A Step-by-Step Guide to Preparing and Cooking with Acorns
Have you ever wondered if the squirrels might be onto something? In fact, they are! Acorns are incredibly nutritious and readily available in nature, making them a healthy addition to many recipes. Here’s how to prepare and cook acorns! They are sure to become a fall favorite!
Can You Eat Acorns?
Yes, absolutely! Acorns have been a staple of diets worldwide and across cultures, including among some Native American peoples.
Why acorns? They are incredibly nutritious, offering healthy carbohydrates, protein, and fiber levels. Surprisingly, they are also a good source of Vitamins A and C.
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Plus, they have a wonderfully rich, nutty taste. Also, why not? It’s fun to forage and try making something adventurous.
While most folks use acorns to make nutrient-rich, nutty-flavored flour, you can also eat acorns as roasted nuts (they are a lot like chestnuts). See more ideas below!
Where and When to Find Acorns
Acorns come from oak trees, which can be found across North America. Oak trees are easily identifiable—they’re the ones with all the acorns around them! Jokes aside, oaks have fairly distinctive leaves and bark; look up which species of oak trees are common in your area to know exactly what signs to look for.
Acorns are typically harvested between September and November when they fall from the trees and become easily accessible to deer, squirrels, and resourceful humans.
How to Collect Acorns
When gathering acorns, look for brown, fully mature acorns that still have their caps, as those without caps are more susceptible to infestation by worms and other critters.
Green acorns are not yet mature and shouldn’t be used. If you’re willing to wait, consider harvesting acorns this year and storing them in a cool, dry place until next fall, when they’ll be thoroughly dried and easier to work with.
How to Wash Acorns
- Give acorns a quick rinse in cool water. Place them in a pot or bowl and fill it with water, then remove and dispose of any floating acorns, as they have likely gone bad.
- Place the acorns in a colander and run them under the tap for a minute or two to dislodge any loose dirt or hitchhiking bugs.
- Set the colander aside to let the acorns air-dry, or dry them by hand with a dish towel.
- Remove the shells and caps from your acorns with a nutcracker (or a hammer, if necessary). Do not eat the raw meat of the acorns yet.
How to Leach Acorns
Acorns contain bitter-tasting tannins, so you must prepare, treat, and cook the nuts before you eat them. It sounds like a pain, but it’s really not that difficult.
- Start two pots of water boiling. Drop the raw, shell-less acorns into one pot and boil until the water is the color of strong tea. Strain the nuts through a colander and drop the strained nuts into the second pot of boiling water. Discard the dark water from the first pot, then refill it and bring the water to a boil again. Repeat the process without interruption (do not let the acorns cool) until the water boils clear. This may take an hour or more, depending on the variety of acorn.
- Alternatively, you can soak the raw acorns in cold water to leach the tannins out. Change the water when it turns a darker color. This process may take several days, depending on how long it takes for all the tannins to leach out of the acorn meat.
To avoid rotting, it’s very important that the acorns dry fully. Spread tannin-free acorns to dry on cookie sheets in a warm place. If it is hot out, lay the cookie sheets in the sun. Or, you could put them in an oven set to “warm.” You can also put the acorns in a dehydrator set on low heat.
How to Grind Acorns for Flour
When partially dry, coarse grind a few acorns at a time in a blender. Spread the ground acorns to dry on cookie sheets, then grind again in a blender. Repeat until you are left with a flour- or cornmeal-like substance.
You can also freeze your fresh acorn meal. Store dried flour in jars in the fridge.
Eating Roasted Acorns
Making acorn flour isn’t the only way you can enjoy acorns. Here’s how to roast the nuts:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Pour the acorns into a single layer on an ungreased, rimmed cookie sheet.
- Cook the nuts for about 60 minutes or until they turn a chocolate brown color.
- Remove the acorns from the oven and let them cool. Salt to taste.
Acorn Recipe Ideas
- Mix up cooked acorns with raisins or other dried fruit to make a trail mix.
- Substitute acorns for chestnuts in baking recipes.
- Use acorn flour in bread, cake, pancakes, and more! Try this acorn flour flatbread recipe (similar to a tortilla).
