acorn pasta and the mechanics of eating acorns

Acorn Pasta and the Mechanics of Eating Acorns

Acorn Pasta and the Mechanics of Eating AcornsBy Hank Shaw on January 14, 2010 | 70 Responses

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Photo by Hank Shaw

I know this probably should have been the first of the three acorn posts Ive written over the past few weeks, but before I got into the mechanics of working with acorns and acorn flour I wanted to whet your appetite for actually using them not as some grim survival food or something old hippies eat, but asa worthy ingredient in serious, moderncooking.

If you havent read my other two acorn posts, Acorns and the Foragers Dilemma is an introduction to the use of acorns; the Foragers Dilemma is, in a word,starch. Starch (carbohydrates) is the toughest thing to forage for, and is a primary reasonwhy humans settled down 10,000 years ago to grow grain.

Next I wrote aboutan interesting Acorn Honey Cake Id made and how various world cultures have traditionally used acorns, cultures ranging from Korea to Japan to the Native Americans, Europeans and North Africans.

Using acorns as food pretty much falls into three categories: Eating acorns as nuts (they are a lot like chestnuts), making acorn flour, or cooking in acorn oil. I have not yet tried to make acorn oil, but I know how to do it and plan on trying it when I am a bit more mobile.

COLLECTING ACORNSFirst you need to get yourself a supply of acorns. Go find some oak trees; theyre the ones with all the acorns that have fallen down around them. I know this sounds condescending and stupid, but oaks come in so many varieties that in January this really is the easiest way. It is a bit of a crapshoot, as it is tougher to determine a variety of oakby its acorn than by its the leaf you can do it, but it is a little harder.

Must you gather acorns in the dead of winter? Nope. In fact, the Valley Oak acorns I am working with were gathered in October. You can collect acorns as early as August, while many are still green but fully formed; in fall when they, well, fall; in winter when there is no snow, and even in spring, when they are beginning to sprout.

Suellen Ocean, who wrote a very useful book Acorns and Eat em,says she likes to collect Tanoak acorns in February and March, after many have begun sprouting. She says acorns with sprouts between 1-2 inches long are still good to eat, but discard any acorn meats that have turned green.

I plan to do this and go through a second round of acorn experiments, especially because Ocean saysrecently sprouted acorns a) have begun to turn their starch into sugar, and b) are foolproof: If it is sprouted, its a good acorn and I havent wasted time gathering wormy ones.

A word on worms. When I gathered all those Valley Oak acorns in October, little did I know that I had gathered scores already infected with the larva of the oak weevil. Nasty little maggoty things, you can tell they are inside your acorn if there is a little hole in the shell. Look for it, discard that acorn and move on. But know that oak weevil larvae bored those holes from the inside out so many acorn experts say only choose fallen acorns that still have their hats on; the theory is that the extra weight of the larva makes the acorn fall prematurely.

Still, you need to know what kind of oak you are dealing with.If you dont know your trees, start looking for little green acorns in May. Pick a leaf and compare it to oak leaves online or in a guidebook. Right now gather acorns and compare them to online images and guidebooks; different oaks bear acorns with different shapes.

With that in mind, remember that not all oaks are created equal, and the fundamental fact of cooking with acorns is that you are dealing with a wild food, and as such must contend with tremendous variability, both in species and even among individuals of the same species.

Some oaks bear acorns so low in tannins (well get to tannins later) that they can be eaten raw. Legend says that California Indians fought over these trees, which makes some sense because one mature Valley Oak can drop 2,000 pounds of acorns in a really good year. A ton of sweet acorns may well be worth fighting over.

UC Riverside Professor David Bainbridge wrote in a 1986 academic paper that depending on species, acorns can range in fat content from 1.1 percent to 31.3 percent, protein from 2.3 percent to 8.6 percent, and carbohydrates from 32.7 percent to 89.7 percent. That is a huge range!

What does it mean? It means that in the kitchen you treat acorns fromdifferent species very, very differently. A fatty acorn will make a meal, like ground almonds. A carb-rich acorn like my Valley Oak acorns makes a drier flour, more like chestnut or chickpea flour (acorns lack gluten and so wil not rise.)

