and milk, then beat into dry ingredients, forming a smooth batter. Add butter. Drop batter onto hot, greased griddle. Bake, turning each cake when it is browned on underside and puffed and slightly set on top. Makes 12 to 15.

 

 

[GirlNextDoor]

Harvesting the wild:

acorns

 

By Jackie Clay

 

 

When I was just a little girl, I used to collect acorns by the boxfull as they fell in the fall. I didn’t know why. They just felt nice in the hand and somehow a big bunch of them felt satisfying. Could that be because somewhere in my ancestors’ time, acorns were a very important food? Native Americans all across oak-growing North and South America harvested acorns, which were nearly as important a food as corn or beans. Such tribes as the Cherokee, Apache, Pima, and Ojibwa routinely harvested and used the acorn. These Indian gatherers taught early settlers how to harvest and use acorns in their cooking, as they did corn and other traditional foods. Even today, many Indians gather acorns, both to use themselves and to sell in Mexican markets.

 

And those bright, shining round acorns are very good for you, besides tasting great.

Health benefits of acorns

 

Acorns have been tested and found to be possibly the best food for effectively controlling blood sugar levels. They have a low sugar content, but leave a sweetish aftertaste, making them very good in stews, as well as in breads of all types.

 

Ground, leached acorn meal, ready to dry. The bitterness is gone.

Ground, leached acorn meal, ready to dry. The bitterness is gone.

 

They are rich in complex carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins while they are lower in fat than most other nuts. They are also a good source of fiber.

 

An additional benefit from eating acorns is in the gathering. Acorns, although they “fall from trees,” must be picked and processed before eating, which requires a walk, then bending and picking up. All of these are good exercise. In fact, that is why many “primitive” foods are so healthy. They require exercise just to put them on the table, not just a short trip to the convenience store or fast food joint.

But acorns taste bitter!

 

One of the first things I learned as a little girl harvesting acorns was that they tasted awful. Unfortunately, many acorns do taste bitter. This is because they contain tannin, a bitter substance in oaks which is used to tan leather. Real pucker power here. Some varieties of acorns contain more tannin than others. They range from the Emory oak of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, which is so mild it can be used without processing, to some black oaks with very bitter acorns, requiring lengthy processing to render edible.

 

Generally, the best acorns to harvest are those of the white oaks, such as the swamp oak, Oregon white oak, and burr oak, as they contain less bitter tannin. Luckily, nearly all acorns can be made usable with natural processing which renders them nutty and sweet.

From the mighty oak

 

Acorns are one grain that literally grows on trees. Even a small oak tree can produce a bushel or more of tasty, nutritious acorns. And that grandaddy oak out in the pasture could produce nearly a thousand pounds. Now that is a lot of eating from a small area.

 

There are now several varieties of grafted oak trees, which bear nearly double the harvest of wild trees. These trees are available for purchase from specialty nursery companies.

 

Nice fat, ripe acorns, ready to be used for acorn meal or flour

Nice fat, ripe acorns, ready to be used for acorn meal or flour

 

Not only are acorns great food for us, but for many birds and animals as well. Any deer hunter can tell you that one of the best spots to ambush a wily buck is on a trail to a big oak tree. Deer and wild turkeys harvest these nutritious acorns to fatten up for winter.

 

Early settlers must have noticed this, as they soon began to turn their hogs out into the oak woods to fatten on the bounty of acorns. I accidently had this happen to two of my own pigs. I had a litter of weaner pigs, six in number in an outside pen. While we were in town, a stray dog came by and had great fun, chasing the little porkers around the pen. None were injured, but two of them vaulted the pen wall next to the shed and took off for the woods as fast as their little legs would run.

 

We hunted, called, and scoured the woods for days. Weeks. No piggies. By then, we figured a black bear, which were numerous in our woods, had a midnight snack of pork on the hoof.

 

Then one November, I was riding my horse down one of the wooded trails through huge old oaks, when I noticed turned-up fresh soil. Bear? Nope, my “bear” had left pig tracks. I tied my horse and scouted further, discovering seemingly acres of ground dug up underneath those bounteous oak trees. My lost piggies were found. But those tracks looked pretty big.

 

To make a long story short, we corralled those errant porkers and hauled them home. On putting them in the pen next to their brothers and sisters, we were shocked. Out in the woods, they really looked big, but now they looked huge. They were a third again as big. On butchering, the woods raised hogs weighed 290 pounds, while the grain fed hogs barely made 200 dressed. So much for “modern feeding.” Of course the pigs had access to roots, grasses, insects, and more. But I credit much of their hearty size to those fat acorns they were gorging themselves upon.

 

As acorns hold a long time under the tree, the hogs were feasting on last year’s crop all summer, then the fresh crop come fall. Not a bad natural feed.

Harvesting

 

First of all, you’ll have to check out your local oaks during the spring when the leaves and underbrush are not as dense. Get a little pocket tree book and try to identify the oaks you find. In many areas, there are several varieties of oaks available to the acorn harvester. Some are quite mild and sweet and others pretty darned bitter. If you have a choice, try to find a variety with mild meat and only a little initial tang of tannin.

 

My son, Bill Spaulding’s hunting “shack” sits right in the middle of white oaks, which produce “grain from trees,” as some Indian tribes refer to acorns, and also lure big deer, which come to feed

My son, Bill Spaulding’s hunting “shack” sits right in the middle of white oaks, which produce “grain from trees,” as some Indian tribes refer to acorns, and also lure big deer, which come to feed on sweet, fat acorns.

 

You may have to simply nibble and check, come fall. Different varieties of oak have different shaped acorns. Crack a nice fat acorn with no worm hole. Examine the meat. It should be yellowish, not black and dusty (insects). Now, simply nibble and chew up a part of the nut. If it is very bitter, spit it out and try another kind of acorn. When you find a grove of relatively mild acorns, note this for next year and harvest away.

 

As the understory is usually very thin below a decent sized oak tree, the acorns are quite easy to pick up. Depending on the variety of oak, your acorns will drop between late September and October, more or less, depending on your climate zone. The best way I’ve found to pick up acorns is to simply pick a nice dry, sunny day as soon as the acorns begin to drop and take baskets and sacks to the woods and sit down and pick them up. If you wait too long, the handy dandy squirrels and other wild critters will beat you to them, leaving only the worm-riddled hulls behind.

