# Survival > Primitive Skills & Technology >  acorn flour?

## pugslee

has anyone tried to make acorn flour? i tried it last year and it was not very tasty, actually it was nasty and had a after taste that was horrible. any suggestions would be appreciated.

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## PreppingToSurvive

I haven't done it myself, but I've read that the key is to soak the acorns repeated for several days to get some of the tannins out. Have you tried that?

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## crashdive123

Describe the process you used.  Ditto what PreppingToSurvive said - if you don't soak them to remove the tannins, they will remain bitter.

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## gryffynklm

The species of oak makes a difference in the amount of tannins.  How long they have been laying on the ground also can make a difference. The acorns are best when recently fallen. Boiling ground, shelled, acorns for several hours and changing the water until it stops turning brown will remove the tannins. The link below has a short description of the process.    

http://www.uark.edu/ua/arwia/arwomen...%20handout.pdf

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## Rick

The red acorn also contains a lot more fat than white acorns. That's why squirrels eat mostly the white ones in the fall and bury the red ones. They need the fat during winter.

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## crashdive123

> The species of oak makes a difference in the amount of tannins.  How long they have been laying on the ground also can make a difference. The acorns are best when recently fallen. Boiling ground, shelled, acorns for several hours and changing the water until it stops turning brown will remove the tannins. The link below has a short description of the process.    
> 
> http://www.uark.edu/ua/arwia/arwomen...%20handout.pdf


Another method for removing tannins (have not tried it) that was explained when I took Green Dean's (Eat The Weeds Guy) class, was to put them in a mesh bag and place it in the toilet tank (not bowl).  Every time you flush, you get a change of water.  Kind of mirrors putting them in a running stream.

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## gryffynklm

Not a bad idea, I would still clean the tank real good. Residue from the bowl cleaner and water deposits.

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## crashdive123

Yeah, probably a good idea to remove the bowl cleaning disc before you do that. :Innocent:

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## SARKY

I personally don't like the boiling method, prefering the cold soak and many changes of water.

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## gryffynklm

Sarky,  Have you tried both?? Did you notice a difference in taste? I have only tried the boil method, it was OK. I'll have to try the cold soak next fall.

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## pugslee

I used white oak acorns. I gathered several hundred in a short amount of time by using a wheel barrel to catch them, and a rope to throw over limbs and shake them down, i inspected each and every one, and cracked them to see if it was "buggie" when all was done i had, just short of a 5 gallon bucket full.  We poured them into a burlap sack, put a big rock in the sack with them, then sunk it in Current River. They soaked for about 5 days, then i retrieved the sack, and layed them on a  tarp in the hot sun to dry, after being dried we ground them with rocks into the finest powder possible. We tried just using water to make the dough, then we tried eggs, and milk. All the cooking was done in a dutch oven as the Ozark National Scenic River ways, will not let you dig, i wanted to build a clay oven. If worse came to worse i could eat what we made but it would have to be almost a last resort.

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## MidWestMat

Was the flour still bitter?  If so does anyone have other ideas on how to fix that?  Mine, although soaked 40 miles away was still pretty bitter when I finished with it.  Almost inedible.

I also read a stream soak was the way to prepare, just doesnt seem to work very well.

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## LowKey

Was the burlap sack a very open weave and were the acorns packed in there or very loose.
The stream water has to be able to move freely through the bag.
Maybe try a more open weave recepticle. A basket maybe. Or a mesh laundry bag.
I have yet to make an edible acorn flour though....The red oak acorns around here are high in tannin and the squirrels don't let the white ones hit the ground from the few white oaks we have around here. Even the squirrels don't eat the red oak acorns, judging from the sprouts in my lawn.
Rick, I don't think they bury the red ones cuz of the fat content. They probably bury them hoping they'll leach some before they HAVE to eat them. LOL.

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## EdD270

An idea is to try soaking them in water with wood ashes. The lye in the ashes will leach out the tannins better. It still takes a lot of soaking, and it will never be like wheat flour.

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## Rick

You may be right. They might have a more delicate palate than I give them credit for.  :Blink:   The white acorns sprout sooner than red acorns. Another reason squirrels grab them up quick. If they don't the white acorn will sprout. If they are eating the red ones they are probably just eating a wormy nut and eating only the worm. They will still leave the red acorn to be buried.

