Heart to Hearth Cookery

Making acorn flour

It seems that I am still a novice to blogging even though this post on acorn flour is my 100th post to Bites of Food History!  This weekend I had red acorns to process into acorn flour.  The red acorns require more processing as the tannin content is higher than in the white acorns.  I am pictured with my bowl of acorns as I am using my rock mortar and pestle to crack open the nuts and remove the meats.  The nut meats than need to be leached of the tannins.  I used the heat of the fire with the nuts  in my small trade kettle and changed the water repeatedly over two days until the water was clear.  As I write this, my acorn meats are drying so they can be pounded into flour.  The pictures of processing the acorns into flour will be added to my Pennsylvania Humanities Council Lenape Foodways program.  See www.pahumanities.org for information on Commonwealth Speakers.  They are free for your group or organization if it qualifies.  And visit my website at www.hearttohearthcookery.com