Getting a Nice Meal Acorn Meal

As Mother Nature confiscates the remaining of the winter, the oak tree in its steady guise majestically takes charge of the autumn, its autumn again; time again to enjoy the fertility and fruits of the precious and adored acorn seed.

The Oak tree comes in two distinct families; the red oaks and white oaks. Difference between the two is that the red oak leaves have pointed tips and white oaks leaves have more rounded lobes. It’s from the oak tree that the acorn is harvested. Usually this harvest is done in grassy parks, mowed lawns or waysides. The nature of the Oak tree is that it may yield heavily one year and be dry for the subsequent years. Thus a good year for a particular oak tree presents the opportunity to stock up. Harvesting is usually just the beginning of a series of processes that transforms the acorn into the delicious Acorn breads, pancakes and the wonderful hot, buttered Acorn muffin. Unlike the Black walnuts and Hickory Nuts which are very popular nuts not many have tried to savor the deliciousness of the Acorn.

The Acorn is edible, and was a favorite food of the many Indian tribes in California. They are an energy magnate containing 500 calories, 54 grams of carbohydrates and 30 grams of fat per cup of Acorn flour. This is probably the reason the Indians preferred it. Making the acorn flour or to get acorn nutmeats involves a series of processes from shelling, leaching, dehydrating and finally grinding of the nut meats.

Storage of acorn

It’s important to remember that incase after harvesting you will not process the acorn immediately, but after some few days. Then it’s appropriate to spread the acorns, while they are still in the shell on cookie sheets and roast them for 20-30 minutes at 250 degrees Celsius in an oven to prevent them from being infested by some little moths. Incase you want to store the acorn for long times, make sure to dehydrate them within 24 hours of harvesting to avoid mold. Otherwise the processes in processing acorns involve Shelling, cracking, winnowing, leaching, dehydrating and finally grinding the acorns.

Step 1: Shelling

First to loosen the shells, make sure you dehydrate the acorns. By doing these shelling will be relatively easy. Shelling can be easily done by placing a large vessel like a 5-gallon bucket on top of 3 inch layer of acorn. The acorns are then pounded to crash open their shells. Pound gently as heavy pounding may crush all the nutmeats. Purchasing a nut cracking device will make the whole process of pounding very easy especially if you will still be harvesting acorns in coming years. Also one can use the nutcracker to crush each acorn by hand. This may be appropriate if the acorns are few, but for many acorns this is time consuming. The cracked acorns should subsequently be passed through apiece of ½ inch mesh hardware over a vessel you have just next to you. This is sifting, ensure as much nutmeat enters the vessel which may be a bucket, this is by pushing other large nutmeats through the mesh and running your hands over the acorn to help them enter the bucket. Don’t bother about the uncracked acorns that enter, simply return them to the crushing operation and they can be even crushed using bare hands.

Step 2: Winnowing

This involves placing an empty vessel below a chair having a fan. Then with a bowl full of acorn you start pouring slowly all the contents to the empty vessel. The shells will blow away while the nutmeats will enter the vessel. Alternatively on a windy day the whole process will be easier as it will not involve the use of a fan. The process of winnowing should be done repeatedly. Ensure to pick the larger shells by hand.

Step three: Leaching

The purpose of leaching is to remove the bitter tannins. Leaching can be hot water leaching or cold water leaching. Hot water leaching is more convenient, it involves boiling the acorns in a cooking pot. The acorn needs to be covered by water double its amount and boiled for 5 to 10 minutes. The dark, muddy and bitter water is then poured out. This process should be repeated 5-6 times until the acorns have a pleasant taste.

Step four: Dehydrating

The leached acorns must subsequently be dried to get them ready for storage or so as to be grinded into flour. This can be done using a dehydrator which will free all the water from the acorns. Alternatively if living in a hot climate where they is sufficient sun they can simply be dried in the sun by placing them on clean bath towels. One can sun dry them first then take them to the dehydrator. Spreading the acorns on cookie sheets in an oven is also a way to dry them, but be careful not to burn them.

Step Five: Grinding

Finally after all of the above processes is done, its time to get the acorns ready for backing by grinding them, this can be done using an electric grain mill or cranked corn mill. After grinding the acorns they should be passed through a mesh strainer to sift out any crunchy particles. To make the flour finer they should be passed through a small electric coffee mill.

After all these processes your acorn flour will be ready for use to bake muffins, cakes, breads and all sorts of backing. Acorn has a texture like that of cornmeal, its not like fine flour. Thus you may find some cornmeal recipes useful. Incase you will not be using the acorn flour immediately store it in glass jars and place the jars in a cool dry place.