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## MJkatzTheWriter

Wondering...besides acorns, what else could be used and ground down to make flour in the wilderness?   Since it seems like acorn flour is still going to be nasty-tasting no matter what is done, could nuts be used?  Or is there too much oil in them?

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## gryffynklm

> Wondering...besides acorns, what else could be used and ground down to make flour in the wilderness?   Since it seems like acorn flour is still going to be nasty-tasting no matter what is done, could nuts be used?  Or is there too much oil in them?


Big assumptions there MJ. If you read the entire thread you will see that the tannins in the acorn is what makes them unpalatable. There are methods of leaching the tannins from the acorns, this makes them palatable. There are many recipes and even suppliers of acorn flour. Deb's Pantry a place I have shopped on accession is one supplier that comes to mind. She also has Chestnut, Rice and Mustard. 
Deb's Pantry
http://www.deborahspantry.com/flours.htm

Other nuts can be used to make meal, think corn meal. Nut flour is the what remains of ground nut meal after the oil has been pressed out. The resulting dry cake of nut meal is then ground to a fine flour consistency. Nut flours should be used quickly as they will spoil. Freezing helps slow down the spoilage. 

If you are preparing nuts for baking you would end up with a meal, Walnut, hazelnut, almond, pecan and other nut can be used. 

The roots of some plants can be made into flour.  I have no experience making flour but have read about arrowroot, burdock root , Taro root, and Cat tail ROOT (not the brown part) being made into a flour.

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## Durtyoleman

Another tip is to mix acorn flour 50/50 with white/wheat flour or corn meal for cooking. Then you still have a nutty flavor but not too strong. The same works for cattail flour.
D.O.M.

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## rwc1969

I have "read" that you can make a flour like substance from dried maple seeds, and if i get a chance before they all dry out and spin away I'm going to try it. Green maple seeds are quite tasty, as they age on the tree they become more astringent, but still nowhere near astringent as the finest white oak acorn, finest white acorn that I've found in my neck of the woods that is.

Here's a little taste test I did on the green maple seeds of Box elder. http://youtu.be/K4xk1TB_YJ8 I've since tried Red and Sugar maple seeds, they're all great. One of the better tasting and more energy filled foods out there.

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## r0ckhamm3r

I have never made flower out of maple seeds, but I do like them boiled with a little butter and salt.  They taste kind of like peas to me.  

Cattail rhizomes (roots) can be used to make flower, but they are not easy to harvest or prepare and the finished product has a marshy flavor to it.

I have tried to make acorn flower twice and the results were pretty much inedible, so I gave up.

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## Firecraft

Here is how you do it:
Soak the acorns in water if you already didn't, but this is a common process in making acorn flour so you probably already did this.
Second is add a pinch of sugar or sweetener to the flour. This will make it lose it's bitterness.
Next, if you'd like, you can bake that acorn flour into a nice acorn cake.

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## Shalako

I don't think that'a gonna work out. Acorns have a rank, horrible bitter taste. What Acorn flour could do to your digestive track could be mind bending.

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## crashdive123

Have you tried it?

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## Rick

Acorn flour was a staple for indigenous North Americans. Stone mortars have been found literally everywhere that were used for making acorn flour. Here are some examples. 

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Drying acorns

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Pretty common throughout Europe, too.

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## Shalako

I have never tried Acorn Flour, have merely bitten into the meat of Acorns a few times-not good, but any Port in a Storm.

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## crashdive123

This is why the tannins must be removed from the acorns before you either make flour or eat them.

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## mouse111111

You can completely bypass the soaking if only you use red acorns, which is any oak that has pointy leaves, they actually have a pleasant taste,sweet. I havent ever made flour though, I could never get the moisture out completely.

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## Backwater Bill

> You can completely bypass the soaking if only you use red acorns, which is any oak that has pointy leaves, they actually have a pleasant taste,sweet. I havent ever made flour though, I could never get the moisture out completely.


I have not processed acorns for palatable nut meats nor flour yet because I've not learned enough to feel at least semi-confident that I will produce some good results, but I'm pretty sure that the White Oak species contain less tannins than the Red Oak varieties. That being said, I think Rick pointed out that the Red Oak species contained more fat, so Native Americans would take more time to process the Red Oak varieties to remove the tannins. 