Valley Oak leaves

WHAT TO DO WITH VARIOUS OAKSHeres a general breakdown, culled from research Ive done in literally dozens of academic papers and wild plant books:

Sweetest Acorns, meaning lowest in tannin: East Coast White oak, the Emory oak of the Southwest, the Pin oak of the South, the Valley and Blue oaks of California, the Burr oak of the Midwest, as well as the Cork oak and the well-named Bellota oak of Europe. To my California readers, know that there are an awful lot of cork oaks and burr oaks planted in towns and cities here, so keep your eyes peeled.

Largest Acorns: Valley oaks are really big, as are East Coast White oaks. Burr oaks are large, too, as is the California Black oak.

Fattiest Acorns: The Eastern red oak acorns Ive used have a very high oil content, and Ive read that the Algonquin Indians used red oak acorns for oil. In the West, the champions are both live oaks, the Coastal and the interior live oak, as well as the California black oak, which is quercus kellogii.

SHELLING I found that shelling the acorns is the most onerous part of dealing with them. They have an elastic shell that resists normal nut crackers. I found whacking them with a hammer to be the best way to open up an acorn. Some people use a knife, and I might do this with green acorns, but not fully ripe ones. Best way to whack em is to put the flat end (the side that used to have the cap) on a firm surface and rap the pointy end with a hammer.

Red oak acorns will have a skin that doesnt want to come off, just like a chestnut. If you boil the acorns and shell them while still hot, the skin comes right off. Only do 5-10 acorns at a time if you are doing this, or theyll cool too much. I only bother with this when I am making acorn bits, not flour. The skin is a little bitter, but its not that big a deal if you are making flour.

Always shell your acorns into water. The meats oxidize fast, and you will get a lighter flour if you do this. Its aesthetic, but it matters to me.

TANNINSWith a few exceptions, such as the Emory oak of Arizona and New Mexico, all acorns must be leached with water to remove bitter tannins, which will a) make your mouth feel and taste like felt, b) make you a bit nauseous, and possibly c) constipate you for days.

Getting those tannins out is the big barrier to cooking with acorns. But it aint no biggie. With my Valley oak acorns, after shelling I dropped the acorn meats directly into my stockpot that was two-thirds full of water. When I filled the pot about a third of the way up with shelled acorns, I brought the pot of water to a boil. The water turns dark. As soon as it boils, pour the water off into the sink and repeat the process.

It required five changes of water to get my Valley oak acorns to where they tasted like chestnuts. I did this all while watching football, and did not miss a snap. It takes time, but not much effort.

Other oaks will require more or fewer changes of water. Choose the sweetest acorns on my list above for the least amount of work.

Are there other methods of leaching? You bet, including outlandish ones like grinding the raw acorns into flour and hanging them in a sack set in the flushtank of your toilet whenever you flush, it leaches more tannin out.

One other good method is to grind the raw acorns into flour, then mix 1 cup of acorn flour to 3 cups water. Pour this all into a glass jar with a lid and put it in the fridge. Every day you shake the jar, wait 12 hours or more, then pour off the water and the tannins. How long? Anywhere from a week to two weeks, depending on how bitter your acorns are. This is a good way to leach acorns without using fuel for boiling water, and you do not denature a particular starch in the acorns that acts a little like the gluten in flour, i.e., it helps the flour stick to itself.

If you plan on baking with the acorn flour, use the cold-water leaching method.

DRYINGOnce your acorns are free of tannins, you need to figure out what to do with them. Regardless, you need to dry them first or they will rot. Big pieces can be patted dry on a tea towel.

If it is hot out, lay the acorns out on cookie sheets and dry in the sun. You could also put them in an oven set on warm.

You can also put the acorns in a dehydrator set on low heat.

I prefer to roast my hot-leached acorns, as roasting brings out the sugars in acorns and really protects them from deteriorating. I roasted my acorns at 300 degrees for about an hour. Keep in mind these were Valley oaks, so watch your acorns after about 30 minutes some may roast faster than others, and you do not want to burn them.