Processing

 

The term “processing” brings to mind machines and chemical additives. With acorns, processing simply means making them ready to eat.

 

When I get home with my bounteous haul, I spread them out a layer thick on an old sheet which I have laid on a roof, corner of the yard, or some other out-of-the-way dry, sunny place. This lets them sun dry and prevents any possible molding before I get them shelled. It will also kill any insect eggs or larvae, which might be inside. If you cannot lay the acorns out in the sun, spread them in a single layer on cookie sheets in a very slow oven for an hour.

 

Some acorns, such as those of the Emory oak, require no more processing than cracking them open and eating them. Like most nuts, acorns of all types benefit from toasting on a cookie sheet in an oven at 175° F. Stir to prevent scorching.

 

However, most acorns do contain enough tannin to make leaching this bitter substance out necessary. To do this, simply sit down and crack a big bowlful of acorns, carefully examining each nut for black holes, which indicates a worm is inside rather than a wholesome plump yellowish-beige nut. Acorns are very easy to crack. The shell is pliable and quite thin. Pop the cap off, then simply grasp it with a pair of pliers and give a squeeze. Don’t mash the kernel. Simply crack the shell. Then peel it off and toss the kernel into a bowl.

 

When all are done, get out your food grinder. Put a fine knife on the grinder and run the shelled acorns through it. This makes a coarse meal. Place this in a large crock or glass bowl. Then add boiling water to cover and let stand an hour. Drain and throw away the brownish, unappetizing water. Repeat. Then taste the meal. It should have a bit of a bitter tang, then taste sweet as you chew a piece. Continue leaching out the tannin as long as necessary.

 

When the acorn meal is mild tasting, it is ready to dry. I usually lay out a piece of old white sheet in a basket and pour the wet meal on it. Then, gathering up the edges, jelly bag style, I press and squeeze, getting out as much of the water (and tannin) as possible.

 

Author grinding shelled acorns in a hand grinder

Author grinding shelled acorns in a hand grinder

 

One caution—don’t let wet acorn meal lie about for hours, or it will surely mold. Keep at the leaching process.

 

Spread the damp meal out in a shallow layer on a cookie sheet or on sheets of your dehydrator. Then begin to dry it. In the oven, you only need the pilot light or the very lowest oven setting. As it begins to dry, take your hands and very carefully crumble any chunks which hold moisture. Slowly your meal will begin to look quite good.

 

When the meal is completely dry, run it through a fine setting on your grain mill. The traditional method was to use a stone (mano in the southwest) hand grinder to crush the meal on a large, flat stone (metate). It is now ready for use in your recipes. If you produced more meal than you need right now, you can store the meal in the freezer or refrigerator in an airtight bag or jar. The dry, ground meal will last a week or so, stored in an airtight jar on the shelf. But, because of the oil, the meal will begin to go rancid, as will whole wheat flour and homeground cornmeal.

 

You can also grind your meal in a food processor or blender a little at a time. I smile, thinking of the vast difference between grinding acorns between stones and using a food mill. What would our ancestors think?

Using acorn meal

 

Some Native Peoples called acorns “grain from the tree,” indicating the use they had for it as a grain in cakes, breads, and thickening for stews and soups. Today folks use “cream of this and that” soups for the same thing.

 

I think processed acorns taste like a cross between hazelnuts and sunflower seeds, and I often include acorn meal in my multi-grain bread recipes. Adding half a cup of acorn meal to a two-loaf bread recipe and reducing the flour, as needed, works quite well. Because the acorn meal is a natural sweetener, I only use a bit of honey to feed the yeast while softening it, relying on the acorn meal to give sweetness to the bread. No complaints yet.

 

As acorn meal is very dense, you will have to take care to get your bread to rise when adding it. One way to ensure this is to use hot liquid and beat in your flour, making a batter. Then cool so you can add the yeast and the rest of the ingredients. This helps release wheat gluten to let the bread rise, despite heavy ingredients. Indian bread was always very dense and heavy, as there was seldom, if ever, wheat or yeast added to the recipe. It takes wheat gluten, as well as yeast, to make bread rise properly. Indian breads were often small, thin cakes baked before the fire on large, reflecting rocks. They were not puffy, large loaves as we are accustomed to today.

 

While camping some time, why not tuck your food grinder into your kitchen pack and try making some old-time Indian bread out of acorn meal. It really puts you in contact with past ways in a hurry. Here is an Apache recipe for acorn cakes.

 

Apache acorn cakes:

 

1 cup acorn meal, ground fine

1 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup honey

pinch of salt

 

Mix the ingredients with enough warm water to make a moist, not sticky dough. Divide into 12 balls. Let rest, covered, for 10 minutes or so. With slightly moist hands, pat the balls down into thick tortilla-shaped breads. Bake on an ungreased cast iron griddle over campfire coals or on clean large rocks, propped up slightly before the coals. If using the stones, have them hot when you place the cakes on them. You’ll have to lightly peel an edge to peek and see if they are done. They will be slightly brown. Turn them over and bake on the other side, if necessary.

 

These cakes were carried on journeys dry and eaten alone or with shredded meat. We cheat and add homemade butter, too. But then, we are spoiled.

 

Multi-grain bread with acorn meal:

 

Let’s take a look at one of my mixed grain breads with acorn meal to see how it differs from the Indian cakes above.

 

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup coarse ground, leached acorn meal

1 cup lukewarm water

2 Tbsp. dry granulated yeast

2 1/2 cups boiling water

1 Tbsp. salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, beaten

About 8 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup honey

butter

 

Pour boiling water over oats, cornmeal, and acorn meal. Set aside. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water. In a large mixing bowl, beat the hot oatmeal mixture with the rest of the ingredients, except for the yeast and butter, adding the flour a cup at a time until you get a medium batter. Cool to lukewarm. Then add the yeast. Mix well and add enough flour until you have a spongy dough that is not sticky. Knead, adding flour if necessary to keep from being sticky. Place in a greased bowl and grease the top of dough, then cover it with a moist, warm kitchen towel and set it in a warm place until it doubles in size. Punch down, knead several times, and let rise again. Shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans or on a greased cookie sheet.

 

This also makes great rolls, so you can use a cake pan, making golf ball sized rolls. Cover and let rise again until almost double. Preheat the oven to 350° F and bake for about 35 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Brush with butter and cool.