This source here:

http://herb.umd.umich.edu/herb/search.pl

mentions that Native Americans would leech the acorns in Basswood ash. 

Another gentleman wrote this to me on at another place after I found out about the Basswood ash:

Bill that is an excellent point that you make. Native American tribes found that the acorns that had the most tannins coincidentally also had the highest nutritional value and so they accepted the extra work to get a higher return. 
There are two major types of tannins that exist in plants such as Oak trees, the dominant one being Gallic Acid which is a hydrolyzable acid; when it is reacted with a sufficiently basic compound it will hydrolyze into carbohydrates and phenols! which are both nutritional and healthy for you. You mention adding the ashes of Basswood, ash contains large amounts of calcium carbonate; a highly basic material that will react and neutralize any acids when added to the boiling pot. 
So it seems that the addition of ashes would help in the reaction that breaks down tannins as they are boiled/pressed! Thanks for the tip!

I hope this information helps. I will be trying it this fall and will post results.

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## LowKey

You got that mixed up. It's the white oak acorns that are sweet. They have lobed leaves.
Although there may be pointy versions of sweet oaks outside my area I suppose. (I'm in the northeast.) You have to work really hard to make red oak acorns edible. I haven't managed yet. LOL.

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## Rick

I think his point is the red acorn contains more fat, which it does. That offers a higher nutritional yield. It's sort of like me eating Brussel Sprouts. I know they are good for you but yuck.

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## mouse111111

I don't think you're right, I've eaten both back-to-back and the white oak was almost impossible to swallow, the red one was just fine. The species were northern red oak and white oak. I live in Missouri.

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## Amateur

Hello, community. My first post but I like your site and your topics. Anyway, by coincidence, I happened on a Kickstarter project about this very topic. On their website they talk about using a microwave to extract the tannin. I have not tried it myself but I looks interesting.

http://www.iloveacorns.com/eating.html

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## Backwater Bill

Interesting about the microwave. What makes me question this source though is that it makes no effort to distinguish between Oak species when selecting acorns for food. I'm skeptical you can just pick any type of acorn, put it in the microwave and then magically it will remove all the tannins. Seems to me it would fry them in even more.

I'm not entirely convinced either way not to mention all the variables that come into play it seems after reading the opinions on the "White" VS "Red" Oak tannin subject. I just harvested a few early Burr Oak acorns and tasted them (I realize they are not ripe yet and just did it for kicks. They are very bitter but within that bitternes was a note of sweetness which encourages me to go back when they have ripened). However, it is reported in many books that they are the largest in southern Indiana where I am from and contain the least amount of tannins within the "White" oak species. 

Many variables going on here. I realize they need to be soaked, drained, soaked, leeched and so forth so my tasting the early raw nut is not a good indicator of it's future possibilities but just thought I would throw that out there.

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## Thaddius Bickerton

Has anyone tried drying the nuts somewhat then crushing / pre-grinding them up some then soaking / boiling them with multiple rinses?

Perhaps more surface area will more thoughtfully leech the tannins out?

Also has anyone tried wood ashes, and had good or bad success?

With acorns so easy to obtain, and the history that it has been used successfully for food in the past, learning how to process them now may be of great benefit in the future.

I know that the tannin in oak is used to treat dysentery, thus I would be concerned for the digestive process if to much eaten unless loose bowels was a problem.  (and yes that "tea" tastes horrible, but living is worth the taste.)

Anyway, I guess I will be experimenting this fall.  (nice to have kids to do the gathering  :-) ]

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## jcullen24

> has anyone tried to make acorn flour? i tried it last year and it was not very tasty, actually it was nasty and had a after taste that was horrible. any suggestions would be appreciated.



Hey bud, I'm defionatly a NEWB, but I've read that you have to chop and flush the acorns under cold running water for some time before use. 
I would guess the process is to coarsly chop your acorns, the flush them with cold running water, then dry and pound into flour.

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## Rick

He hasn't logged on in almost a year. Probably not gonna see your post.

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## jcullen24

> He hasn't logged on in almost a year. Probably not gonna see your post.



DOH!!  I'm going to have to pay more attention to those post dates!

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## Rick

No big deal I just didn't want you to expect a response.

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## Thaddius Bickerton

Might be my fault, I forget I'm reading a lot of the cool older posts and sometimes I type an answer to a old one without realizing it.

I think this topic is a valuable one however.

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