How to Eat Acorns

Acorns can make a tasty treat.

After an acorn falls from an oak tree, it is usually gathered up by a squirrel for a delicious meal. Most people don't realize that the acorn can be harvested before it falls to the ground, and eaten as a tasty and healthy snack. In fact, acorns contain vegetable proteins, fiber, calcium, potassium, magnesium and phosphorus. Although acorns can be cracked and eaten, they taste less bitter when processed into acorn meal. Does this Spark an idea?

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Cookie sheet
Pliers or a nutcracker
Bowl
Food grinder
Glass bowl
Boiling water

Instructions

- 1
  
  Place your collected acorns on a cookie sheet and set them out in the sun to dry out. The sun stops mold from growing on the acorns.
- 2
  
  Pop off the top of the acorn, which looks like a little hat. Use a pair of pliers or a nutcracker to remove the outer shell of the acorn. The flesh will be yellowish-beige in color.
- 3
  
  Grind the acorns in a food grinder and place them in a glass bowl.
- 4
  
  Leach your ground acorns to remove the tannins that make the acorns taste bitter. This is done by pouring boiling water over the ground acorns and letting them sit for one hour.
- 5
  
  Drain the water from the glass bowl and repeat with fresh boiling water. You may have to do this another two or three times, just until the water no longer runs brown.
- 6
  
  Place your acorn meal back on a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the oven on the lowest setting. Check the acorn meal every 20 minutes to see if it has dried out, and crumble any meal that has begun to stick together.
- 7
  
  Grind your dried acorn meal one last time. Then it is ready to use in your favorite recipe.