Acorn Meal Recipes

Steps:

• To Shell: Acorns are best shelled with a nutcracker or a pair of pliers. Simply grip each nut the long way and pinch, then grip it the short way and pinch. Presto! Out pops the clean, white kernel.
• To Grind: Put a cup of shelled acorns in a blender, fill the blender's container up with water and whiz away at high speed for a minute or two.
• To Leach: Pour the acorn pulp into a dish towel lined colander.
• Place the colander under slow running water and work the pulp around with your hand for about five minutes.
• The water now runs clear.
• Taste the meal.
• If bitter, continue rinsing.
• The meal should taste rather bland.
• Press out the excess liquid and store in the refrigerator or freeze until ready to use.
• To Dry: Spread the damp meal out in a shallow layer on a cookie sheet or on sheets of your dehydrator.
• Then begin to dry it.
• In the oven, you only need the pilot light or the very lowest oven setting.
• As it begins to dry, take your hands and very carefully crumble any chunks which hold moisture.
• Slowly your meal will begin to look quite good.
• You can run it through a grain mill for finer meal.
• To Use: The possibilities are endless!
• Add acorn meal to mush, stew, or soup.
• Use it in turkey dressing.
• Substitute acorn meal for corn meal or use it to replace part of the flour called for by your favorite bread, cake or cookie recipe.
• If you do substitute, cut down a bit on the usual amount of liquid and shortening, as the acorn meal is high in both vegetable oil and water (unless you chose to dry it).

Steps:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Grease a loaf pan.
• Sift together dry ingredients in a bowl.
• In a separate bowl, combine egg, milk, and oil.
• Combine dry and liquid ingredients.
• Stir just enough to moisten dry ingredients.
• Batter will be a bit lumpy.
• Pour into a greased pan, bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
• Acorns are very easy to use, similar to chestnuts.
• First examine the acorns as you pick/gather them.
• Throw away any that are wormy/moldy/cracked/etc.
• Next, shell them.
• Early in the season (August-September) the shell is usually soft enough to cut through.
• Later in the season acorns may require a nut cracker, though many times the shells are rather thin and brittle.
• Taste the raw acorns- if they are bitter, they need to be boiled.
• Tannic acid causes the bitterness, and is easily leached out by boiling the acorns in successive pots of water.
• When the water no longer turns brown (looks a lot like tea), the acorns are ready.
• The next step is to roast the acorns slightly.
• Use a warm oven, no more than 250 degrees.
• Acorns that have not been boiled will take 60 minutes or so, boiled acorns will take longer.
• Once they're roasted, the acorns can be used in place of nuts in most recipes, although they are less oily than most nuts.
• They can be glazed like chestnuts, simmered in a soup, ground and used as a flour extender.