 

You can also make this bread in camp, using smaller loaves and a reflector oven or forming 1/2 inch thick by 1 inch wide by 8 inch long sticks and twisting the dough around a green stick and gently baking over medium coals—never a fire.

 

So far, we’ve talked about using acorn meal as a grain. But the acorn is so much more versatile. Most Native Americans and early settlers used acorn meal as either an ingredient in mush, which is sort of a thick, mealy soup, or pounded with meat, fat, and berries, making pemmican. In a survival situation which requires lightweight, high calorie foods, pemmican would be a good choice. (But, of course, many of us really don’t need the extra fat in our diets.)

 

Here are a couple recipes for these uses of the acorn. When I say “acorn meal,” I mean ground, leached-till-mild acorn meal, not raw.

 

Cornmeal and acorn mush:

 

4 cups water

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup acorn meal, ground

about 1 cup cornmeal

 

Bring salted water to a boil and sprinkle the acorn meal into the boiling water, stirring briskly with a wire or twig whisk. Then add the cornmeal. Add just enough cornmeal to make a thick, bubbling batch in which a wood spoon will stand up fairly well. Place the saucepan in a larger container holding two inches or more of boiling water. (Use a double boiler, if you have one.) Simmer the mush until quite thick, about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep it from lumping.

 

Cornmeal and acorn mush is very good for breakfast on a cold morning. It can be served with sweetened milk and a dab of wild fruit jam or homemade butter. But it is also great as a main course lunch or dinner. You can also add salsa or bacon bits and grated cheese on top to get great variety. This mush is very filling and will stick to your ribs.

 

I often make a double batch and pour the “extra” in a greased bread pan. When cooled in the fridge overnight, it becomes quite solid and can be sliced in half inch thick slices, dipped in flour and fried in oil, first one side, then turn and fry the other. Fried acorn and cornmeal mush is one of our absolutely favorite camp (or at-home) breakfasts. Serve it with butter, salt, and thick fruit jam or maple syrup. Of course, David likes his with catsup.

 

You might want to try your hand at a “modern” type of pemmican. It doesn’t keep on the trail for months, but it is pretty good.

 

Modern pemmican:

 

1 lb. lean stewing meat, cut quite small

1/2 cup dehydrated wild plums

1/2 cup acorn meal

 

Boil the lean stewing meat. When it is tender, drain and allow it to dry in a bowl. Grind all of the ingredients together in a meat grinder using a fine blade. Grind again, mixing finely, distributing the ingredients very well. Place in a covered dish and refrigerate overnight. (Or you can eat right away, but like many foods, the refrigerating allows the flavors to blend nicely.) You can serve this on any flatbread, such as a tortilla. It is best served warm, or you can reheat it in the pan in the oven like a meatloaf.

 

Acorn meal can also be used in place of a good portion (or all) of the nuts in most desserts, from brownies to cookies. It does depend on the variety of acorn you have available and the taste after leaching. Some acorn meal never gets “nutty,” only mild, while the meal of other acorns, such as those of the Emory oak, are so sweet that you can eat them without leaching, or with very little leaching.

 

You will have to experiment a bit here. But the end results are usually surprising.

 

Oh gee! You say oak trees don’t grow where you live? Well, just because they aren’t “native” doesn’t mean you can’t plant some. No matter where I go, I always plant a big bunch of food producing trees, shrubs, and perennial plants. And a lot of them certainly aren’t native to the area. Of course, you can just plant acorns or buy seedling trees from a nursery. From an acorn or small seedling, you can usually figure you’ll begin to get a decent amount of acorns in about 10 years.

 

Want faster results? Several nurseries are carrying grafted oak varieties, meant for food production. And at least one nursery has a very good hybrid of the burr oak that produces mild acorns requiring no leaching. You can write to St Lawrence Nurseries, 325 State Hwy. 345, Potsdam, NY 13676 or find them online at www.sln.potsdam.ny.us. They have a free catalog which includes many very hardy fruits and nuts.

 

Oaks don’t grow where we will be moving, but you can darned betcha I’ll be planting them so I can enjoy those fabulous acorns. Until then, I’ll just have to drive down to my son Bill’s place near Oak Lake and pick a few baskets so we can enjoy all those good acorn recipes.

 

[GirlNextDoor]

Acorn Pie

 

 

 

 

 

A recipe for Acorn Pie. Follow the simple recipe instructions for Acorn Pie shared by other home cooking experts.

 

Ingredients

3 large egg whites, beaten stiff

 

1 Tsp. baking powder

 

1 cup sugar

 

1 Tsp. vanilla

 

20 each soda crackers, coarsely broken

 

1/2 cup pecans, chopped,

 

Directions

Directions: Beat egg whites until stiff; add baking powder and beat more. Add sugar and vanilla; beat again. Fold in crackers and pecans.

 

Put in buttered pie plate and bake at 300 degrees F for 30 minutes. Let cool and top with Cool Whip and chopped pecans.

 

Note: Traditional Acorn Pie does not contain acorns. Pecans or walnuts are used instead.

 

 

 

[GirlNextDoor]

ACORN BREAD

 

* 2 cups acorn flour

* 2 cups cattail or white flour

* 3 teaspoons baking powder

* 1/3 cup maple syrup or sugar

* 1 egg

* 1/2 cup milk

* 3 tablespoons olive oil

* Bake in pan for 30 minutes or until done at 400 degrees

 

Using the ingredients given above will produce a sweet, moist, nutty bread. The ingredients can be varied to produce different types of bread or muffins or pancakes, etc. Acorn bread is highly nutritious. It has an energy giving combination of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. John Muir called dry acorn cakes "the most compact and strength giving food" he had ever used. I use maple syrup from the trees in my woods instead of sugar. Not only do I enjoy the wild beauty and fiery colors of the maples and oaks that surround my farm, but I also savor the sweet acorn bread made from their nuts and sap. What better way is there to get to know the trees than to live under them and eat from their bounty?

 

The notes below were written by Tim Smith.

