How to Process Acorns and make Acorn Flour | Preparing Acorns to Eat
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- Опубликовано: 10 ноя 2024
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In this episode of In the Kitchen with Matt, I will show you how to process acorns and make acorn flour. You will learn how to prepare acorns to eat. Acorns are a very abundant food source but it seems few people know that they can be eaten. I have talked to several people who didn't even know you could eat them. Acorns have been eaten for thousands of years and are a good source of protein, healthy fats, carbohydrates, and other healthy minerals. However, you can't just eat them right off the tree, they need to be processed first. Acorns contain tannins in them which make them very bitter and potentially toxic to humans. The tannins need to first be leached out of the Acorns then they can be eaten, Red Oak Acorns contain the highest level of tannins. In this video, I will show you one method on how to process them but there are a few others. I will briefly talk about the boiling method as well. It can be tedious to process them but oh so satisfying. The acorn flour can be used in muffins, pancakes, bread, etc. It is very easy to do, if I can do it, you can do it. Let's get started!
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You will need:
Acorns (White Oak, Live Oak, Red Oak, etc.)
Water
Large Bowls
Nut cracker or meat tenderizer
sheet pan (lined with a silicone mat, parchment paper, etc.)
wooden spoon
airtight container for storage (Tupperware, etc.)
Patience. :) lol
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Thanks man. I have a ton of acorns in my yard and I always stare at them every year thinking I ought to try and make use of the natural resources I have. Now I know what to do. :) Awesome!
You are so very welcome, Gail! :)
The oak tree wants you to take tbem
It's cool to make bread out of acorns , each oak tree on average has the ability to produce 110-120 regular loafs of bread out of the acorns enough to feed one regular person a year , the Cherokee natives their biggest tribe had a million people in it they made bread out of acorns and ate pine nuts and needles, the needles are rich in vitamin c etc good for herbal tea and sickness and the pine syrup from the trees was used to make strong liquor by using acorn flour letting it mold to make yeast and pine syrup is very strong sweet taste like maple syrup and molasses and they would put some in a jar or big vase and put water and yeast in it to make a strong rum or moonshine alcohol with a maple syrup taste to , so basically they had plenty to hunt and gather foods etc and had plenty of acorn bread and pine liquor to party and drink all the time with the billions of oak and pine trees everywhere just kill some wild turkeys or deer and have a BBQ lol
Hey Matt. I talked with one of my many cousins (I come from a traditional old Southern family) anyway, she said she remembered our Great Grandmother using a pinch of baking soda in the water when soaking the but meat. It helps to remove the tannins. She also used the same trick with her sun tea. The baking soda helps leach the tannins from the tealeaves and into the water so she didn't have to use so much tealeaves for a gallon of tea.
Very cool J! And nice tip. I hadn't heard of that before, but sounds cool!
Makes sense. I read or heard in a video about making a coffee/tea substitute from acorns that the tannins bond to minerals and makes the leaching of the tannins go quicker.
I tried it first without baking soda and the water looked like tea after 12 hours, still clear so you could see the bottom of the bowl. Then I tried adding about 1-2 tbsp of baking soda and after 12 hours the water was like black mud. I couldn't see the acorns in the bottom of the bowl anymore. Baking soda definitely speeds up removing the tannin. One other thing, possibly baking the nut meat for 20 minutes first might speed up the tannin removal. It seems to come out slower if the nuts are fresh.
@@brianbagnall3029 Thanks for sharing this. Do you use 1-2 tbsp of baking soda each time you transfer the acorn meat to a new bowl of water, or do you only need to do this once and it gets all of the tannins out?
@@LB1280 This is my first year trying to make acorn flour so I'm not really sure, but I would guess you still need to do this for many days with baking soda in the water. I've gotten to the stage where they are now dried in a dehydrator but I haven't processed them or tried making bread yet.
This year I'm making acron flour, horse chestnut laundry detergent, rosehip syrup, and elderberry syrup.
Awesome! Have fun!
Mine turned out great! It wasn't as labor intensive as I thought it might be. I just changed the water each morning and night and that wasn't any big deal. I did 2 batches and both of them took 7 days to lose the bitterness but that was fine as I started on my day off and was able to finish processing on my day off. Thanks!
That is so awesome, Keli!! :) :) So glad you tried it out. Try these acorn blueberry muffins ruclips.net/video/fxKfAO351Zw/видео.html or this acorn bread ruclips.net/video/qcV7G6RhzLM/видео.html both are very yummy. :) :)
Just finished with the first steps in the process. It's my first time processing acorns.
We've had a wet autumn so far here in Michigan, so a lot of mine had to be discarded because of mold and rot, and still others I discarded that had weevils but were otherwise okay. About 75% of them were no good, so I'm glad I collected a lot of them. The good ones are shelled and finely chopped and soaking in water.
Thanks for the video tutorial.