Photo by Hank Shaw

FLOUR or PIECESIf you want big pieces, vacuum seal them and put them in the freezer. Use pieces in a wild game soup like the ruffed grouse soup I made with acorn bits last week, or you can make them into an interesting breakfast if you cook them with cream and honey.

Pieces are also good as nut substitutes, chopped into meatballs and as part of a turkey stuffing, for example. You might use chopped acorn pieces with my venison meatball recipe after all, deer eat acorns.

As good as pieces are, I prefer my acorns as flour. Heres how to make it.

Start with the cold-leaching method, where you pulverize the fresh acorns and put them into a jar to leach. Once the tannins are all gone, pour the acorn meal into a a cheesecloth-lined strainer. Steadily squeeze as much water as you can out of the meal.

Lay the squeezed acorn meal on a baking sheet in a thin layer and dry it either in a dehydrator or in an oven set as low as it will go; I set mine at 170 degrees. Slowly dry the flour, mixing it from time to time the top layer will dry before the bottom.

Once the meal is fully dry do not skimp on this step or you will ruin your flour put it into a blender fixed with a dry blade (I use a Vitamix) or a strong coffee grinder to grind the meal into a flour. Do this in batches, and allow time to let your grinder cool between batches. Ive found that about 60-90 seconds works pretty well.

Sift the flour through your finest-mesh sieve to remove any stray large pieces.

Store the flour in jars in the fridge. Why the fridge? What fat there is in acorns will go rancid pretty quick if you left the flour at room temperature.

Photo by Holly A. Heyser

What you can now do with this flour is pretty limitless. My first success was an acorn flour flatbread in the style of an Italian piadina, which is essentially a tortilla. I then made acorn flour honey cake, which was really very tasty almost like gingerbread cake but I still need to work on the texture.

ACORN PASTAThen I decided to make acorn flour pasta. I played around with the proportions of acorn flour to wheat I used both semolina and regular all-purpose flour, but no eggs. When I finally got it right, or at least where I wanted it, I decided that the nutty, dark, unrefined taste of this pasta needed a shape equally rustic. I immediately thought orecchiette, but was having a little trouble making them, so I switched midstream to making cavatelli.


You make this shape or at least I made this shape, as cavatelli has many permutations by rolling out the pasta dough into a snake about the width of your fattest finger. Then with a small knife you slice off a disc about the size of your thumbnail. With the knife you drag the dough towards you and it will roll around on itself.

The effect is a very basic, very rustic gnocchino, or little dumpling. The edges remain thick and chewy, but the action of dragging the dough over the wooden board gives it texture both by contact with the wood and by stretching out the gluten in the wheat flour. The center section of the cavatello gets thin in the process, giving you a variety of sensations when you eat them.


Arent they cool? I think so, and it is something I can do sitting down while my torn Achilles tendon heals, too. What to serve them with? Well, I have been on a foods of the forest kick ever since I shot those grouse in Minnesota, so I figured a real powerful mushroom ragu would do the trick.

I recently bought some dried wild mushrooms from an outfit called Earthy Delights, and I added to them some of my own dried wild mushrooms for a real melange: black trumpets, morels, yellowfoot chanterelles, porcini, matsutake and maitake. (Click for the full mushroom ragu recipe.)


A perfect match, especially witha little homemade bacon in the ragu. OK, I put a lot of homemade bacon in it.The sauce was even better the second day we had it, and it definitely benefits from an earthier pasta; we ate it with regular spaghetti and it was not as good.

I still had enough leftover pasta dough to make another dish, and this is where that Asian-inspired soup I was mentioning above comes in. I decided to go with Asian simplicity and Italian flair. Maybe its weird, but hey. Deer eat acorns, right? And I had some rich venison broth in the freezer.

I really like Japanese buckwheat noodles, so I figured Id make acorn flour vermicelli with the leftover pasta. It would be a lot like those soba noodles, I reckoned, and the Koreans actually do eat acorn flour noodles that look like this. When I made them, however, I realized the dough Id made that was perfect for cavatelli a little wet and loose made making vermicelli difficult. I needed to add quite a lot of extra semolina to keep everything from sticking together.