 

While the season for poison ivy is just about behind us, the season for acorns is in full swing. Many people have heard that acorns can be eaten, and a few have actually put them in their mouths, only to spit them out while their faces puckered up. This is due to the tannic acid in the acorns, which much be leached out. To do this, bring a large pot of water to a boil, then dump in the shelled acorns. Let them boil until the water turns a dark color, then remove the acorns and put them into another pot of clean, boiling water. Continue this process until they no longer have the puckering effect when you chew on them. Then use them for snacks, grind into flour, or use any way you please. It is important to put them into boiling water for good-tasting acorns, as putting them into a pot of cold water, then bringing it to a boil tends to lock in the tannic acid. Don't throw out the water, as it is naturally astringent (contracts or tightens up tissues) and great for the skin. By now you might be curious how this relates to poison ivy. The connection is that acorn water is amazingly effective in eliminating it. A recent discussion with a quick-witted summer camp director from Pennsylvania confirmed my anecdotal evidence. I was informed that it had eliminated symptoms in 95% of cases at his camp within three days. The method used in this case was to pour the acorn water into ice trays and freeze, then rub the ice on the affected area. Cold also helps with inflamed tissues, making the ice an ideal delivery mechanism. If you grind the acorns into flour you can make delicious and nutritious acorn bread. Here's how:

 

* 50% or less Acorn flour (if you use more than 50%, bread will be too crumbly)

* 50% or more wheat (preferably whole wheat) flour

* a bit of fat (olive oil, bear grease, butter, or whatever you have)

* 1 teaspoon of baking powder for each cup of flour

 

If you don't grind the acorns well, you have nut bread, so there's no need to be overly assiduous. Mix the ingredients, add enough water for a clay-like dough, and bake until done. To test if done, get a stick and push it into the center of the loaf. If it comes out clean and dry, it's done. If it comes out wet and sticky, it needs to cook more. Cooking time depends on temperature, size of the loaf you're making, and how wet the dough is. If you do it a few times, you'll get it right.

 

 

[GirlNextDoor]

 

Recipe for Acorn Bread

1. Shell dry acorns.

2. Use a blender to grind acorns into fine flour.

3. Put acorn flour into a muslim-lined colander (cheesecloth is too porous). Place the colander in the sink and run warm water through the flour until the bitterness is gone (stirring gently will speed this slow process).

4. Salt may be added, if desired.

5. Shape flour into pancake-like patties (about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 1/4 inch thick) while flour is still moist.

6. Fry without oil on non-stick pan

7. This flour may be used in place of regular flour in cookie recipes. In cookie recipes that call for 2 1/2 cups of flour, substitute 1/4 cup of acorn flour for 1/4 cup of regular flour.

 

To remove tanning from shelled acorns:

1. place shelled raw acorns in boiling water, and continue to boil until the water is the color of strong tea.

2. Pour the water and nuts through a colander.

3. Place the acorns in more water and continue above process until water boils clear. This process removes tannin from the acorns.

4. Allow nuts to dry. Spread acorns to dry on cookie sheets--put in warm place. When partially dry, coarse grind a few at a time in a blender. Spread to dry on cookie sheets, then grind again in blender.

 

[GirlNextDoor]

Acorn mush

 

* Two cups raw acorns (from white oak or black oak trees)

* Water

1. Shell the acorns and remove the skins.

2. Grind the acorns into a fine flour with a mortar and pestle.

3. Place the acorn flour in a cheesecloth, place the cheese cloth in a kitchen strainer, and run water through it repeatedly. This step is crucial as it removes the extremely bitter tannin from the flour.

4. Taste the flour. If it is still bitter, run more water through it.

5. Combine the flour with twice that amount of water in a large pot.

6. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for five minutes

7. Serve

 

 

 

Serves 2

[GirlNextDoor]

Acorn Muffin Recipe

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup acorn starch flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1 cup white GF flour blend (such as Bette Hagman’s gourmet blend)

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup buttermilk

Directions

Prepare a muffin tin by spraying with nonstick cooking oil. Preheat oven to 375.

 

Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then combine wet ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk until combined. Then make a well in the center of your mixed dry ingredients and pour in your wet ingredients, mixing until smooth.

 

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until muffins are brown and cooked through.

Rating: 8

 

Original Source: Based on (gluten-containing) a-corn bread recipe, but modified heavily.

[GirlNextDoor]

Acorn Cookies Recipe

 

Acorn Cookies Ingredients:

 

1 c Butter, melted

3/4 c Brown sugar, firmly packed

1 1/2 c Pecans, chopped fine,*

2 1/2 c All-purpose flour, sifted

1/2 ts Baking powder

1 c Semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

Acorn Cookies Instructions:

 

* divided in 3/4 cup portions This is an easy yet elegant butter-pecan cookie shaped to resemble an acorn and dipped in melted chocolate chips and chopped pecans.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar, 3/4 cup chopped pecans and vanilla on medium speed until well blended.

Add flour and baking powder and mix well, using low speed.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls.

Slightly flatten by pressing balls onto ungreased cookie sheets; pinch tops to point to resemble acorns.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees.

Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

In top of a double boiler over simmering water, melt chocolate chips, stirring until smooth.

Remove from heat; keep double boiler over water.

Dip large ends of cooled cookies into melted chocolate, then roll in chopped pecans.

Cool to set chocolate.

[GirlNextDoor]

There were some more e-books, but I could not copy them for some reason.

[GirlNextDoor]

Dotorimuk (also spelled tot'orimuk) or acorn jelly is a Korean food which is a jelly made from acorn starch. Although "muk" means "jelly", when used without qualifiers, it usually refers to dotorimuk. The practice of making dotorimuk originated in mountainous areas of ancient Korea, when such regions were abundant with oak trees such that the amount of acorns produced each autumn were plentiful enough to become a source of food. Like other muk, dotorimuk is most commonly eaten in the form of dotorimuk muchim (도토리묵무침), a side dish in which small chunks of dotorimuk are seasoned and mixed with other ingredients such as slivered carrots and scallions, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, red chili pepper powder, and sesame seeds.

 

Dotorimuk was widely eaten in Korea during the Korean War, when millions of people were displaced and starving. It consequently became associated with poverty, and most people who could afford them ate memilmuk or other jellies instead. However, in recent years it has been rediscovered as a health food.

[edit] Production

Unseasoned dotorimuk

 

Despite being a rich source of starch and proteins, acorns contain large amounts of tannins and other polyphenols, which prevent the human body from digesting food properly. As such, the harvested acorns must be properly leached of the tannins prior to consumption. Acorns are either collected directly from the ground or knocked off the branches of trees. The harvested acorns are then opened and their nuts inside ground into a fine orange-brown paste. The paste is then stirred into vats of water such that the fibre in the acorn can be separated from the starch through sieving and settling.

