Acorns Part Two; Cooking with acorns

Acorns Part 2;

Cooking with acorns

    Acorns are a versatile food source with lots of applications. Once acorns are processed (If you haven't read the first post or processing acorns check here), they can be used with many recipes or as the main course. Acorns are high in protein, carbohydrates, magnesium, vitamin B-6 and saturated fats. Making it an ideal food source for giving you energy through the winter. Processed acorns have a sweet, nutty taste that will lend itself to many different foods. They are frequently used to extend squash and potatoes in recipes or replace them entirely when those foods can't be found.

Acorn Flour;
    The most common use for acorns as a food source is simple acorn flour. This is made by grinding or milling the leached and dried acorn meat. This flour is usually used as a 50/50 mix with other flours or meals, but can be used by itself, especially if they were cold leached. If you are using hot leached acorn flour the lack of starches will mean it won't hold together well by itself. Adding starch from another source is recommended, but if the situation doesn't allow for that, then it can be used by itself, just expect a crumbly bread.
    Acorn flour can also be sifted, the collected fine flour is usually actually the starches that can be used as a starch for cooking or a thickener for soups, stews and the like.

This flour can be used like any other to make breads, bannock, dumplings or a thickener.

Acorn Coffee;
    The leached acorns can be diced and roasted over low heat. Once they are roasted, Grind them into a fine powder. This powder can be mixed with other coffees giving them a nutty taste and a vitamin B boost or used by itself as a acorn coffee. Though there is no caffeine, the vitamin B is a good energy boost in the morning.

Roasted Acorns;
    Acorns can be roasted much like other nuts. The sweet taste lends itself well to candies and in some places you can actually find acorn brittle.
    Roasted acorns can also be used to make acorn butter (like peanut butter) by mixing a cup of roasted acorns, 1 teaspoon of oil (preferably acorn oil, but any will work), 1 teaspoon of honey or molasses and a pinch of salt and sugar.

Pickled Acorns;
    Acorns can be used as a replacement to many pickling recipes that use brine. They may work with pickle recipes that use vinegar, but I have never met anyone who's tried it and it seems like it would be a bad mix. I've found the best recipes are actually for pickling olives. Just replace the olives with acorns and experiment with the recipes and ratios tell you find the perfect mix. This will also preserve the acorns giving several more months to enjoy them.

Acorn soup;
    Acorns are used to make acorn soup that can be found in fancy restaurants. There are many recipes out there that use sauteed acorns that are then pureed and used as a base. You can also use acorns in just about any soup or stew recipe as a replacement for legumes or potatoes.

Tannic acid;
    When leaching your acorns, the dark water that you are constantly changing is actually full of tannic acid. You'll get larger concentrations of tannic acid with the hot leaching method, but these can be used to make leather, a process called tanning, but the tannic acid itself has many medicinal uses as well.
If you're interested in the medicinal uses of tannic acid check out webMD's site here.