Yeah, I am super lucky here in AZ, although the live oak acorns are pretty small, they don't get much mold on them because it is so dry here. Good luck with the rest of them, let me know how it goes! :) I have acorn bread and acorn muffin recipes you can try. :)
Glad to see a tutorial without a dehydrator since I can't get one right now
Thanks! Glad you found the video helpful.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt I did!
Awesome!@@joethewolf3750
I eat LOTS of live oak acorns due to their sweetness. Depending on the tree, and year, you CAN eat some without processing, as there's no bitterness in some. I shell them, remove the "testa" with a knife, then quarter them, and boil them in a couple changes of water, then cook till fork tender. Afterwards, I make many things out of them. Tasty!
Awesome!!! :) Yeah, I have read about others eating them without processing them. One of the cool things about the live oak acorns. Tasty and plentiful in urban areas or at least here where I live haha. :)
@@inthekitchenwithmatt Absolutely! I quarter them to keep them chunky. After drying, I mix them with dried berries, or pieces of dried, Texas persimmon, and fresh (VERY fresh) pecans! BEST trail mix ever! Sometimes, I'll forage wild bamboo shoots, then forage (not quite ripe yet) green pecans, clean and "shell" them carefully. 1/3 pecans, 1/3 acorns/1/3 mix of onion, ground round (VERY lean), mushrooms, and salt&pepper.
I cook, then cut the bamboo lengthwise, and stuff the shoots with that mixture, then finish in an oven.
@@dragunovbushcraft152 So cool! I hadn't thought about putting them in a trail mix. They would probably go well in my homemade granola and homemade granola bars. I just usually make acorn flour out them. Here on my channel I have acorn bread and acorn muffins but have also made acorn pancakes. So yummy! Here is the acorn bread recipe on my new website: inthekitchenwithmatt.com/acorn-bread check it out when you have a chance. Also I wrote the process out on my website as well: inthekitchenwithmatt.com/how-to-process-acorns If you get the chance write a comment on there. It will help me out. :)
@@inthekitchenwithmatt Yes, the acorns, are a flavor enhancer. They REALLY point up the flavor in a trail mix! I eat them, cooked very soft, in place of potatoes. I also cook them with spring beauty bulbs, and greens, with a little wild garlic, wild onion, and morels.. Man! Now I'm getting hungry! |:^p
@@dragunovbushcraft152 lol yeah you are making be hungry! Of course I am currently writing a post on chocolate crinkles cookies for my website which isn't helping my hunger level any. haha
Very good. I listened to BBC radio yesterday about how the native American Indians used Acorns very widely as a staple - bread soup and tea. Thanks
Thank! You are welcome, Michael!
I read about another method where once you dried the acorns while still inside the shells, after you crack them open you're supposed to grind it up into a flour then soak it. It's supposed to make it easier to remove the skins from the nut meat. What do you think? I'm trying to find an easier way of dealing with the skins other than picking them off 1 by 1. Any suggestions?
I have heard about that too, the theory is the skins are lighter then the meat and will float to the top. Even with the method I show, I always get floaters that I just remove. I say give it a shot try a few batches a couple of different ways and see what you like the best. Good luck! Let me know how it goes. :) :)
Have you shaken them in a glass jar to remove the skins? It works with garlic.
It also makes leeching the tannins a lot faster. In my area native americans traditionally ground the nuts first then added the cold water in a bark bowl. The nut flour sinks to the bottom so you can slowly pour the water off then remix it when you add new water. Once done you can just warm the bowl near the fire and the flour will dry and cake up. Then you can break it back up into bits as needed for storage. I've never tried it but that's what I was told. These would usually be gathered in the fall (obviously) when storage in a cold place wasn't an issue since the fall and winter are cold enough. You may want to keep it in the fridge or cold room if you make a lot of it since this nut flour is high in fat and doesnt' store well otherwise.
I remember making acorn flour as a kid. It was fun picking and cracking them. We also picked puff ball mushrooms and coral mushrooms in the fall.
That is really cool! Yeah it is getting to be acorn season again! Time to start gathering them. haha
What does it taste like?
@@mrsaye499 It tastes kind of like a mix between whole wheat bread and corn bread. It has a nice sweet nutty taste. It is pretty yummy and hearty.
I used to eat them with my friends as we collected them on the way to school just as is . We removed the outer shell and eat the whole thing.... I am happy we didn't die. But they had a sweet after taste.
hahaha, yes, I am happy you didn't die either! There are some variety, that aren't as toxic as others. Most likely those are the kind you were eating.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt I mean tannins aren't necessarily toxic they're just extremely bitter
@@OnyxXThePunch No actually they can be toxic if eaten in large amounts. www.webmd.com/diet/are-acorns-safe-to-eat#1
@@inthekitchenwithmatt today I learned. I always hated getting a bitter piece of pecan
@@M89020 :) I always enjoy learning new things!
This is phenomenal! Thank you for the tutorial, friend.
Thank you! You are welcome!
