hersh@louie.DEC (Harry Hersh - Dtn 279-6718) (11/04/85)
Are acorns, in any form, edible? Squirrels and chipmunks eat them, but can humans? Are there any culinary treats containing acorns? (The entry with the best recipe may have half the acorns on my front lawn. The runner-up may have the other half.) /harry hersh/ ...decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-louie!hersh
seb@mtgzz.UUCP (s.e.badian) (11/05/85)
Acorns are filled with tannin and other stuff that makes them very bitter. I guess the squirrels and chipmunks don't mind. You can eat acorns but first you have to leach out the tannin. American Indians used acorns extensively. Walking through an oak forest, you know why. There are tons of the little buggers. If you're really interested in using them, look in a wild foods cookbook (by Euell Gibbons, for instance - don't worry, he didn't die of acorn poisoning :-)). I'm sure it's a lot of work to make them edible. You have to peel them, leach out the tannin and then mash them up. I think I've seen recipes for bread using acorns, but I may be wrong. It's been a while since I saw this information. Sharon Badian ihnp4!mtgzz!seb
fc@spuxll.UUCP (fc) (11/05/85)
A wildlife tour guide told us that acorns are not good to eat as is because they contain too much tannin.
benson@dcdwest.UUCP (Peter Benson) (11/06/85)
The native americans whose language I used to study, Luiseno,
made a dish called wiiwish. The basic recipe is to grind the
acorns up in a stone metate, called a maalal, and then running
lots of water through them to leach out the tannic acid. Then
you cook the mashed, leached acorns until they form a pinkish
pudding that taste vaguely reminiscent of bubble gum, It was
never my favorite dish, but you might like it.
--
_
Peter Benson | ITT Defense Communications Division
(619)578-3080 | 10060 Carroll Canyon Road
decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!benson | San Diego, CA 92131
ucbvax!sdcsvax!dcdwest!benson | booter@lll-crg.ARpA (Elaine Richards) (11/06/85)
In article <1229@decwrl.UUCP> hersh@louie.DEC (Harry Hersh - Dtn 279-6718) writes: > > >Are acorns, in any form, edible? Squirrels and chipmunks eat them, but >can humans? Are there any culinary treats containing acorns? > >(The entry with the best recipe may have half the acorns on my front lawn. >The runner-up may have the other half.) > Yes, Harry, there is a use for acorns. The Ohlone Indians of the Bay Area (Union City type area) as well as other tribes here and there used to make acorn flour. A cherokee lady I had as a teacher gave us some. It MUST be cooked, it tastes yicky raw and may be toxic in reasonable quantities. (I had a fingertip full) Consult your local American Indian Friendship Center for recipes. E *****
jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman) (11/06/85)
> > Are acorns, in any form, edible? Squirrels and chipmunks eat them, but > can humans? Are there any culinary treats containing acorns? > > (The entry with the best recipe may have half the acorns on my front lawn. > The runner-up may have the other half.) > > /harry hersh/ Acorns were the staple food of many Native American tribes. They are not edible to humans without a lot of processing, though. They contain a poison which must be leached out. One tribe (I don't remember which) accomplished this by grinding the acorns, making a bowl of sand in the ground next to a lake, putting the ground acorns in the bowl, and letting water run through the acorns several times. They would then remove the acorns from the bowl, taking care not to get any sand along with it, and cook it in baskets by throwing hot rocks into the meal. The result was a sort of mush. If I win the contest, please donate the acorns in my name to the local squirrels. -- Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.) "Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..." {amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff {ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff
wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly) (11/06/85)
In article <1229@decwrl.UUCP> hersh@louie.DEC (Harry Hersh) writes: >Are acorns, in any form, edible? ... Yep. Many native American tribes used (use?) them for food. The black oaks and red oaks (the ones with pointy lobes on their leaves) aren't any good for eating: they're loaded with tannin. White oak species (the ones with rounded lobes) have much less tannin, however, and some can be nibbled on straight out of the shell. I've done this with chestnut oak acorns when I'm walking in the woods. Amerindians used to leach the tannin out of acorns in running water after grinding them into a meal; I think Euell Gibbons talks about this in one of his books and gives some recipes like acorn bread. Check out "Stalking The Wild Asparagus," which may be the book I'm thinking of. -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly
guy@slu70.UUCP (Guy M. Smith) (11/06/85)
In article <1229@decwrl.UUCP>, hersh@louie.DEC (Harry Hersh - Dtn 279-6718) writes: > > > Are acorns, in any form, edible? Squirrels and chipmunks eat them, but > can humans? Are there any culinary treats containing acorns? They formed a major staple of many California Indians diet, usually in the form of mush (at least as I understand it). It must first be leached with boiling water to remove the tannic acid which otherwise makes acorns inedible. I haven't heard of any other uses for it (which doesn't mean they don't exist). Anybody know of a way to eat horse chestnuts?