The result rocked. Long-simmered, lovingly made venison broth bathing freshly made acorn flour noodles. We ate it withchopsticks and wished we had more. Holly thought that of all the acorn dishes Ive been making of late, this was the one that was the most balanced, the one that most brought out the acorn flavor without other ingredients shouting it down.

Maybe so, but I am really happy with that mushroom ragu. I will say this, however: The combination of venison broth and acorn flour pasta was the most restrained and elegant acorn dish Ive yet made.


Phew! This has beena lot of time and space spent talking about acorns. I hope I have given at least a few of you the inspiration to look at these ubiquitous nuts in a new way, as well as a few recipes for them once youve gone and collected your own. Acorns are all around us. We need just pick them up.

__________________

ACORN or CHESTNUT FLOUR PASTA DOUGHThis is a pasta sometimes made in Puglia, according to the excellent book Encyclopedia of Pasta.This is a rough, rustic pasta that cries out to be served with game. Ideally, wild boar, venison, wood duck or mallard something that actually eats acorns. Do not expect to make super-refined pasta here, unless you have the ability to grind the acorns that fine.

A simple tagliatelle or pappardelle is perfect here, as is spaghetti if you have the die to make it. Hand-formed pasta, like orecchiette would also be good. Could you use acorn flour pasta for a ravioli? Yes, but it might be tough to roll it out thin enough. Decrease the amount of acorn flour and replace it with regular wheat flour if you do this.

Oh, and if you want a similar effect with a store-bought flour, use chestnut flour. You can buy it at good Italian grocery stores or from my friend Scott at Sausage Debauchery, who sells chestnut flouronline.

Note that in the cook time below, most of that time is how long it takes for water to boil. The pasta itself should only need about 2-3 minutes to cook.

Makes enough to serve 6.Prep Time: 90 minutesCook Time: 20 minutes 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup semolina flour 1/2 cupacorn flouror chestnut flour 1 cups cool water Pinch of salt

1. Mix the flours and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the center.

2. Pour the water into the well and combine it by swirling your fingers around. When the dough becomes a shaggy mass, bring it together with your hands, then knead on a floured counter for 5-8 minutes.

3. Lightly coat the dough in olive oil and cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit out for at least an hour, but this dough will keep in the fridge for a day. Acorn flour and semolina need a little longer to hydrate because they are coarser.

4. Roll out depending on how you want to make the pasta. Tagliatelle would be the next-to-last setting on your pasta maker and about inch wide.

5. Dust them in all-purpose flour as you lay the tagliatelle down on a floured board or counter. Allow to dry while you make the rest. After each portion of the dough is rolled out, gently pick up the center of the tagliatelle from the previous portion and twirl into a loose pile. Set aside.

6. This pasta is not good frozen, but it will hold in the fridge for a few days. It gets terribly brittle the longer it dries out.

More Acorn RecipesPosted in Foraging, Italian, Pasta, Risotto, Gnocchi, Recipe | Tagged acorns, cooking tips, Foraging, pasta recipes, veggies | 70 Responses70 responses to Acorn Pasta and the Mechanics of Eating Acorns

1.

Hank Shaw October 1, 2012 at 12:36 pm | Permalink

Stephanie: I would not. While I know of no factual reason why you couldnt reuse the water, I do know that tannins are one of the substances oaks use to kill off competing plants around their drip system. Id be careful.

2. druid ozone October 1, 2012 at 1:58 pm | Permalink

heroes of old, when fed with oaken mast, the great trees themselves, in years surpassed poem from 14th century england implying extended lifespan, if not heroism

3. Jennifer Aitkens October 3, 2012 at 11:25 pm | Permalink

Hank thanks for the great info on acorns! Re how to crack the shells, I was playing around with feeding red oak acorns to the birds and discovered that an old-fashioned aluminum garlic press did the job. This press is like a little box with a grid for the garlic to come through and a metal press that comes down on the nut. I think the reason it works better than a nutcracker is because the box holds keeps the nut from deforming as the press comes down on it. (if that isnt clear, let me know and I can flip you a pic of the press with an acorn in it).