This is an extreme tedious process! You must be extremely patient! I guess if I have time and lived in the woods this would make a excellent source of flour. Make a good gluten free baking flour. I'm really impressed by the process. There are sources of food out there we just don't think about it! Thank you😘
hahahaha thank you so much Jewel. Pretty tedious indeed, but most of it can be done in front of the TV. LOL and you are very welcome.
Wow that’s a lot of work. Cool process. I never knew you could do this and eat them.
Thanks Holly! Yeah it is a lot of work by really fun! :)
Excellent audiovisual instructional video! Liked and subbed
Thank you so much, Catherine!! :)
Native Americans would put the acorns (or acorn meats?) into cloth bags & hang into a running stream to wash away the tannins. Nice video, getting ready to go pick some acorns. If I remember right, White oaks have less tannins than Red oaks.
I did know that! :) Thank you! Yes the white oaks acorns have less tannins than red oaks. I have even seen some people eat the acorns from white oaks without leaching the tannins, but I don't recommend that. You can see how much came out in the video, haha.
I always wondered how to do this..... now I know . Thank you!
You are very welcome, Carla!
I would recommend using a drying method that doesn't involve high heats. Repeated exposure to heat damages polyunsaturated fatty acids (i.e. omega-3, 6 and 9), which are abundant in acorns. This is the same principle behind why refined seed oils and deep fried fast foods are bad for you.
The heat used here isn't classified as high heat (Only the Warm setting on the oven.) But you are welcome to use other drying methods :) The heat for deep-fried fast food is much much higher.
What is considered high heat though?
@@overratedprogrammer Anything above room temperature will oxidize the most susceptible fats, but the higher the heat, the quicker it takes. At 100 F it might take a week. At 180 F it might take an hour. At 400 F it's a matter of seconds. I'm not entirely sure just how bad it is to oven dry acorns, and it's certainly not as bad as deep frying them, but I personally err on the side of caution.
@@MrFreeGman If you have the time you can certainly dry these at room temp or outside, BUT you have to be careful they don't get moldy. Wet or even slightly damp acorn meat will get moldy very quickly if it doesn't dry out soon enough. A dehydrator is great if you have one set with temps around 130 to 140F. (in my written recipe for this, I have 160 to 175F, different then what is show in the video, every "warm" setting on the oven is a bit different) By the way, I trust the Farmer's Almanac :) www.almanac.com/how-prepare-and-cook-acorns. Also you mentioned "repeated exposure" There isn't repeated exposure, these soak in cold water and then are dried out for 2 to 3 hours on warm. Both the almanac and healthine also mention roasting the acorns at a higher heat 350/375F which is a common temp for roasting other nuts www.healthline.com/nutrition/can-you-eat-acorns this article also talks about roasting them, www.nutritionadvance.com/acorns-nutrition/. I am not trying to argue with you, just showing that your concern may not be warranted, and probably shouldn't worry about it. :) But in the end they are your acorns, dry them out how you like. :)
@@inthekitchenwithmatt Yes, more care does need to be taken when drying them without heat. A dehydrator would be the best solution. Sunlight also works.
When I spoke of repeated heating, I meant that you heat them once when you dry them, and a second time when you cook with them.
I appreciate the links, thank! I understand that not everyone will agree with me that it's a concern. Like I said, I'm just erring on the side of caution. Maybe I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to fats/oils (in the research I've done, refined vegetable oils have been a catastrophe for the human species, and that usually comes down to how they interact with heat, be it in the refinement process, or via cooking).
But until someone studies this particular topic, we'll never know for sure. At the end of the day, no matter how you dry your acorns, it's still going to be a healthier product than most of what you can buy off the store shelf.
Soaking the acorns also softens the Shell and makes it easier to take the shell off,
I remember seeing someone (I think it might have been Ray Mears) put acorn meat into a cloth bag and place it in a running stream for several days tied to a branch to prevent it floating away.
Hi Mary! Yes! People have done it that way for sure. It is a great way to get rid of the tannins in the acorn meat.
Unfortunately I don't have a stream running through my garden. However! I do have a down pipe from the roof and it has been raining for days..I can feel an invention coming on.
@@marywilliams9415 Oh yeah I can see where you are going, that would be cool! Especially if you know it is going to rain for a few days. Awesome! Let me know how it goes if you wind up doing it.
Time to have a conflab with the Man of the House.
@@marywilliams9415 :)
Fantastic video...thanks! My three year old grandson wanted to know how to eat acorns.
You are so very welcome! :) Glad you liked the video. :)
Wow I have oak trees like the nuts you have like 20 trees lol going to start collecting acorns to store up flower 🤷♀️ hey it’s free thank you for this teaching
Hi Danielle! It is definitely an under utilized food source for sure. Which is funny because they have been beaten for thousands of years! :)
where I live, we have red oak, white oak, pin oak, water oak, and a few live oak trees.
Awesome!! All kinds of different acorns you could gather and process if you wanted.