 

The starch suspending liquid is collected from the fibre and allowed to sit so that the tannins in the starch will diffuse out of the acorn paste. The soaking time depends on the amount of tannins in the paste, but the process usually requires several changes of water to properly purge it of all noxious substances.

 

The now tannin-free acorn starch paste should have an off-white colour. This paste is allowed to completely settle to the bottom of the vat. The water is drained away, and the paste is then collected in trays to dry. The dried starch cake is then pulverized and packaged for sale. Dotorimuk is also commercially available in powdered form, which must be mixed with water, boiled until pudding-like in consistency, then poured into a flat dish to set.

[edit] See also

 

* Nokdumuk - made from mung beans

* Hwangpomuk - a yellow-colored jelly made from mung beans

* Memilmuk - made from buckwheat

* Konjac - a Japanese jelly

 

[PoGo]

Wonderful info, GirlNextDoor! Thank you.

[GirlNextDoor]

http://www.siouxme.com/acorn.html

 

 

ACORN STEW

• 1 lb stewing beef
• 1/2 C finely ground acorn meal (tannin removed)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Place beef in heavy pan and add water to cover. Cover with lid and simmer until very tender. Remove from liquid and cut meat into very fine pieces. Return meat to the liquid. Stir in the acorn meal. Add salt and pepper as desired. Heat until thickened and serve.

 

Several other ethnic food enthusiasts like to substitute acorn meal for corn meal when making muffins -- usually using 1/2 corn meal and 1/2 acorn. Some have substituted 1/2 of the flour in a biscuit recipe with 1/2 acorn meal. Experiment carefully, remembering that a good portion of the work performed by flour has to do with the gluten in the floor. Sorry, acorn has no gluten, so you'll have to keep this in mind.

 

Here is a modern Acorn Bread recipe from the book "Cooking with Spirit, - North American Indian Food and Fact",

By Darcy Williamson and Lisa Railsback

Copyright 1987 by Darcy Williamson.

Published by Maverick Publications,

Drawer 5007,

Bend, Oregon 97701.

 

 

Acorn Bread

• 6 Tbl. cornmeal
• 1/2 C cold water
• 1 C boiling water
• 1 tsp sale
• 1 Tbl butter
• 1 pkg active dry yeast
• 1/4 C lukewarm water
• 1 C mashed potatoes
• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 2 C finely ground leached acorn meal

Mix cornmeal with cold water, add boiling water and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add sale and butter and cool to lukewarm. Soften yeast in lukewarm water. Add remaining ingredients to corn mixture, along with yeast. Knead to a stiff dough. Dough will be sticky. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk. Punch down, shape into two loaves, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes.

 

[ Top ]

Acorn Griddle Cakes

• 2/3 C finely ground leached acorn meal
• 1/3 C unbleached flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/3 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbl honey
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 C milk
• 3 Tbl melted butter

Combine dry ingredients. Mix together egg and milk, then beat into dry ingredients, forming a smooth batter. Add butter. Drop batter onto hot, greased griddle. Bake, turning each cake when it is browned on underside and puffed and slightly set on top. Makes 12 to 15.

 

 

Venison-Acorn Stew

• 2 lbs venison, cut up
• 1 Cup finely ground acorn meal

Cover venison with water in port or basket; Add hot rocks to simmer until meat almost falls apart. Remove meat from broth and chop into fine pieces. Return to pot with liquid and stir in acorn meal.

[GirlNextDoor]

 

Cooking With Acorns

 

 

ACORNS: A Major North American Indian Food

 

California Indians did not have to be farmers, and for the most part were hunters and gatherers. There was a ready supply of deer, fish, rabbits, fowl, native plants for vegetables, native fruits, and even seaweed. Even so, acorns are said to have been the main food of as many as 3/4 of our native Californians. Acorns were everywhere, are easy to gather and store fairly well ... as long as your storage places are squirrel tight. Some groups buried baskets of nuts until they were needed. Some claim that white acorns were the most preferred because they were sweet and often eaten without leaching.

 

The most common oaks found in the San Francisco Bay area are the Tan Oak, Black Oak, California Live Oak, and Valley Oak. Many of these have been seriously endangered through the process of turning pasture land into housing developments, with the Live Oak being the least threatened -- since this oak is not deciduous, it offers "building development appeal" by remaining "green and healthy looking" all year.

 

Many of the Pomos prefer the Tan Oak because they feel it has more flavor. Many of the MiWuks prefer the Black Oak because it takes less leaching to get rid of the tannin. Many of us don't like the California live oak because "its too much work for the amount of meal you get compared to the amount of leaching you have to do," "its got no character," "too wormy," or "its too easy to get -- nothing that plentiful can be very good." The list goes on and on. My favorite is the Black Oak ... with a little Tan Oak added for character.

 

Acorns are gathered in the fall after they are ripe, Early in the season you will occasionally find acorns without their "little hats" lying on the ground. These are usually buggy. (If the acorn is so heavy that it pulls itself from its cap, it is usually because there is a worm flipping itself about inside the acorn, and all this activity is what breaks the nut free from its cap and the tree.) When the acorns are actually ripe, they fall from the tree, cap intact. If you see any holes in them, throw them away. They are sometimes stored first, to dry them out, and then shelled. Other groups shell them first, and then dry them out by placing them someplace safe, yet warm, to dry. For the ultimate in information on processing acorn, refer to a new book about Yosemite's Julia Parker, written by Park Naturalist Bev Ortiz which came out in 1992 or 1993. It was published by the same group that produces News from Native California, headed by Malcolm Margolin.

 

There is first and foremost, the original recipe: AFTER THE ACORNS ARE **COMPLETELY DRY** & REMOVED FROM THEIR SHELLS, the Acorns are ground until the meal is so fine that "it will stick to the basket sifter" when it is turned upside down. When you have determined that you have ground the acorns to "primo" consistency, you must then leach it. This was traditionally accomplished (before we had woven cloth to work with) by building a mound of fine sand, near a spring or the river, and then scooping out the center. The meal you wished to leach was placed in the center of this mound and water poured over a clean cedar bough which was placed or held above the acorn meal. The tannin would leach out of the acorn meal and harmlessly down into the sand. When tasting it showed the tannin had been removed, the meal was carefully removed from its sand "colander" and put into a cooking basket. Water is added -- the correct amount for the amount of acorn meal you are going to use, which is something that takes a while to adjust to. Too much water will require cooking longer to get the consistency you want. Not enough water and the acorn will burn. Then special cooking rocks were heated in a fire, rinsed off, and using special stirring sticks, the rocks were stirred in the basket to heat the acorn solution thoroughly. As each rock cooled down, it was removed, and another hot clean rock took its place in the cooking basket. The rock that had been removed was washed off and placed back in the fire to reheat and await its turn to become a cooking implement once again. In what seems like no time at all, the acorn soup is boiling, and the stirring continues until the soup is of the desired consistency -- either thin to eat with a spoon, or thicker to eat with a fork, depending on what the "cook" has in mind. Though the above "soup" was eaten straight by the traditional people, I usually add a little salt, and occasionally some dried currents or blue elderberries, or even raisins. Some people like to add a little cinnamon.

