Conkers - getting down to the job of using them

[rich59]

I am aiming to make a flour out of these guys.

Can you suggest the most efficient way of doing this? Drying? Crushing?

Once I have the flour then I aim to use it for some inedible purposes - cooking up a tinder cake is what I have in mind. Any other things I could make?

However, as I had such a good harvest I might get around to prepping some of it for edible purposes. Can you offer advice on what the toxins are, what the "non-palatable" elements are and how to extract them if possible.

If I get as far as making biscuits/ cakes then is it practical to use this as full substitute to ordinary flour?

 

[Geoff Dann]

Poisons: saponins and aescin, which cause vomiting and paralysis. They can supposedly be cleared of toxins by crushing and leeching with water, but I wouldn't risk it myself.

 

[Poacher]

Dibb's on the wine when you croak it please!

 

[Stew]

This could be interesting....

 

[stovie]

Why not substitute sweet chestnut...same principle, far more edible...and plenty of them in the london parks...just got to beat the squirrels...

 

[rich59]

Well, I've read around a bit. Apparently the native Americans would slow roast them, then slice them and leach them for 2-3 days (Plants for a future).

I've also found a video on u-tube of Bardster amaking a soap from them.

So, I'm hoping to cook a few tomorrow for a couple of hours at about 110C in my kitchen oven and see if they are workable. As for leaching..... that would perhaps be in a cloth bag in my outside sink under a slow running tap. (Way too small quantities of saponins to be of significance by the time it reaches any watercourse I would think, and the cooking should have deactivated them)

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You might regret the wine - home made white elderberry - varies from fantastic to Ugghhh! depending on the bush and the making.

 

[mountainm]

As for leaching..... that would perhaps be in a cloth bag in my outside sink under a slow running tap.

Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge waste of water, Please don't

 

[Nohoval_Turrets]

Apparently the native Americans would slow roast them, then slice them and leach them for 2-3 days (Plants for a future).

Aren't these horse-chestnut? They're native to the balkans not America - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculus_hippocastanum, are you sure you were looking at the right chestnut? I've heard of native Americans doing this with acorns.

 

[xylaria]

I have a horse chestnuts awaiting experimentation.

here is the bio-assay on ithttp:// http://sun.ars-grin.gov:8080/npgspub/xsql/duke/plantdisp.xsql?taxon=34 There is the LD50s for dog pigs and guineapigs for most listed chemicals, there is also a way of finding the solubility for each chemical.

If the aesclin is toxic by haemolylis then wouldn't an invitro test be possible of the final flour.

 

[Chiseller]

a good cheap way of leaching.....toilet cistern

 

[rich59]

I have a horse chestnuts awaiting experimentation.

here is the bio-assay on ithttp:// http://sun.ars-grin.gov:8080/npgspub/xsql/duke/plantdisp.xsql?taxon=34 There is the LD50s for dog pigs and guineapigs for most listed chemicals, there is also a way of finding the solubility for each chemical.

If the aesclin is toxic by haemolylis then wouldn't an invitro test be possible of the final flour.

Hi Fiona,

This looks a little too much information. <<LD50=134 (orl mus) ; LD50=3-5 mg/kg (ivn dog) ; LD50=9.1 mg/kg (ivn gpg) ; LD50=9.3 mg/kg (ivn mus) ; LD50=9.5 (ipr mus) ; LD50=~4 mg/kg (ivn pig)>>

I don't suppose that means that a mouse can take 134 conkers by mouth before 50% risk of death???

 

[xylaria]

Hi Fiona,

This looks a little too much information. <<LD50=134 (orl mus) ; LD50=3-5 mg/kg (ivn dog) ; LD50=9.1 mg/kg (ivn gpg) ; LD50=9.3 mg/kg (ivn mus) ; LD50=9.5 (ipr mus) ; LD50=~4 mg/kg (ivn pig)>>

I don't suppose that means that a mouse can take 134 conkers by mouth before 50% risk of death???

The site stopped getting funding when clinton left the whitehouse.

I will dig out how soluble the ausclin is from some where. If it was easyly done, they would be eaten somewhere. I can't find record of therm been eaten somewhere. I think the indian horse chestnut is the same. The soap might be more likely.

 

[rich59]

With the aim of making a flour that I can cook with (not necessarily to eat) to make a charcoal cake (tinder possibilities). I have progressed with my conkers - 2 samples handled differently

A) Handful of conkers - slow roast on 110C for 2 hours. A this point they smelt really nice and appetising (roast nut smell). The plan was to then peel and chop. - Very hard, so I opted to crush them (hammered in a bag on a kitchen chopping board) and then soak them and then chop. I soaked for an hour but next time I would do 2-3 hours. After soaking they chopped quite well. The flesh was dark cream/ gray coloured

B) Handful of conkers - skip the roasting stage. When fresh or soaked for a while you could chop with the shell on (shell mostly floats off when put in water). They chopped easily. The flesh was off white.

Then both A) and B) samples were each put in a cotton bag (old jeans pockets tied off with string) and put in the recommended toilet cystern to leach. They have now been there 24 hours and had half a dozen flushes. Water started as cloudy and frothy, but now the 2nd day it is clear and only slightly frothy. (I suspect that full flushes are probably 10x more efficient at leaching than half flushes.)

Tomorrow I think they come out and I will look to drying before grinding.

 

[Chasing Rainbows]

Doesn't saponin emulsify and get removed when combined with oils?

I'm just throwing the idea out there but perhaps using bags of crushed conkers to wash the dishes would help to remove the toxins.

Another idea would be chucking them in oil....perhaps you might end up with something alot like liquid soap/cleansing moisturiser.

It's probably a silly idea but why not mention it and see what people say.