Wow that's really neat Matt! Thanks for sharing, was really looking forward to seeing you how you process the acorn nuts =)
Thank you Lydia! :) You are very welcome. :)
Excellent information. Thank you Matt!
Thank you, Daisy! You are welcome! :)
That was cool, man. Thanks.
Thank you! you are welcome!
I am going to try this this fall
Awesome Heidi!! Please do and let me know how it turns out. I have an acorn bread recipe on here and acorn muffins too you can check out if you like to make with your acorn flour. :)
Hey Matt! Great video. Can you use the water to water plants? Not sure if the tannins are harmful to plant roots. Probably not, but just seeing if you have done this before.
Hey!! I wouldn't use it to water plants, it will lower the PH which may be detrimental to the plants growth. But it doesn't mean it is bad for them, just that it may hinder the growth. And if you have soil that needs a bit more acidity, I think it would work great to balance it out. If I were to use it, I would probably add even more water to dilute it further.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt Great that makes sense. Again, thanks for the tips.
@@andrewnguyen75 You are welcome!!
Ping! Roll roll roll roll.......plop. Yep, it's the season for the oak trees to drop their acorns on my roof!
lol :)
Acorn flour 400g by Flour of acorns $317.23 After you showed me the process, I wondered how much Amazom charged for it. All males sense now -even if the process is automated, it is still intense. Nice job, nakedface!
Thanks David! Yeah it is expensive to buy for sure! :)
My property over here in Connecticut is covered with oak trees. The acorns are huge too. Yeehah!
Awesome!!
So Many acorn trees here in the south!!! Yea!!!
Awesome!!!
Use a small strainer to get the excess floating off the top, so much easier.
Yes I have one, I was just lazy during filming.
This was great as i was thinking about gathering acorns from a oak tree i have. Question, is there any one type of acorn that should not be used?
Thanks! All acorns are edible as long as they are prepared first. :)
Thank you for this video!
You are welcome!
Could you store it in a dark cupboard, like you'd do with regular flour? Also how long does it keep (even if stored in the fridge)?
It won't last as long in a dark cupboard, remember it isn't actually flour, it is made from nuts, so it is closer to an almond flour. And since it isn't commercially produced, there are no preservatives or anything. Even in the fridge about about a month it can still get moldy. But it is pretty easy to use it up by then, with acorn muffins, acorn pancakes, and acorn bread.
Freezing it might be a good idea.
Would freezing the acorn flour help preserve it a little longer?
Yep! You can freeze the acorn flour after making it. :)
Hey Matt
So now that they are processed and made into flour how does one use the flour?
Like do you have to incorperate other "flours" into it or can you use it as is? Or.....?
I am a little confused about the whole thing, i am getting alot of differant input on what you can do or should do and not do.
What are your thoughts?
Please and thank you 😊
Hello, well to be clear even though it is called acorn flour, it isn't wheat. It doesn't behave the same way as wheat does, it is closer to almond flour, which is just ground almonds. Since acorns are a nut. If that makes sense? You it can be incorporated into lots of things, bread, pancakes, muffins, etc.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt
Alright, thanks and thanks for your response😊
@@rojannazimmerman6031 You are welcome! :) :)
Excellent video- thanks for sharing.
Thank you Paul! You are very welcome. :)
What do you do if you notice some of the nut meat turning grey in the cold leaching process? Are they going bad?
A little grey is fine, I have had that happen to me as well.
i have heard of wood ashes being used in the process. Thoughts?
I am not familiar with that process so I can't really speak to it.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt i understand the sodium hydroxide in the ashes helps to neutralize the tannic acid....just wondered if you had heard about it or tried....thanks for the response....have a great day.
@@JamesHolben You are welcome! Have a great day as well.
Cool. Never knew that.
Thanks!
That tannin water is a great topical for sunburns!
Nice!!
Great info.thanks!!
You are very welcome!!
Impressive. Most impressive...
Thanks!!
@@inthekitchenwithmatt 😎
Hi Matt,
Can you just roast them until the shells crack and then take off the shells and do the rest?
You can certainly try, but I wouldn't try it with a whole batch just a few of them. Traditionally they aren't done that way. They aren't roasted until the very end. I think if you roasted them too soon it would affect the chemical process of leaching out the tannins.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt
That was my concern. Thanks for your feedback!
@@tahoe7779 You are very welcome! :)
Yes like chestnuts!
@@MataH1 Cool!
Thanks for the great video! Would an oxygen absorber help avoid mold during storage? I have several big oak trees, I will try this next year. (Too late this year!) I hope you have a recipe somewhere in your videos. I just subscribed to your channel, and I really appreciate the information. Next year I will arm wrestle the squirrels for as many as I can harvest!
You are welcome Stacy!! :) I bet an oxygen absorber would help for sure. Yep I do have a recipe for Acorn Bread :) ruclips.net/video/qcV7G6RhzLM/видео.html And thank you for subscribing! :)
With the dirty water with tannins in it, what could you do with that? Can it be used for tanning leather? Can it be used for washing clothes? Pickling veg?
