How to Process Acorns and make Acorn Flour | Preparing Acorns to Eat

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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[gailwedgeworth]

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!

[jlathem]

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.

[debbiecurtis]

This year I'm making acron flour, horse chestnut laundry detergent, rosehip syrup, and elderberry syrup.

[peak]

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!

[michaelholmes]

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

[JDSly]

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.

[dragunovbushcraft]

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!

[killermercenary]

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?

[joethewolf]

Glad to see a tutorial without a dehydrator since I can't get one right now

[daisyk]

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.

[Joel.Invictus]

This is phenomenal! Thank you for the tutorial, friend.

[jewelrichards]

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😘

[scottfirman]

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.

[MrAndrewsAdventures]

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.

[hollyhall]

Wow that’s a lot of work. Cool process. I never knew you could do this and eat them.

[catherinehazur]

Excellent audiovisual instructional video! Liked and subbed

[Samaromua]

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)?

[IowaKim]

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.

[danielleterry]

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

[carolynromero]

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?