A Tale of Two Acorns (and a Recipe)

December 12, 2019

Around my neighborhood this fall, the Acorns were so plentiful that I felt like I had been trapped in some Three Stooges joke where people slip on marbles. Acorns pinged our car roofs and littered the streets. If I were an early American (native or colonist), I would have gathered them by the bagful to sock away nutrition to see me through the winter. There's no Nutrition without "Nut." Acorns are a super source of non-animal protein, dense in nutrients. Husband Steven, my son David, and I gathered about two pounds in no time.

Some sources say that Acorns are a bit of a pain to process. First, let them dry a few weeks (or months). Striking them firmly with a wooden mallet, then prying out the meat with a small butter knife, worked well. Sometimes, if I smashed it just right, and the nut cooperated, I would be able to take the whole nut out in one piece.

Red Oak Leaf, with pointy lobes

I had always heard that humans can't eat Acorns, due to their high tannin content--which would be a shame, given their prevalence this year. But I recently learned that we can process them to remove the tannins and bitterness, and create a tasty flour or nut meat, by soaking or boiling them in water. But here's where the "Tale of Two Acorns" diverges.

There are two main varieties of oaks: Red Oaks and White Oaks. As you can see in the photos above, the Red Oak leaf (on left) has pointy lobes (edges), and the White Oak leaf (right), has rounded lobes. And here's the important lesson that I learned: though individual species will vary by the amount of tannin (bitterness) they contain, in general White Oak Acorns are much less bitter than Red Oak Acorns.

Red Oak Acorn Pulp, boiled, dried, ready to be ground in blender

The big bagful of acorns I merrily carried home was full of Red Oak Acorns. I chopped them up in a blender and put them in a large jar of water (half Acorn pulp, half water) in the fridge. As the tannins colored the water brown, I dutifully decanted the acorn mash three times a day, for WEEKS. No matter my hard work and dedication: the larger chunks of nut meat remained inedibly bitter. I finally gave in and processed the mash using Approach #2: Boiling, ladling off and refilling the water as it darkened, until even the largest chunk of Acorn meat held no hint of bitterness. The mush was spread on baking sheets and dried at a low heat in the oven, fully cooled, and then ground fine in the blender. (Read to the end for my experience with White Oak Acorns.)

With the copious amount of Red Acorn Flour I now had on hand, it was time to try a new recipe. Do you remember a while back, I made Crackers with Dock Flour? In that post, I mentioned my goal of using foraged foods as primary ingredients, rather than as substitutes for conventional ingredients--taking advantage of the nature of the foraged foods, rather than trying to make them behave like store-bought products. My plan was to try out this approach by making cereal flakes. Which I did by adapting a recipe for home-made bran cereal from the internet (biggerbolderbaking.com):

RECIPE: Dock and Acorn Flour Cereal

1/2 cup Dock Flour

1/2 cup Acorn Flour (boiled method)

4 TB Plantain Seeds

2 TB coconut oil

14 TB water

2 TB honey

Mix ingredients, adding water last, tablespoon by tablespoon, until you have a dry but pliable dough. Spray baking sheet very lightly with cooking oil. Roll out dough, using baking parchment paper as a top cover, until it's the thickness of a cereal flake. Bake at 250 degrees until thoroughly dry (timing will vary depending on the thickness of your flakes--15-50 minutes). Let cool, break into chunks, and store in airtight container.

I figured that the finer texture and (hopefully) nutty flavor of the Acorn flour (left in first photo) would make a nice complement to the drier, seedier texture of the Dock flour (right). Second photo: rolling the dough out thinly on a baking sheet. Third: a closeup of the nutty, grainy goodness of the rolled-out dough. Fourth: the cereal in a bowl, ready to be doused with milk and berries.

VERDICT? Excellent! The flakes were a bit drier, and certainly less sweet, than you might find in commercial cereals, but they held up well to the milk. Next time, I might double the honey and coconut oil (or whatever fat you choose to use), to make the flakes a little more sweet and a little less crumbly.

Oh--and I should have mentioned--I also threw in Plantain seeds that I had harvested during my fall root foray. One of the Wild Food Experts I most admire, Pascal Baudar, basically calls them a super-food. Spikes of Broadleaf Plantain Seeds were still standing in early December. They're easy to gather, and then strip the seeds from the stalks at home. Separating the seeds from the chaff is a little more challenging. I tried the "rub them between your hands in a breeze" method, which didn't work because the seeds were so small and light. So then I tried rubbing the seeds between my fingers and thumb, and floating them in water. Success! The seeds sink, the chaff floats, and you can just pour it off. Be aware, though: the seeds have a gelid coating that makes them stick to the bowl as they dry. That was partly why I used them in my cereal: I threw them in before they had a chance to harden and stick.

Follow Up: White Oak Acorns

White Oak Acorn Pulp, dried and ready to grind into flour

I like to think of the purpose of this blog as, "I make mistakes, so you don't have to." I went out and found Acorns from a White Oak and repeated the process of soaking and decanting (that had not been the least bit successful with the Red Oak Acorns). Within two weeks the nut meats were mild and flavorless--just what you're trying to achieve. The flour produced by cold soaking and decanting is supposed to be more flavorful and higher in fat--meaning it sticks together better in recipes. I haven't had the opportunity to give this theory a test--but I'll let you know when I do.