yates@lll-crg.ARpA (Kim Yates) (11/07/85)
The acorns from white oaks in Michigan are pretty good roasted in oil. Acorns of red oaks taste terrible. You could try leaching out the tannin in red oak acorns by grinding them up and soaking in water, then using the powder as flour, but I doubt even that would be very appetizing. In any case, take the husks off first and watch out for worms. --Macho Sisu
rt@cpsc53.UUCP (Ron Thompson) (11/07/85)
> Are acorns, in any form, edible? Squirrels and chipmunks eat them, but > can humans? Are there any culinary treats containing acorns? > I just recently saw a PBS special on Indian tribes from the Southern regions of North America. Though acorns were part of their staple diet during the Winter months, they contain large amounts of (tannic?) acid. They had to be finely ground and leached thoroughly before they were edible. Leave them to the squirrels. -- Ron Thompson AT&T Information Systems Customer Programming ..akgua!cpsc53!rt Atlanta, Georgia Services Center (Opinions expressed are mine alone.)
bobm@rtech.UUCP (Bob Mcqueer) (11/08/85)
> > Acorns were the staple food of many Native American tribes. They are not > edible to humans without a lot of processing, though. They contain a poison > which must be leached out. Jeff is generally pretty well informed, so I'm not picking an argument, but I can testify from first hand experience that at least small numbers of acorns can be eaten as obtained from at least one kind of oak tree with no ill effects. I found this one out while a student in Bozeman, Mt. Somebody made a present to the group I was living with of a large assortment of mixed nuts in the shell plus some acorns which they insisted were really good. They were right, actually. I was surprised to find that I preferred the flavor of the acorns to several of the types of nuts present. The folks that refused to eat the acorns didn't know what they were missing. OINK!!! Please DON'T take this as liscence to go out in the woods and gobble down acorns off the first oak you come to. For all I know, SOME types might be poisonous, or I might be lucky. I'd do a bit of research before I went to gather the things wild. Bob McQueer amdahl!rtech!bobm
nelson@cvl.UUCP (Randal Nelson) (11/12/85)
> Are acorns, in any form, edible? Squirrels and chipmunks eat them, but > can humans? Are there any culinary treats containing acorns? Acorns are indeed edible. Before the arrival of European culture, they were a staple food for the natives of Eastern North America. They have since declined in popularity. The problem with acorns lies in the tannins they contain which render them extremely acrid and bitter, as well as somewhat toxic in quantity. In order to make them fit for human consumption, the tannins must be removed. The Indians had several ways of doing this. The simplest was to chop the kernels, and boil them in several waters to leach out the acrid principle. Sometimes wood ashes were added because the tannins were more soluble in basic solution. Another method was to scoop a hole in the sand, place the chopped kernels in the hole, and let cold water trickle through the mass for a few days. This practice resulted in heavy wear on the teeth from the sand which was inevitably recovered with the leached acorns. Acorns were eaten mashed into a soup or gruel, cooked as an unleavened bread, and probably combined with other foods. Flour was made by drying and grinding the processed kernels. Acorns vary considerably in tannin content. Those from the white oak group generally have less than the fruits of the red oaks. The white oak group can be told from the red oaks by the leaves. Those of white oaks have rounded lobes, while the leaves of the red oaks usually have pointed lobes, with a hair of bristle at the end. The Indians somtimes ate the acorns from the white oaks without any processing, but even these are apt to be unpalatable and bitter to a palate accustomed to wheat bread. If anyone is feeling adventurous, I can suggest the following procedure. Collect acorns from white oaks if possible. Shell, and coarsely chop the kernels. One nice thing about acorns is the high meat to shell ratio (compare black walnuts). Put the chopped meats in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Pour off the water, and repeat the process twice for a total of three times. Dry the meats in a slow oven (250F), and grind in a mill or blender to about the consistancy of cornmeal. This can be used like cornmeal, mixing half and half with all-purpose flour to make bread or muffins. The result is very dark, almost like pumpernickel, and has a distinctive "acorn" flavour. I thought it was interesting, but nothing to rave about, and still a little bitter. (Euel Gibbons on the other hand has great things to say about the flavour and nutritive value of acorn bread). I suspect however, that a lot of nutrients get leached out along with the tannins. Have fun. Perhaps for an authentically traditional Thanksgiving dinner... Randal Nelson (nelson@cvl)