ok I "mostly" processed acorns yesterday. my daughter brought me a full paper grocery bag of burr oak acorns. Yesterday I cracked them, and leeched them and got them in the dehydrator. I think today I'm going to grind them up.
ok dumb question but what it is that you do with acorns??
not a dumb question at all. Acorns use to be a staple food in north America back in the day. But they fell out of favor probably because of easier ways to make flour/meal etc.
I am going to grind mine into a flour/meal (i'm expecting a corn meal consistancy) and use it to make some kind of bread I haven't fully decided yet. You can use them to make anything you would put flour or cornmeal in.
The leaching process is a whole thing, but it's really not that bad. Acorns are full of tannin some are more bitter than others so you have to leach them before you dry them out, otherwise grody to the max. LOL There are a few different methods to leaching, I picked the boiling method.
I set up two 5 qt pots with boiling water in both. While I was boiling one pot with acorns I had another coming up to a boil to be ready to put them back in after I drained them out the first pot and then just continued the cycle.
I boiled them for 5 minutes or so then drained them ( do not rinse) then put them into the waiting pot of boiling water. I did them like this for at least 5 changes. or until you taste them and they aren't bitter anymore. Acorns turn brown when you boil them just fyi. If you wanted to get real jiggy with it, you can save the acorn water and use it to dye white fabric a light tan. you can tan hides with it, and it also has some medicinal properties but I would heavily research that first.
after I finished leaching a round I drained them well and put them right into my dehydrator on 160* and just kept adding to it. They dried alot faster than I thought they would and I only halved the acorns they would prob dry and leach faster had I chopped them up more. Just fyi if you do chop them up first, do it with a knife because they are very high in oils and my mini food processor did not like them one bit.
I am going to grind mine into a flour/meal (i'm expecting a corn meal consistancy) and use it to make some kind of bread I haven't fully decided yet. You can use them to make anything you would put flour or cornmeal in.
The leaching process is a whole thing, but it's really not that bad. Acorns are full of tannin some are more bitter than others so you have to leach them before you dry them out, otherwise grody to the max. LOL There are a few different methods to leaching, I picked the boiling method.
I set up two 5 qt pots with boiling water in both. While I was boiling one pot with acorns I had another coming up to a boil to be ready to put them back in after I drained them out the first pot and then just continued the cycle.
I boiled them for 5 minutes or so then drained them ( do not rinse) then put them into the waiting pot of boiling water. I did them like this for at least 5 changes. or until you taste them and they aren't bitter anymore. Acorns turn brown when you boil them just fyi. If you wanted to get real jiggy with it, you can save the acorn water and use it to dye white fabric a light tan. you can tan hides with it, and it also has some medicinal properties but I would heavily research that first.
after I finished leaching a round I drained them well and put them right into my dehydrator on 160* and just kept adding to it. They dried alot faster than I thought they would and I only halved the acorns they would prob dry and leach faster had I chopped them up more. Just fyi if you do chop them up first, do it with a knife because they are very high in oils and my mini food processor did not like them one bit.
Keep us informed!!
DNO
DNO
Ok here is what I've learned so far. Acorns are freaking hard as rocks when they are dehydrated... They will not easily go through a little cheapo hand mill grinder unless they are chopped into small bits. Once you boil and dehydrate them you can't just chop them into small bits... You can't even smack them with a hammer very easily. 
You can chop them first while they are still fresh or just freshly boiled and still soft. and if you don't do that you can put them small amounts at a time into a blender, not a food processor.... or a coffee grinder... and then run them through your mill.
Also I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what the smell reminds me of. It finally dawned on me last night. They have a similar smell to amaretto :-)
You can chop them first while they are still fresh or just freshly boiled and still soft. and if you don't do that you can put them small amounts at a time into a blender, not a food processor.... or a coffee grinder... and then run them through your mill.
Also I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what the smell reminds me of. It finally dawned on me last night. They have a similar smell to amaretto :-)
hope this isn't to large
Interesting write-up, though!
im old, I was being facetious lol, however, I still regularly use "bitchin' to describe something awesome.
subprep, this is so very cool!! 
I am in complete and utter awe ... (And now I've got to figure out a way to keep the chickens, squirrels and rabbits from getting the acorns that fall off the neighbors' tree into my backyard ... 
)
I am in complete and utter awe ... (And now I've got to figure out a way to keep the chickens, squirrels and rabbits from getting the acorns that fall off the neighbors' tree into my backyard ... )
Good luck! when I was on my back porch cracking them I had a squirrel stalking me!
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