BTW, there was so much oil in these nuts that just leaving a line of 6 or so cracked nuts on the deck stained a 1-sq ft area! What a mess!Jen

4.

john e October 13, 2012 at 5:51 am | Permalink

Great article, thank you so much! Ive seen the usual acorn bread and pancake recipes, but acorn soba noodlesoh my, thanks again

5.

Nuts About Acorns | Are We There Yet? October 17, 2012 at 8:54 pm | Permalink

[...] Acorn Pasta [...]

6. Joe T October 20, 2012 at 4:39 pm | Permalink

Dear Hank,

I had a question regarding Valley Oak acorns. Ive head on other gathering blogs that, unlike either acorns, you do not need to leach them before you roast and grind them. Would you recommend leaching them or not leaching them?

7. Joe T October 20, 2012 at 4:43 pm | Permalink

Hank

Sorry, another quick question.

What kind of regulations are there on acorn gathering? Are you only allowed to gather a certain amount/number per season?

8. Rick Dusenbury October 21, 2012 at 12:10 am | Permalink

Koreans make a product called Mook from acorns. It is processed like a flour, but can be made by putting the acorns in the blender with a little water after leaching with water pouring off the brown water.The mixture is allowed to sit in a large bowl to separate the Mook from the water. It is then filtered several times and put into bowls or vessels to solidify into a gelatin like consistency, sliced and eaten with hot pepper powder mixed with sesame oil and garnished with green onions. Primarily the oaks used are the scrub oaks in western Washington that have big seasons and seasons with little or no acorns. 2012 was a bountiful harvest.

9.

Hank Shaw October 21, 2012 at 9:10 am | Permalink

Joe: Nope, you need to leach Valley oak acorns. They have less tannin than other oaks, but unless you get a rare individual tree that has sweet acorns, you will be sorry if you do not leach them.

And no, there are no regulations about gathering acorns to my knowledge.

10. Terry October 22, 2012 at 1:13 pm | Permalink

This is my first time roasting acorns. I live in Mobile Alabama. I have 3 white oaks all over 400 years old. This year is a bumper crop of acorns. I soaked mine for 4 days changing the water twice a day. I just shelled them, boiled them in lite sugar water & Im roasting them 350 deg. for a hour. Mine didnt have the caps on them, but the squirrels make most of them drop & I didnt find a lot with worms. If there are worms in them, and are accidently eaten after theyve been boiled & roasted, can they make you sick / harmful to a person? Also, can you eat them just boiled? I tasted one & it was pretty good. Kinda like a boiled peanut.

it seems like the worms couldnt harm you. Theyre gross, Ill give ya that.

11. megan blu October 24, 2012 at 11:39 am | Permalink

try using tanin waters for tannning hides once you drain water off, add the discarded shelld and make a tea of them. waste not want not.

12.


Terry: Nope, they are not toxic. And a few people I know actually like eating the little worms. Ew. 13.

How to Eat Acorns: Video Part 2 First Ways October 31, 2012 at 12:21 am | Permalink

[...] Hank Shaw on Acorn Pasta [...]

14.

Why Foraging for Food (and Eating Acorns) is So Very Satisfying | Heartlines November 18, 2012 at 10:14 pm | Permalink

[...] Why acorns? Acorns are starchy and also contain B Vitamins, Fats, Manganese, and Potassium. Carb scarcity in foraging situations is apparently the primary reasonwhy humans settled down 10,000 years ago to grow grain. [...]

15. Recipe Box: Acorn Flour | Jon Schelander-Pugh November 22, 2012 at 5:10 am | Permalink

[...] http://honest-food.net/2010/01/14/acorn-pasta-and-the-mechanics-of-eating-acorns/ This entire blog is one of my new favorites. It has delicious-looking recipes for foraged/hunted/grown food with great photography. This particular post was the one that got me thinking about making acorn flour. So much great background info plus a recipe for acorn pasta. [...]