Hi Debbie! That is a good question, I don't really have an answer for it. I always throw out the dirty tannin water. But I definitely would not use it for pickling veggies. And I am thinking it would stain clothes. Tanning leather, maybe.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt thank you. I just collected a few pounds of acorns today. I need several pounds. I'll sort through them and make the flour.
@@debbiecurtis4021 You are very welcome! Good luck and let me know how it goes and if you run into any issues making the flour.
Amazing video, I have one question. Some of the acorns I gathered are half green half yellow/brown. If I leave them in the sun or in my house will they rippen? The tree I gathered them was a green oak tree, and some of the green ones were from the ground.
Thank you!! Don't shell the green ones until they turn brown. :) And remember the ones with small holes in them, means there is or was a worm in it. haha.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt Should i let them turn brown indoors or expose them to sun? Thank you very much for the quick response!
@@MrMohitos Is it dry where you live? Or humid and rainy? If it is dry, I think leaving them outside will be fine, like in a baking pan, but you may want to cover it with a small mesh covering or tea cloth or something, to prevent bugs from getting in, but still provide airflow. The ones I pick here, have been on the ground for ages. But AZ is super dry, lol
Wow!!! CRAZY! I had no idea - I have an oak tree and saw the nuts as a pain.
Awesome Jim are all the nuts gone? I guess the season is normally fall, but sometimes they last through January. Or if you have several still lying around on the ground, try processing them. :) hehe
@@inthekitchenwithmatt I live in Kansas City and we were hit with a snowstorm and any nuts left are covered. We usually don't get this much snow - Next Fall I will try this!
oh that is right I heard something about a huge snow storm in that part of the US. It has been a colder on average month for us here in Arizona. I just got my electric bill and it was 6 degrees on average cooler then last year at the same time. But there are still acorns about if I wanted to collect some more. haha
@@inthekitchenwithmatt I saved this so I can go back to it in the Fall - which will be here before we know it.
@@jkledis Awesome! Yes it will haha
One video I watched they shelled their acorns before drying. When is the best time to harvest acorns?
Get them when they fall off the tree, but you will have a few weeks after they fall to harvest them. When they are on the ground they are prone to getting bugs in them, like weevils. The acorns themselves will last about 4 months after falling off the tree with proper moisture and cool temps. And it depends on the variety of acorn as well.
Great job. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, RB! :) You are welcome. :)
I tried boiling the acorns, but it changes their chemistry I heard so you can't use it as much for bread (maybe denatured the proteins)?
Yeah boiling is not the best method although it is faster, the much longer, and I mean much longer soaking method is the best. But dry out your boiled ones and roast them a bit then grind them and try making bread with it. This is my acorn bread recipe I like: ruclips.net/video/qcV7G6RhzLM/видео.html or try these acorn blueberry muffins ruclips.net/video/fxKfAO351Zw/видео.html
Looks like a lot of work but I had no idea you could eat acorns. I'll have to try it!
It is a bit of work, but yeah, Native Americans have eaten acorns for many years. A staple for them back in the day. If the acorns didn't contain so much tannins, it wouldn't be that bad, but definitely need to leach that nasty stuff out to make them edible. Definitely give it a try sometime, it is kind of fun knowing how to do it, and actually doing it start to finish. Then making something with the acorn flour.
I exclusively use the boiling method, and it takes a lot longer than an hour and a half. It's 5 to 7 boils, just like it's 5 to 7 changes with the cold method. The only reason that the boiling method would produce a more bitter product is because you're stopping short at 3 boils (1.5 hours).\
I also use the Pulse function of my food processor on the raw nuts to get them down to a smaller size before I start the hot leaching process, because it increases the surface area and shortens the leaching time.
So:
1) Collect acorns
2) Wash acorns
3) Shell acorns
4) Pulse / Coarse grind acorns
5) Boil and standby boil pots, changing the water until it's clear
6) Dry acorn bits in the oven
7) Grind into acorn flour
cool laurie, there is no set number of times for boiling. And it also depends on the kinds of acorns you use, which all have different tannin levels. You do it until it is clear, sure it can take more boils, the 3 number was just an estimate, although I don't think I mention a number of times 8:22 is where I am talking about the boiling method, which I am pretty sure I didnt, but yes, it is only around 3 to 4 for white oak which has a lower amount of tannins. The soaking method over a period of several days produces a better flour than the boiling method. But of course, the boiling method is faster. Thanks for your input.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt Oh, I didn't realize you were using white oak acorns. The oaks around here (Portland, OR) are mostly red oak, which are more tannic. I know where to get white oak acorns in the city, but my experience is that I have a greater loss with those due to cracking and pests. it's probably because there's so much more moisture here, so the rotting is more likely to make it's way through the thinner shells, especially if they are cracked. do you have much trouble with brown spots and worm lines? if so how do you fix that? I cut them out and use the good nut meat. Also, I got a recommendation for using a lobster cracker on nuts if they are wetter, and that works, and, someone in the Midwest said to put down a board, a thin felt blanket, a layer of nuts, another blanket another board and drive over them. I haven't tried that yet! I am making acorn banana bread with chocolate chips right now. 18 minutes till it's done!
