Subject: Re: CAN YOU EAT ACORNS?

From: [email-masked] (Jennifer B. Jakiel)
Date: 4 Oct 1995 16:19:25 -0700

[email-masked] wrote:

: I have often heard, from reliable sources, that acorns definitely are 
: edible, if you boil them repeatedly and discard the water, until the 
: water is clear -- no more of the bitter-tasting tannic acid!

: I have yet to try this out, though!

: TC

I have attempted to leach acorn tannin in order to eat them, and I'll
tell you, what little I was able to eat was good (kinda like chestnuts)
but the stuff with the tannin still in them was nasty!

-jen

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From: [email-masked] (Chuck Levine)
Date: Thu, 05 Oct 1995 00:03:46 GMT

Although a few White Oaks have acorns sweet enough to be eaten raw or
roasted, most oaks have extreamly bitter acorns. Happily the
bitterness is due to an abundance of tannin which is readily solubule
in water. Whole kernals, stripped of thier shells and boiled in
repeated changes of water untill the water no longer turns brown, can
be roasted and eaten as nuts or dipped in sugar and eaten as candy.
Dried and crushed acorns can be placed in pourus bags and put through
the same boiling process to remove the tannins. They can be redried,
ground into meal, and used to make excellent breads and muffins. Rich
in protien and fat.

---

From: [email-masked] (Jennifer B. Jakiel)
Date: 7 Oct 1995 09:57:57 -0700

Chuck Levine ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Although a few White Oaks have acorns sweet enough to be eaten raw or
: roasted, most oaks have extreamly bitter acorns. Happily the
: bitterness is due to an abundance of tannin which is readily solubule
: in water. Whole kernals, stripped of thier shells and boiled in
: repeated changes of water untill the water no longer turns brown, can
: be roasted and eaten as nuts or dipped in sugar and eaten as candy.
: Dried and crushed acorns can be placed in pourus bags and put through
: the same boiling process to remove the tannins. They can be redried,
: ground into meal, and used to make excellent breads and muffins. Rich
: in protien and fat.

This is taken verbatim from _Peterson Field Guides: Edible Wild Plants_.
Please identify your sources in the future (plagarists are never appreciated).

-Jen Jakiel