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!