 

The rocks are saved for the next time, since finding perfect rocks that won't explode when subjected to heat, or won't crumble into the food, or give a bad taste, etc., are not as easy to find as you might think. The baskets, tools, implements, rocks, etc. used to cook acorn are considered a family legacy and kept within a family to be passed down from generation to generation. What makes a good cooking basket is the subject of another dissertation and shall not be gone into at this time. Ask the next expert basket weaver you meet to explain to you how a cooking basket is made.

 

[ Top ]

ALTERNATIVE LEACHING METHODS, & NATURAL DYING USES

The alternative method of leaching, which I personally use (as do most of the people I have spoken to about this subject) is to take my winnowing basket (or a broad-bottomed basket), place a clean, "white" UNBLEACHED cloth (like a tea towel used just for this purpose....which will never be white again) in the bottom of the basket, and then place your finely ground acorn meal on top of the cloth. Then I get a piece of cedar branch (new growth preferred and place it on top of the acorn meal and run water on it, VERY SLOWLY. I place my basket on top of a large cooking pot (so that I can save the tannin water) in such a way that when the pot fills up, my basket won't be sitting in the water, and the pot can overflow. I check on the leaching process periodically, so I can empty the soup kettle as it fills.

 

Since I am also a weaver and spinner, who does natural dying on occasion, a day or two before I know I'm going to be leaching acorn, I wash any uncolored wool fleece I may have on hand that I will want to dye later, or any white yarn I want to dye in the near future...IF I REMEMBER. Sometimes I don't plan ahead. Anyway, as the acorn leaching pot fills, I will pour this tannin-filled water into the washing machine, where I later place up to 3 or 4 lbs of clean white wool or yarn to soak up the tannic acid solution. When I am ready to dye the wool at a later date, the color will come out much more dramatically that it would if I had used "untreated fleece".

 

Another way I have heard of to leach acorn, which I have NEVER tried and probably never will, is to SCRUB the water tank on your toilet to remove any algae, and use this "sanitary" part of your toilet to leach your acorn meal. It makes sense to use water that otherwise is wasted but it doesn't seem like a very aesthetic topic of conversation for a public gathering ... I can hear it now: "Gee, this acorn mush isn't half bad .... you must have leached it really thoroughly." "Why yes I do; I let it sit in a clean muslin bag in my toilet tank for a week or so..." Then watch your dinner guests put their food down, never to eat at your camp fire again. The girl that shared this bit of information with us had just remodeled her house, had a brand new toilet, and hence no green film in the tank, so she thought it was the perfect opportunity to try out a method she had heard of, or had a theory about. She also went on to say, that she was glad her new toilet was a pale brown color because the tannin discolored her the toilet bowl for quite some time....

 

Below is a recipe that I have used as recently as last year which is a good one to serve to those who stubbornly believe that acorn meal is yucky ... they'll never even know its there unless you tell them later -- and then they'll say things like "oh, that's why it was so bland," or "oh, that's why I didn't like it," or "that's why it got hungry an hour later." If you want to be sure you are actually tasting the meal, use the recipe exactly as is. Once you feel confident that you wish to include the meal, but you want to add more character to the stew, feel free to add garlic, green pepper, carrots, etc. The acorn then replaces the starch of the potato, and provides you with more nutrition than the potato would provide

[GirlNextDoor]

Traditional Venison Acorn Stew

 

To make venison stew, you will need the following:

 

2 lbs venison, cut up

1 Cup finely ground acorn meal

 

Cover venison with water in pot or basket; Add hot rocks to simmer until meat almost falls apart. Remove meat from broth and chop into fine pieces. Return to pot with liquid and stir in acorn meal. Serve hot.

 

 

[GirlNextDoor]

Chocolate Acorn Cake 1 cup mashed bananas, or applesauce

2 eggs

1/3 cup pure maple syrup or honey

1/3 cup butter or coconut oil, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup acorn meal

1/3 cup dutch process cocoa

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

 

Combine all the wet ingredients with a whisk or a fork. Sift together all the dry ingredients except the acorn meal. Stir everything together, them add the acorn meal and stir. Pour into a greased 8” cake pan and bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes. Start checking it at about 20 minutes to see how it’s doing. Remove from the oven when the middle of the cake has just begun to firm up, but is a little less than solid. Try not to overcook it. If you do, douse it with a little Kahlua, or top it with the following ganache, and all will be well.

Acorn Ganache

This is so fantastic, with the preceeding cake, or on any regular chocolate cake or banana cake. It’s also very delicious on its own, or served with fresh pears, coconut, or baked apples, fresh dates, or what have you. Feel free to play with it and make your own variations!

 

6 tablespoons acorn meal

3-4 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons pure cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup water

 

Stir all ingredients together in a small pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until well thickened. Be careful not to burn it! Enjoy!

[GirlNextDoor]

 

Jamestown Style

Acorn Bread

1/2 cup acorn flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon yeast

4 tablespoons water Sift the dry ingredients, then add the water. After mixing everything up until it makes a ball, let it rise for about 2 hours.Place the ball of dough on a stone baking pan and bake it at 350° 20 or 30 minutes.

Makes one biscuit-sized loaf. Enjoy with butter or honey!

 

So, how was the acorn bread?

 

I didn’t think it tasted too bad. It basically tasted like whole wheat bread with a slightly nutty taste. My sister Kerry and my brother Mike agreed. Both said it was okay and walked off without eating more.

 

Adam, the youngest (and pickiest eater ever) said, “I didn’t particularly like it, but I’d eat it if I had to. Like, if I was starving in the winter.”

 

At first, my dad wouldn’t try it. “It’s made of acorns!” he said, but he took a bite anyway. He said it wasn’t bad.