- Or, try this acorn flour honey cake, which tastes a little like gingerbread cake.
- The flour also makes an excellent pasta dough when mixed with regular flour.
- How about adding acorn flour to a pancake recipe for that nutty taste and nutrition?
Acorn Pancakes Recipe
This recipe was adapted from Sharon Hendricks. Source: Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension
Ingredients:
- One egg
- 1 tsp. salad oil
- 1 tsp. honey or sugar
- ½ cup leached and ground acorns
- ½ cup cornmeal
- ½ cup whole wheat or white flour
- 2 tsp. double action baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ cup milk
Instructions:
Break egg into bowl and add all ingredients, beating to create a batter. If batter is too thick, thin with additional milk. Pour batter onto hot, greased griddle and cook slowly until brown. Flip to brown opposite side. Serve with butter and syrup or jam—and enjoy!
Have you ever made your own acorn flour? What is your favorite way to cook acorns? Let us know how it went in the comments below!
Catherine Boeckmann
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We used to rake leaves and burn them, basically roasting the acorns in the fire until afternoon, then sit around and eat them afterward.
I have been boiling the acorns for several hours, rotating between pots to keep using fresh water. The water still turns brown after several minutes. How long should I keep doing it?
Hi there!
After several hours of repeating that process, you should be all set. Even if the water is still turning brown, you should have removed enough of the tannins that it won’t be bitter tasting anymore. We hope this helps!
Same deal here, I changed water every 15 minutes for about 2.5 hrs. Tasted a fragment...pretty bland, so I stopped.
Drained, cooled, and put them in the oven with some salt. Tasted a piece after about 30 minutes. Its not bitter...its not anything. These are huge acorns, from a burr oak, some of these nutmeats are the size of a small walnut. Presuming these are done in 30 more minutes, can I expect anything more than a bland flavor once these are cooked all the way?
My dogs and pigs have been eating acorns that have fallen on the ground. Is this OK? I heard that it cac damage their kidneys
Yes acorns are a no-no for dogs as I read it. The kidneys must work overtime to eliminate the tannin from their system and 6% or less of their body weight in acorns will cause the kidneys to shut down and thus death. I work overtime pulling acorns from the mouth of my two Lab puppies as they love to chew and swallow them.
Also, the shells can make shards which will damage their insides and are a bad size to cause bowel blockage especially on small dogs or pups.
We already reduce habitat, and share little of our fruit and vegetable gardens with wildlife. Can we at least leave them the acorns? Many depend on them to get through the months when no other food is available.
Hey There, I appreciate your care for the critters... you're right Humans are destroying their lives and therefore our own at the same time.
There are plenty of places where there are hundreds of pounds of acorns and hardly a critter about. In fact the lawns in these public parks/gardens are [usually] regularly mowed and all the acorns discarded wherever those clippings go. I'm writing from NZ and the only wild animals likely to want these acorns are possums [a pest in NZ] and maybe the odd hedgehog (I don't even know if they eat acorns). These parks are in the middle of the city or by a rugby field or a children's playground in a rural township. I'll collect some when, I beat the mowers, guilt free, but I'll certainly consider the critters in wilder places. Thank you.
Good point if you’re in an area without many acorns. However, don’t worry if you happen to own oak trees. Most areas with acorns have more than enough for the animal life, including a human or two. One huge oak can drop up to 10,000 acorns. If you own oaks, the acorns can blanket the ground in a mast year. Fortunately, the United States is blessed with roughly 58 species of native oaks. The best thing you can do if you have oaks on your property to increase yield is manage them. Keep any oaks and other nut trees thinned and healthy. Crowded stands of tall trees block the sun and squelch mast production. Nut trees with crowns fully exposed to light are healthier and produce better than those with shaded foliage. Thin medium-height trees, too, so light can strike the ground and encourage growth of lower foliage important to ground-dwelling creatures for cover and nesting.
my wife is taking them out of the shell cutting them up into smaller pieces then she is putting them in our dehydrator. I told her that she should soak them in water to get rid of the tannin out of them first who is right or does it matter