16. Robin November 25, 2012 at 6:00 pm | Permalink

I am wondering why you recommend NOT doing the hot water method if you are turning the acorns into flour. Thx

17. angela December 7, 2012 at 7:25 am | Permalink

I am making wreaths from my acorns that I gathered in Kissimmee FL and they are so oily that they will not stick to any glue onto any surface!! Any suggestions? P.Sthese wreaths (7) are for this christmasonly a handful of days away!!!

18.

Wild Food: Acorn Pancakes Check Your Premises December 12, 2012 at 8:32 am | Permalink

[...] are different processes for leaching out the bitter tannins from the nut meat. Some require boiling, other just soaking in [...]

19.

TasteofBeirut February 6, 2013 at 10:10 am | Permalink

A fellow blogger send me the link to your website; I had posted a story a few days ago on a lady farmer I know in Lebanon who made acorn coffee while living as a refugee in another town during the civil war. I wanted to try this coffee and collected a bunch of acorns. I found them easy to peel so I guess it is not the same variety that grows in North America. I need to find out what these trees are called here and compare. Interesting article, thanks! (very interesting site too, I am bookmarking!)

20.

Petra May 1, 2013 at 4:50 pm | Permalink

Hi, what a wonderful article! Im trying to do this at the moment: I have been leaching the roughly chopped acorns for a couple of weeks now, changing the water every second day or so.Today I ground them up, rinsed some more and now got them sitting in a baking tray over our fireplace. As they are drying they are starting to smell of chlorine! Were on rain water, so it cant be from the water and was wondering if I need to leach some more? TIA

Previous 1 2

Julie in Sacramento January 14, 2010 at 8:28 pm | Permalink

Hank- Im absolutely loving the acorn posts. I went in my parents backyard last week, which has a creek and an Indian grinding rock and some fantastic low-tannin oaks. Although most of the acorns were moldy or had larvae by January, the ones Ive harvested needed only 4 water changes. Mild, nutty, and earthy, just as you described. Im making acorn pancakes for my folks this Saturday, the same folks who responded to my gathered acorns with, But dont those taste bitter?

I use hydrated acorn meal, which is acorns that have been roasted, ground into meal, leached, and is still wet from the leaching process. Heres my recipe:

Acorn PancakesMakes approx. 10 pancakes

2/3 cup hydrated acorn meal, finely ground1/6 cup wheat flour1/4 teaspoon baking powderDash of salt1/2 to 1 Tablespoon honey1 egg1 Tablespoon melted butterat least 1/2 cup milkoptional: berries

Whip the egg and 1/2 cup milk. Mix with the hydrated acorn flour and melted butter. Add the wheat flour, salt and baking powder, mix until combined. Fold in the berries (optional). Add additional milk until the batter is slightly thinner than a regular pancake batter.Pour batter on hot, buttered griddle. These take a little longer to cook than most pancakes, and theyll look dark brown when finished. I like them thin, because it helps avoid a mushy center. Yum!

Paula January 14, 2010 at 10:44 pm | Permalink

Thanks for this post- youve saved those of us interested in this sort of thing (me, for instance) a lot of time- I bookmarked this page by itself. I dont know about venison stock (it looks pretty good though!), but that dish reminds me of the soba noodles my dad used to make us. He traveled throughout the world and I think its his fault that Im into food as much as I am. At any rate, this was a great post, and well worth setting aside for later.

Love the banner picture, BTW. I hope you get the James Beard- you deserve it.

allisen January 15, 2010 at 3:49 am | Permalink

You are awesome.

E. Nassar January 15, 2010 at 8:31 am | Permalink

Just to clarify and maybe a stupid question, but Ive always gathered acorns that have already fallen off the tree when I was a kid. Is that what you are doing Hank? or are you picking them from the tree? I am definitely going to give acorns more of a culinary chance in the future. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to your book.

hank January 15, 2010 at 11:02 am | Permalink

Julie: Thanks for the recipe! Glad there are other acorn-eaters out there

Paula: I was nominated in 2009 and did not win the James Beard Award, so its over. But there is always 2010!