@@laurieshentalevenn1988 Yeah, I gather the white oak acorns from the church parking lot! lol Honestly it is so dry here in AZ that I haven't had to worry about outside moisture. And only a very small portion of them have bugs/wevils. And like you if I do come across bad spot in the nut, I cut it out, or just not use that nut, haha. Awesome! I love making blueberry acorn muffins, acorn bread, and acorn pancakes. Acorn banana bread sounds awesome!!
I want to tell you how to peel the husk from oak. First, take approximately a kilo or less of oak on a large pot, I mean a large wall, and leave it on the fire after filling it with water and leave it for about half an hour or less. After that, you peel the husk with your hand. Then you see the husk cleaned by the oak fruit. I mean there is a crust on its fruits. It separates and sticks to the 4 with the strong main peel, then you eat the oak free of the double peel, I mean, I mean it is ready to eat, please try this. You do not need to leave the fire because it usually explodes and burns. I mean you pour a quantity of water on large walls and fill the walls with a small amount of oak and leave it on the fire for about half an hour as needed and after that you see the oak fruit peeled and clean. You just have to cut the oak and eat the fruit. After this process you can cut it with juicer or something else or You make flour from it, and you use it as bread. In this way, the oak does not explode, is not burnt, or is not strong. It is soft to eat.
The acorn/oak nut still needs to be processed after taking the shell off, because of the tannins. You can see the tannins in the video which make the water super dark brown. That stuff is not good for you. You have to leach it out.
Does drying them prevent them from bruising
Well, you have to dry them before you can make the acorn flour. That is part of the process. So it wouldn't matter if they bruised. But I imagine it would help.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt does drying them mean completely dehydrated before the leaching process
@@seansuzio2415 No just dry the outer shell after rinsing them. They don't have to be completely dehydrated before cracking them open and leaching out the tannins. :)
@@inthekitchenwithmatt do you think I should remove the sprout
@@seansuzio2415 I would!
Not sure if you did, but did you mention that the top has to be removed even before the initial step of rinsing them??..
Yes :)
Thanks Matt, cool video.
You are very welcome Larry! Glad you liked it. :)
I am picking acorns off the tree today. At the house in Lubbock Texas I just moved to. I first have to find out what species of oak it is for the acorns but I wondered how long acorns are good stored for after picking until one can make the flour?
Awesome! You should be able to store them for 4 to 6 months. :) But it all depends on the variety of acorn. White oak don't last as long 4 to 6 months while red oak can last much longer.
Hello, I have another question! I shelled and peeled half my acorns and then the other half I froze because I was running low on time and I found a few weevils and I read in an article that freezing the acorns was a good way to stop them from eating the acorns. Well that was wholly untrue, I froze them for like 3 days and when I went to peel them again the weevils were still alive and it was so gross. OK now my question- the acorns that were frozen came out VERY dark when I shelled them. it's almost as if the testa dyed the nut. I broke them apart and they were white on the inside so I thought perhaps the tannins would still come out. It's been about 9 days of soaking and draining etc and I am still coming out with yellowish water and the nuts that started out dark are still dark. If I rub them they stay dark but if I scrape off the top layer they are light under. Any suggestions? Are the dark nuts ok? Should I throw out the dark nuts? Should I keep draining? Should I try the boil water method? I don't want to dry them out if they are not ready.
Hi there, honestly I don't know about freezing them. I have never tried freezing the acorns and then processing them after that. I would separate them and maybe try the boil method with them. But don't put them with the main batch.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt Thanks!! You are very helpful
@@jupiterbooze You are welcome!
Question I’ve got a bunch of green acorns can I still use those
Hi Sean, I wouldn't use the green acorns, those aren't ripe.
Interesting to know you can eat them I was always told they were poisonous. Maybe only if you don't do the leaching process
Yes! If you don't do the leaching process they are poisonous. But other than that they have been eaten for 1000s of years. :) I think the American Indians use to put them in baskets and then in the river, which leached out the tannins. Pretty neat stuff. :)
@@inthekitchenwithmatt agreed interesting.
@@shepardw4981 :)
Thank you!
You are welcome!
How long will acorn flour store for?
If stored in an airtight container in the fridge it will last about a month or it can be frozen as well in freezer bags for even longer storage.
wonderful, thank you matt!
You are so very welcome! Glad you liked it.
Thanks
You are welcome!
This is great, thank you! Going to do this as soon as our acorns are ready!
