How to Prepare Acorns

A few years ago, my wife found a bunch of Acorns and brought them home for me to cook. They were pretty bitter, and it turns out it’s because they were from a red oak, which has a very high tannin concentration. White oaks however are a different story…so when we started seeing the characteristic curved leaves and oblong acorns on a hike a few weekends ago, we squirreled a bunch away in our pockets!

In case you find yourself with a similar bounty, we figured we’d share a tutorial on how to work with them to turn them into something delicious!

Time: 2-3 Hours

What You Need:

  • Acorns (Try for White Oak, as the end flavour is better than red, and the process is much quicker)
  • Two pots
  • Water
  • A Nutcracker or Hammer
  • Large Bowl
  • Time

Method:

  • Place your acorns in a bowl, and cover with water. Discard any acorns that don’t sink, and then remove the rest from the water.
  • Use a nutcracker (or caution and a hammer…we wore our oven gloves as a cushion and for grip too) to crack your acorn shells.
  • Peel the shells away to extract your acorns.
  • Pour enough water to completely cover your acorns into two different pots, and bring each to a boil.
  • Place your acorns in one of the pots of boiling water, and allow to cook until the water is a deep red.
  • Drain that water, pour the acorns into your other pot of boiling water, and refill the now empty pot with water. Bring to a boil again.
  • Keep repeating this process of boiling and switching acorns until the drained water lightens greatly in colour.
  • Taste test an acorn to see if it’s still bitter…if so, keep boiling. If not, your acorns are ready for use!

3 comments

  1. Haha! “What you need: time” It crack me up😂 I’ve never tried eating acorns myself but looks so tempting! Thank you for sharing✨

    1. Nice “crack me up” pun too! So far, we’ve only cooked with them twice, but both times were hits. Definitely worth the effort for a funky special meal…although with the work involved, I can see why squirrels are so skinny!

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