 

And what did Mom think?

 

“It’s heavy,” she said. “I can see how it would fill you up--at least a little.” She paused.

 

“But do you like it?” I asked.

 

“Yeah, I do. It’s good!” as if to prove her point, she ate another piece. I sighed with relief. But I’m not sure why...

 

 

All in all, I’d say the whole thing was a success. The experiment made me realize how hard Joan, Tempie, and Maggie worked to survive the Starving Time. But next autumn when the leaves change colors, when the air gets chilly, when acorns litter the ground, maybe I won’t say anything and see if Mom forgets. Or maybe I’ll just have to ignore her if she says, “Remember last fall, when we made acorn bread? I was wondering if you wanted to try it again...”

 

Other Recipes

 

Acorn Cornmeal bread

1 cup acorn flour

½ cup cornmeal

½ cup whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 egg

½ cup honey

3 tablespoons cooking oil

1 cup milk Preheat oven to 350°. Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, combine egg, honey, milk and oil. Add wet mixture to the dry ingredients gradually while mixing with a whisk or electric mixer. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean

 

Acorn White Flour Bread

Mix together:

1 cup acorn flour

1 cup unbleached white flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Beat together:

1 cup milk

1 egg

3 tablespoons salad oil Add these to the dry ingredients and stir just enough to moisten everything. Pour into a greased pan and bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes.

 

 

Jamestown Style

Acorn Bread

1/2 cup acorn flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon yeast

4 tablespoons water Sift the dry ingredients, then add the water. After mixing everything up until it makes a ball, let it rise for about 2 hours.Place the ball of dough on a stone baking pan and bake it at 350° 20 or 30 minutes.

Makes one biscuit-sized loaf. Enjoy with butter or honey!

 

So, how was the acorn bread?

 

I didn’t think it tasted too bad. It basically tasted like whole wheat bread with a slightly nutty taste. My sister Kerry and my brother Mike agreed. Both said it was okay and walked off without eating more.

 

Adam, the youngest (and pickiest eater ever) said, “I didn’t particularly like it, but I’d eat it if I had to. Like, if I was starving in the winter.”

 

At first, my dad wouldn’t try it. “It’s made of acorns!” he said, but he took a bite anyway. He said it wasn’t bad.

 

And what did Mom think?

 

“It’s heavy,” she said. “I can see how it would fill you up--at least a little.” She paused.

 

“But do you like it?” I asked.

 

“Yeah, I do. It’s good!” as if to prove her point, she ate another piece. I sighed with relief. But I’m not sure why...

 

 

All in all, I’d say the whole thing was a success. The experiment made me realize how hard Joan, Tempie, and Maggie worked to survive the Starving Time. But next autumn when the leaves change colors, when the air gets chilly, when acorns litter the ground, maybe I won’t say anything and see if Mom forgets. Or maybe I’ll just have to ignore her if she says, “Remember last fall, when we made acorn bread? I was wondering if you wanted to try it again...”

 

Other Recipes

 

Acorn Cornmeal bread

1 cup acorn flour

½ cup cornmeal

½ cup whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 egg

½ cup honey

3 tablespoons cooking oil

1 cup milk Preheat oven to 350°. Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, combine egg, honey, milk and oil. Add wet mixture to the dry ingredients gradually while mixing with a whisk or electric mixer. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean

 

Acorn White Flour Bread

Mix together:

1 cup acorn flour

1 cup unbleached white flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Beat together:

1 cup milk

1 egg

3 tablespoons salad oil Add these to the dry ingredients and stir just enough to moisten everything. Pour into a greased pan and bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes.

 

 

[GirlNextDoor]

Apache acorn soup recipe

 

Recipe ingredients:

• 1 (2 1/2-pound) beef roast
• 2 quarts water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup ground acorn meal

 

 

Recipe method:

 

• Peel the acorns and grind them. The outer part of the acorn is not used.
• Cover beef with water and bring to boil in a heavy pot.
• Simmer several hours until beef is very tender, adding salt and pepper.
• Remove the beef, while letting the pot continue to boil.
• Shred the beef, then mix it with the acorn meal.
• Add this mixture to the broth and simmer together until the broth bubbles creamy-white with yellow flecks.

[GirlNextDoor]

Recipe for Acorn Bread 1. Shell dry acorns.

2. Use a blender to grind acorns into fine flour.

3. Put acorn flour into a muslim-lined colander (cheesecloth is too porous). Place the colander in the sink and run warm water through the flour until the bitterness is gone (stirring gently will speed this slow process).

4. Salt may be added, if desired.

5. Shape flour into pancake-like patties (about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 1/4 inch thick) while flour is still moist.

6. Fry without oil on non-stick pan

7. This flour may be used in place of regular flour in cookie recipes. In cookie recipes that call for 2 1/2 cups of flour, substitute 1/4 cup of acorn flour for 1/4 cup of regular flour.

 

To remove tanning from shelled acorns:

1. place shelled raw acorns in boiling water, and continue to boil until the water is the color of strong tea.

2. Pour the water and nuts through a colander.

3. Place the acorns in more water and continue above process until water boils clear. This process removes tannin from the acorns.

4. Allow nuts to dry. Spread acorns to dry on cookie sheets--put in warm place. When partially dry, coarse grind a few at a time in a blender. Spread to dry on cookie sheets, then grind again in blender.

[GirlNextDoor]

Recipe for Acorn Bread 1. Shell dry acorns.

2. Use a blender to grind acorns into fine flour.

3. Put acorn flour into a muslim-lined colander (cheesecloth is too porous). Place the colander in the sink and run warm water through the flour until the bitterness is gone (stirring gently will speed this slow process).

4. Salt may be added, if desired.

5. Shape flour into pancake-like patties (about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 1/4 inch thick) while flour is still moist.

6. Fry without oil on non-stick pan

7. This flour may be used in place of regular flour in cookie recipes. In cookie recipes that call for 2 1/2 cups of flour, substitute 1/4 cup of acorn flour for 1/4 cup of regular flour.

 

To remove tanning from shelled acorns:

1. place shelled raw acorns in boiling water, and continue to boil until the water is the color of strong tea.

2. Pour the water and nuts through a colander.

3. Place the acorns in more water and continue above process until water boils clear. This process removes tannin from the acorns.