You are very welcome! Let me know how it goes once you get some acorns and try it. :)
thank you
You are welcome! :)
In the kitchen with Matt, It's been a while since you posted this video, so I hope you are still answering questions. I have just one question. How long will the acorn meat last after all of the processing? (Stored in the refrigerator, in sealed container). Thank you for posting this video! I have a huge very old oak tree on my lawn! Lots of squirrels too! 😂
Hi Marian!!! Great question, I place mine in a mason jar in the fridge, it lasts 3 to 4 weeks before mold gets to it. For longer storage, place it in a freezer bag and freeze it. :) Growing up we had lots of fruit trees and lots of squirrels. We didn't have oak trees but we had almonds, and never got any, because of the pesky squirrels lol
@@inthekitchenwithmatt Awesome! Thank you!
@@manderson3231 You are welcome! :)
Can you dry the acorn meat in a dehydrator?
Sure!!
Is it OK if the acorns are green in color? My live oak always drops green acorns. My post oak acorns are a bit browner.
No, I would wait until they are all light brown like in the video, that is when they are ripe. The green ones may turn brown after falling, just gather them up and store them somewhere dry and safe from the elements.
I wonder if chickens would eat the acorn nut meats? Would the tannin be harmful to them?
If they were processed like in the video then I would say absolutely. Other than that I would do more research before feeding your chickens unprocessed acorn meat. :)
What about the tiny more round acorns? Can I do this with those?
As long as they are acorns, you can process them like this. :)
Hi I'm in ghana so I normally get your videos late
That's okay Doris! Thanks for watching in Ghana! :)
Thanks, good info just in case.
You are welcome Mark!
This is a stupid question, but when is the best time to gather acorns? I would imagine in the fall.
Right when they fall, because if you wait too long and it rains, they could spoil. And other critters can get them. If you live in a dry climate, they can actually stay on the ground several days before going bad.
i did this until the water was clear and then tasted them and they were still extremely bitter so i boiled them and sooo much tannin still came out and i've changed the boiling water 5 times now and it's still got so much color but the bitterness went away, is it okay to eat them even though tannin is still coming out when i boil them?
I wouldn't. I would keep repeating the process until the water is clear and no more tannins come out. In this video I did it over a week, so pretty much 7 full days of soaking. With that said, it also depends on the type of acorns you are using. White oak, which is what I used in the video, has less tannins than other oak varieties, like the Red Oak.
Just wondering, if the shells float, but the nut doesn’t, couldn’t you blend the acorns, wait for the shells to float up, and skim the top, instead of cracking them one at a time? Is there a reason why this wouldn’t work? Thanks 😊
Hi that is an interesting question! The shells don't always float. But the little inside part of the shell does which has a lot of the tannins in it. No you wouldn't want to blend/grind the shells with the acorns. :) Definitely need to shell the acorns first.
I'v heard you want to use acorns from white oaks that are less bitter .
The acorns I used in this video are from white oaks. And yes white oak tree acorns are less bitter.
can you use green acorns? is there a way to ripen them?
Hello, no you can't use green acorns, they aren't ripe yet. They should turn brown after awhile, so wait until they turn brown to shell them. :)
@@inthekitchenwithmatt thanks for the reply. Just to confirm- they will still turn brown even off the tree? I picked them because it seemed like there were hardly any left... There's a lot of squirrels...
@@jupiterbooze They might, although the best time to pick them is when they are ripe and fall off the tree when barely picked. If they are really green, it will still take 3 to 4 weeks to change color, although it is possible they rot. You will just have to see. But if you already have them, and they are off the tree, that is really only what you can do at this moment, haha. Growing up we had the same problem with our almond trees, we never got any, because of those darn squirrels, haha.
He said nut meat. Lol but I’m trying this. Very informational.
Yep that is a very common phrase when talking about the nuts, which is funny because nuts are not meat at all. And thank you!! Just a reminder this method works for any acorn (White Oak, Red Oak, English Oak, Live Oak, Black Oak, etc.)
at minute 7 do you think leaving the shelled acorn into water over night will not let it lose some of its nutrients
Hello, well you have to use water, either by keeping them overnight and replacing the water, for several days, or buy boiling and replacing the water, that is how it gets rid of the toxic tannins that are in the acorns, otherwise you can't eat them, they will be poisonous/toxic.
matt I have a gas cooker with plastic control knobs if I wedge it open like that the control knobs will melt!!!!!
Hey Matthew, then don't do it like that. :) That is how I do it. As you can see the control knobs on my oven are nowhere near the door opening. I can't possibly account for every kind of cooker out there. haha. :)
Wow is it time consuming! Probably worth it though if you are able.
Yeah it is pretty time consuming! haha :) But like you said worth it if you are able.
Cool video, Matt! How do you like your food processor? Any tips for choosing one?
Thank you Stephanie!! :) :) This is the one I have and like it. A decent price, has lasted quite awhile too. amzn.to/2tBJqMg
would I be able to use my dehydrator on 165 (the highest setting) to dry them out?
Hi Nancy! Yes, the dehydrator should work great.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt Great to have that option. Here in Las Vegas it is so hot that I hate to heat up the house. I dehydrate outside.