E. Nassar: Yep. I gather off the ground. You would need to pick the mature green ones in August, though.

Russell Kofoed January 15, 2010 at 6:29 pm | Permalink

Im really enjoying your site. Unfortunately we no longer live in the land of acorns. We used to live in the Midwest where deer do indeed eat acorns. Now we live in Idaho and I havent seen Oak trees around. I do want to experiment with making my own pasta though. Youve got some great ideas/recipes. Thanks.

amy January 17, 2010 at 3:08 pm | Permalink

I love this.

Nate @ House of Annie January 17, 2010 at 8:52 pm | Permalink

This is a very informative post! And a really neat recipe.

Since youre using foraged food, would you like to enter this post in our Grow Your Own roundup this month? Full details at

http://chezannies.blogspot.com/2010/01/rambutans-plus-grow-your-own.html All Recipes January 18, 2010 at 8:34 am | Permalink

Hey!

Never though those are eatable. I have to try this recipe.

All Recipes January 18, 2010 at 8:35 am | Permalink

Lovely recipe Ryan Sabalow January 18, 2010 at 11:56 am | Permalink

Too cool. Great post.

fishguy January 19, 2010 at 11:34 am | Permalink

Great post. Ive got some big white oaks on the property and am thinking of ways to incorporate some squirrel. Hope you are healing fast.

deana@lostpastremembered January 20, 2010 at 6:22 pm | Permalink

I just found your blog and wow the hunter gatherer is alive and well and writes like a dream great post I cant do acorn flour but would like to give this a try.Thanks!!

we are never full January 24, 2010 at 12:47 pm | Permalink

whoa, hank. I loved this post incredibly informative. Growing up in the woods in PA, it was hard to walk around our yard w/o squashing acorns all over the place. I would love to be able to make my own acorn flour. Is it even for sale anywhere? the color of that pasta alone is making me want it. I can close my eyes and imagine the nutty flavor. i was thinking as i was reading about how amazing they would be w/ mushrooms and, voila, mushroom ragu. awesome.

Melissa January 26, 2010 at 1:08 pm | Permalink

Are there any places that you shouldnt gather acorns? I am concerned about pesticides and other nasty chemicals getting on the acorns. Would the shell protect the nut from any chemicals?

hank January 26, 2010 at 1:18 pm | Permalink

We Are Never Full: No idea where to buy acorn flour online, but check Asian purveyors Koreans use it. Go to your best Asian market and look around

Melissa: So far as I can tell, no one sprays oaks with pesticides. I suppose the shell would block offhand spray on the ground. If you gathered acorns on grass you suspect has been heavily sprayed, I might think twice about collecting acorns that have already sprouted, i.e., with the shell cracked.

Jana January 27, 2010 at 2:58 pm | Permalink

Great article! I prefer the fridge method, we have lots of black and red oaks here in Portland.

Ever tried the oak weevil larvae, aka acorn grubs? Theyre delicious! Buttery. Id guess those are actually the fattiest acorns.

Also, I really like your idea to use them in meatballs! I agree, the texture improves with bit of filler, but I prefer to avoid grains.

Ellen December 3, 2010 at 6:18 am | Permalink

Just discovered your blog and have bookmarked you; excellent site. Im baking w/acorn flour for non-foraging friends tomorrow night and was all set to try your acorn honey cake recipe when I noticed you werent entirely satisfied with the texture. Have you tweaked the recipe to solve the problem? (What was the problem?) Im sorry to say I dont have enough acorn flour to experiment with and I want to be sure to impress. Many thanks.

Hank December 3, 2010 at 7:48 am | Permalink

Ellen: Honestly I have not yet fuily gotten that recipe to where I love it. Its still tasty as it is, but I think it needs more fat and more regular flour to hold it together and make a better crumb. I can tell you that the acorn soup in the post I just wrote about acorns is first rate: Id serve that to anyone!

http://honest-food.net/veggie-recipes/acorns-nuts-and-other-wild-starches/acorn-soup/

Ellen December 3, 2010 at 8:18 am | Permalink

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly Hank. I think Ill try the soup. Ive got lots of wild mushrooms put by and it sounds delicious.

