Dave's Kitchen - Acorns

Below is a letter from Dave.  A lot of people don't realize that acorns are edible for humans, but they do require some processing first.  Acorns are widely available in most parts of the country and could be considered a supplemental food source.  Here is Dave's letter:

 

 

I had a call from my dad this morning and he said that he had gathered up a 5 gallon bucket of acorns from his "Burr Oak" trees and told me that I could have them If I wanted them. I couldn't say no, it's been a while since I have had acorn cakes so I went and picked them up. He is going to have several more buckets as soon as they fall off the tree and I will be getting them also.

Burr Oak acorns are pretty big so shelling them was fairly easy but time consuming, in about 45 minutes of leisurely work I had enough to make a batch of meal.

The acorns from the Burr Oak Oak trees are very low in astringent, mild in flavour and are really easy to prepare and use. This is the meal after I ran the acorns through the food processor to chop them.

This is the wet meal after leeching and the final is a picture of the finished cakes. Daing Sue, they are good. The total time from acorn to cake was about 1 1/2 hours, most of the time was shelling them.

 

To process the acorns, you shell/peel them, run them through a food processor until they are the consistency of course meal, wash the meal in fresh water and strain, repeat until rinse water is clear(a taste of the meal at this point shouldn't make you pucker), press the water out through a mesh strainer and it is ready for use. If you dont want to use it right away, put it in the fridge or dehydrate it for long term storage

 

The recipe I used was:

2 1/2 Cups Wet Acorn Meal

1 Cup Wheat Flour

3 Eggs

1/4 Cup Cooking Oil

1/2 Tea Spoon Salt

4 Table Spoons Sugar

1 Tea Spoon Baking Soda

Vinegar water to desired consistency

I cooked them on a hot skillet like pancakes or corn cakes. They can be eaten with syrup, buttered or just straight off the griddle, the acorns give the cakes a mild nutty flavor.

(Thank you, Dave, for sharing this information!)