@@nancymweasel6561 Nice!! Yeah, it is super hot here in Phoenix too!
A different video told me to put them in my dehydrator for 12 hours THEN shell them, so I did. The meat is rock hard and very dark.... is it burnt?
It may be did you cut one open and see what it looks like on the inside?
Dark all the way through 😢
@@amyclayton9501 Darn, you could still proceed with the other steps and see. But they may be done for. Maybe not though.
Do you have a recipe using the acorn flour? Please print it, thanks
Yes I have a few :) Acorn Blueberry muffins ruclips.net/video/fxKfAO351Zw/видео.html and Acorn bread ruclips.net/video/qcV7G6RhzLM/видео.html
Are acorns a gluten free food ? Need to know. Thanx Matt.
Hi there Ray! Yup acorns are gluten-free! :) You are welcome, Ray.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt ,Thax for the answer back.
@@raysova7666 You are very welcome Ray! :)
I use a pair of pliers instead of a hammer. Crush it lengthwise. Throw the nuts in a blender with water. Run it at high speed for 5 minutes, strain it through a pair of nylons (preferably clean). This works great for white oak acorns.
Yeah pliers works well for the bigger nuts, but these small live oak ones that I have here just don't work well in the pliers. I actually tried using the pilers at first, but didn't have much luck. So now I always just whack away at them with a hammer. lol
Me too. Then boiled em. Now they are nearly caramelized but smell delicious and can be eaten as is.
@@-flanders-8975 Yeah I mention the boiling method. But that isn't as good if you want to make acorn flour, but totally fine if you just want to eat them as is.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt I'll use cold leaching on second batch. These first nuts were huge. Over an inch in diameter but the meat and skins were impossible to seperate so I ground them and boiled them for well over an hour.
I may try mill them down to finer particles and mix in cake or cookies. It really is like caramel. Sticky and thick so I'm not gonna try dry it.
@@-flanders-8975 Wow that is awesome, I wish they were that big here, our live oak nuts are so small. Let me know how it goes if you try and mill them.
Can one toast the meats before making flour?
Yes I showed that in the video. :)
@@inthekitchenwithmatt ok, so you dried them at 175-180 for 45-ish minutes. They didn't appear "toasted" but rather dried. I meant toasted as in browned to a golden brown. Not really sure what temperature that would require, but I have toasted sliced almonds before and it really elevates the nuttiness factor.
Have you tried this before?
@@perlygatekeeper You can certainly do that, but you need to be very careful not to burn them, because you will get a very bitter flavor. you could try a higher temp, they just don't roast as well as other nuts. They are usually just lightly dry roasted like this to remove moisture so they can be ground into the flour.
If I'm right, no acorn is poisonous, so even acorns from a bur oak are perfectly usable.
Bur oak tree acorns should be fine as well, as long as you process them.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt I kind of figured that, but thank you for the video. This will help a lot.
@@1fishmob You are welcome!!
Bur oak nuts are among the LEAST tanic acid acorns. I have used them for flour without leeching. When I was a kid my grandmother had us kids coarsely pound the acorns then put them into a coarsely woven tow sack that we submerged in a clear spring stream for a day or two. Dried them spread in the sun, then the meal was ground fine. We only used white oak acorns.
So which acorns tastes the best, red white or bur?
47 people gave a thumb down. I wonder why? What can one object to in a video like this?
I know right?? haha :) It happens all the time with cooking videos. Who knows what goes through peoples minds, on why they don't like a video.
@@inthekitchenwithmatt It's crazy. We have a cabin in the middle of the woods. This video is going to be so helpful, especially as food prices keep spiraling up.
@@stephenszucs8439 Indeed!! :) But honestly people are just mean sometimes, haha. I have people that dislike the video just because I am bald, haha. It is what it is, can't please everyone on RUclips, ha!
@@inthekitchenwithmatt True. The climate in our nation...no, in the world, is so hateful now.
@@stephenszucs8439 Agreed! It is sad, hopefully it will get better. The world would be so much better off if everyone was just a little bit nicer to each other.
Hi matt how are you doing hope all is well please can you show me how to make good meat pie
Hello Doris, I will put your request on my list. :)
Can't put them outside in the sun ....my squirrels will think I left them a snack
Sneaky squirrels! Put them inside next to a window that gets lots of sun.
that is so tiny small. Down here in Essex very very big and we have so much of it
It depends on the acorns. These are white oak acorns, they are all that small. Red oak and other varieties are much bigger acorns.
Great video but I don't see any need to throw out cracked acorns as you have to crack them open anyway + they are soaked for days
Thanks! The cracked acorns are rancid/bad. You don't want to process those.
Merci buko 🌹👏👍🏻
You are so very welcome Farah! :)
Someone get this man a colander
I have two colanders and mention using the colander 3:19. I use one in the video. It is hard to tell because it is close up. :) But you would only use on when washing the unshelled acorns. Not when letting the shelled pieces soak and replacing the water because any small pieces can fall through the holes of the colander.