David the Security Glass Expert April 17, 2011 at 1:39 pm | Permalink

You answered my Google question, which was can you gather acorns in spring. We live next to a large area of state forest in Connecticut oaks and acorns everywhere. Thanks so much for the informative post. Im going to give acorns a try. Someone once told me that white oak acorns make a great coffee substitute. Any experience with that?

rose July 18, 2011 at 8:00 am | Permalink

I just found this post, very nice. A bit of warning though, we have a current problem with oak tress in southern California an insect called an oak borer. The infestation is growing. As I collect acorns yearly, I have run into the problem of making sure the trees are not treated for this insect. I have been told that the effects of the treatment on the acorns is unknown and therefore we do not gather from them if we know they are treated. Also transporting any part of oaks, wood etc, is no longer permitted as it will spread the infestation.As for coffee, this is a traditional drink in southern California and northern Baja California. It is absolutely delicious, but the lower tannin acorns are preferred. See our mention of it in a calendar that we produced http://deborahsmall.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/ethnobotany-calendar-2010.pdf Jason Barney August 16, 2011 at 5:27 pm | Permalink

Hi,

Great thread by the way.

Last fall I spent a good deal of time collecting acorns. I shelled, boiled, and froze several bags, and am only now getting around to using them in recipes. My girl friend and I ground some up and made great acorn muffins!!! Yum Yum.a little maple syrup, with the traditional ingredients.Anyway, so I am now wondering about the best way to store the acorn flower. It still seems a bit damp.I have it in an old, empty, coffee container.but I am worried mold might show up.

What would be the best way to make sure mold stays away?

Jason

Rose Anderson August 28, 2011 at 8:18 am | Permalink

Hi Hank,

Im a raw foodest, very new to foraging. I have alot of mature green acorns that have fallen on my property due to the hurricane. Due to the work involved in soaking the acorns, I am definitely going to use the toilet tank method to soak/rinse over at least four days. Is this the correct thing to do with these? All the pictures Im finding online show beautiful brown acorns, so I think Im missing somethingalso, do you know if these mature green ones would be better sprouted in a jar?

Acorn Meal Riekes Nature Awareness October 2, 2011 at 9:21 pm | Permalink

[...] theyre more or less dry, the next step toward acorn soup, acorn bread, acorn pasta, or any other acorn creation, is to pulverize them. Julia Parker taught her traditional Yosemite [...]


A reader named Kevin, who clearly knows his oaks, sent this along:

another reason for white oak acorns to be readily eaten versus red oak acorns is that they sprout in the fall, leading to spoilage. The red oaks require overwintering (stratification) in order to sprout, and thus are cached. Im not trying to go out on a dendrology lesson or anything since you may very well know this and it could be in your book; which is AWESOME! I dont yet own a copy but i believe a certain someone is about to gift me with one.

Another interesting oak ecology factoid is that the white oak acorns dont get dispersed very far from the parent tree (since they are not cached) and the subsequent seedlings are fairly shade tolerant for awhile. The red oak acorns are often dispersed relatively far from the parent tree (cached) and happen to be mostly shade intolerant. Did the acorn predators over time lead to the pattern of shade tolerance levels? I get giddy when it comes to oak talk, so Ill excuse myself

Cool stuff!

oscar October 23, 2011 at 1:35 pm | Permalink

I tried the hammer to break shell, but it was then tedious to pull pieces out of shell. Instead , I cut top off and pealed off shell with my fingernails. This worked much better, and I got whole nut this way.

kev-o November 3, 2011 at 3:46 pm | Permalink

Wow. This post is an incredible reference. Thanks.

Susie November 5, 2011 at 7:29 am | Permalink

Hank:Still looking for Acorn Oil. Have you done anything to figure out how to get it out of the acorn? The only thing I know of is the Piteba Oil Press, and its less than perfect.

Acorns for eating miscellaneacalifornica November 16, 2011 at 8:34 pm | Permalink

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