Q&A for How to Use Acorns for Food

Put your cleaned acorns in a dry frying pan, which should be big enough to fit all the acorns in one layer on the bottom. Sprinkle the acorns with salt, depending on your taste. Hold the frying pan over an open fire, and constantly move the frying pan around. When the acorns start to smell roasted (not burned), take them off the fire and eat them like you would any roasted nut.

I used a garlic press to break the shell, then removed the shell. You can use a nut cracker too.

Yes, for all of the suggestions here (despite the photos), you should remove the shells beforehand.

To keep them from turning brown, just shell them into a bowl of clean, potable water. Otherwise they will discolor (kind of like potatoes do) from the exposure to the air. I also find that it's much easier to shell them efficiently if you allow the cracked acorns sit in that water for about an hour before prying the nuts out from the shell with a pick. It softens the shells a little.

Only oak trees produce acorns. Pick a leaf from your tree and compare it to pictures of leaves from other types of oak trees to find which one it is. A Google image search should provide you with plenty of pictures.

They are very bitter if they are not leached, but once they are roasted they have a sweetish nutty flavor.

Because they are toxic to humans unless leached with water.

No, it is not necessary to leach the acorns. However, if you plan on eating them in any reasonable quantity, it is a very good idea. Some species, such as the Emory Oak have lower amounts of tannic acid, and you have a better chance of eating those without any stomach irritation. Roasting is not sufficient for neutralizing the tannins. Leaching the tannins is the act of pulling these compounds out of the nuts. Roasting unleached acorns may do little but concentrate the tannins.

Yes, the acorns should be peeled before you leach them.

The size of acorn does not matter but if you have a lot of acorns of very different sizes it may be a good idea to leach/cook them in separate batches of similar size. Also, acorns tend to be fairly uniform in size, so double check to make sure they are fully ripened, since unripened ones are inedible.

No, unripened acorns are toxic and inedible. If they are mature green acorns they may ripen (turn brown and harden) in proper storage.

Yes, you can, they are organic. However, they may take a little more time to break down than normal compost scraps and the tannins in them might not be good for certain crops if you are using your compost in a garden.