4. Allow nuts to dry. Spread acorns to dry on cookie sheets--put in warm place. When partially dry, coarse grind a few at a time in a blender. Spread to dry on cookie sheets, then grind again in blender.

[GirlNextDoor]

Acorn "Coffee"

 

Acorns contain a lot of tannin and need to be prepared to remove the excess before using. However, this tannin gives them a tea and coffe-like quality and they were much used to make drinks in the past. Traditionally the acorns would have been shelled and soaked in a river for several days to leach out the tannins before being roasted. But there's a way to cheat and it's the cheat method I present here.

 

 

Ingredients:

1kg fresh, ripe, acorns

 

 

 

Method:

 

Preparation

Add the acorns to a large pan along with plenty of water. Bring to a boil and continue boiling, uncovered for 15 minutes. Top-up the water as the acorns cook.

 

Drain in a colander, then allow to cool and peel. The boiling process will make peeling the acorns much easier. Split the acorns then set aside in a dry but warm spot for the acorns to dry out for 48 hours then grind in a coffee grinder (just as you would, coffee). Spread the grounds on a baking tray and roast in a warm oven, stirring frequently and checking often to ensure that they do not burn. You are aiming for the grounds to be a brown coffee colour.

 

To make a drink use a cafetiére and add 1 1/2 tsp per cup then pour water over the top and make the drink, just as you would coffee. Add milk and sugar to taste and serve. Don't expect anything that tastes remotely like coffee or tea. It's it's own kind of drink, but pleasant enough for all that.

 

 

[GirlNextDoor]

Hear acorn jelly is used in traditional Korean recipes sort of as a substitute for tofu.

 

<h1 class="entry-title">Seasoned Acorn Jelly (Dotori Muk Muchim)</h1> February 8, 2007 Category: Side Dishes (Banchan), Vegetarian 25 Comments - Leave a comment!

 

When I was a child, I sometimes went hiking with my mom and we picked up some dropped acorns in the hills. I didn’t hike to the very top but on the way back the basket of my bicycle was full of acorns. At that time I didn’t know how they could be eaten by us, humans, because I always thought that they are for squirrels.

 

In my memory, I don’t think I liked the seasoned acorn jelly that much because of its bitter taste, but now I love it, it is like an adult appreciates good food more than a child. It has a slightly bitter taste from the acorn jelly and a slightly sweet and salty taste from the sauce, which I love, and this recipe is like that.

 

 

Hoping you can get the acorn jelly where you live, here is how the recipe goes.

 

Ingredients (enough to serve 6-8 people as a side dish) : 5 minutes to serve

 

• Acorn jelly (도토리묵) – 420 g
• 2-3 lettuce leaves
• 1 green chili (non spicy)

Sauce (mix these in a bowl)

 

• Soy sauce – 6 tbsp
• Dark brown sugar – 1 tbsp
• Sesame oil – 1 tbsp
• Finely chopped spring onion – 2 tbsp
• Parched sesame seed – 1 tbsp
• Chili powder – 2 tsp
• Minced garlic – 2 tsp

Prep

 

1. Slice the acorn jelly (1 cm -1.5 cm thickness).
2. Take the seeds out from the chili and thin slice it.
3. Thin slice the lettuce (thickness doesn’t really matter, but mine was close to 1 cm).

Method A) - Better presentation

 

1. Put the sliced acorn jelly on the plate.
2. Add the sliced chili on top.
3. Decorate the plate with the lettuce.
4. Spread the sauce on the top.
5. Serve it on the table.

Method - My mom’s way (it may season the acorn jelly and lettuce better)

 

1. Put the lettuce, chili and acorn jelly in a mixing bowl.
2. Add the sauce and lightly mix it.
3. Serve it on the plate.

 

By the way, a pack of acorn jelly is more expensive than tofu (I thought it would be cheap). It was 3,000 won (US $3.20) for 420 g in Korea. I also bought a pack of acorn powder to make acorn jelly from scratch and it was 6,6oo won (US $6. 30). It was requested by one of my readers. I know I really need to make it soon but apparently it requires continuous stirring for nearly an hour without any break, so I gave up for then.

 

Don’t worry! beloved, I will definitely do it.

[GirlNextDoor]

How to Make Acorn Bread Pudding

In celebration of the Acorn Festival in North Carolina, here's a new take on an old standby. By taking the time to infuse milk with the flavors of sweet acorns elevates this traditional recipe to heavenly status. Make some of this dessert for your next family gathering.

 

Difficulty: Moderate Instructions Things You'll Need:

[*] 1 loaf of day-old French bread

[*] ½ c candied acorns

[*] 4 c milk

[*] 3 eggs

[*] 1 c bakers sugar

[*] ½ tsp cinnamon

[*] 1 tsp almond extract

[*] 1 Tbsp unsalted butter

[*] Above ingredients

[*] Medium sauce pan

[*] Whisk

[*] Large bowl

[*] Baking pan

[*] Step 1 the stale bread into 1-inch cubes. Set aside.

[*] Step 2 the acorns into pieces no larger than ½-inch in size. Set aside.

[*] Step 3 Grease the inside of a 9x13-inchbaking pan with the butter. Set aside.

[*] Step 4 Heat your oven to 350 degrees.

[*] Step 5 In a medium-sized sauce pan, heat the milk to just boiling. Add the acorns to the milk and take the pan off the heat. Let the acorns infuse the milk for approximately 15 minutes. The milk should be very aromatic at this point.

[*] Step 6 Place the bread into a large bowl and pour the infused milk and acorns over the bread.

[*] Step 7 Let the bread soak up the milk and soften. All of the bread should be soaked with milk. Stir the mixture until all of the milk is absorbed by the bread.

[*] Step 8 In a medium bowl, add the eggs, sugar, cinnamon and almond extract. Whisk all of the ingredients well until the eggs become light and change to a lighter yellow color.

[*] Step 9 Gently fold in the egg mixture to the bread. Stir gently so the bread doesn’t lose shape.

[*] Step 10 Once the mixture is completely incorporated, turn the bread mixture into the greased baking pan.

[*] Step 11 Evenly distribute the bread mixture and sprinkle a small amount of cinnamon onto the top for garnish.

[*] Step 12 Bake the bread pudding for approximately 35 to 40 minutes. When a inserted toothpick or knife comes out clean, the pudding is finished.

[*] Step 13 Let the pudding rest, cooling, for approximately 10 minutes before serving.

[*] Step 14 Serve with fresh whipped cream.