Acorn Coffee

[Cap'n Badger]

Just finished me annual Acorn coffee makin' sesh......An' I must say....this years crop is quite tasty (last year was a little on the bitter side)......
Got me three large jars o' the stuff.....(should last me till the weekend..lol)...
For those wishin' t' brew some o' thier own.....
Take acorns.....
peel...(tends t' top an' tail..then slits husk)
chop finely........
roast on 'dry' fryin' pan till brown
Grind down into powder.......
roast again
allow t' cool.....
place in jar...SIMPLE!
I uses a 'cafetier'....(one o' those plungy things) t' serve, cos I hates bits in me brew.....
Today served wi' Acorn, sunflower seed and wild fresh blackberry flapjack..... ....The BIZ!!
Oh.......Happy 'Talk like a pirate day' peeps......ARRRRRRR!!

 

[Big John]

Sounds good, thanks. No worries about removing the tannins (sp) then?

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

Yaaaaarrrrrrrrr

does it go wit ya Grog

Yarrrrrrr

 

[Toddy]

Funnily enough HWMBLT has just brought me in a bag of acorns (better than cut flowers ) and I've cut them up and first roasted them (I tend to quarter them and then shell them like peas). The acorns are very mild this year, an almost buttery nuttiness Very little bitter at all; if you were really hungry you could eat them this year.
Any ideas why? weather? and there are *masses* of them too

cheers,
Toddy

 

[stovie]

Does roasting destroy/eliminate the tannins?

there is rather a glut this year, but as to their "mild buttery nuttiness" I put that down to a glut of alliteration

 

[Toddy]

sorry, I'm not au fait with the nut descriptions, I hear they have some sort of code like winetasters

Go on, try them and you'll see what I mean
mild = no tang of bitterness or raw dry mouth
buttery = smooth texture, thick, but easily bitten through
nuttiness = just that!

Usually acorns are inedible, this year is different. Haven't tried the coffee yet though so I've yet to see how they work out for that.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[billycan]

Usually trees such as Beech and Oak have whats known as a 'mast year' (from beech mast - the beech seeds) where every four or so years they produce a bumper crop, its an efficient reproductive survival strategy, i think its weather related. Which might also explain the different flavour and lack of tannin maybe due to the drought??

 

[bikething]

Ok, silly question time...

when do you pick them?? all the ones near me are still very much green in colour?

cheers
Steve

 

[Cap'n Badger]

Picked mine yesterday......they were green an' huge!.....I agree wi' Billycan about the Beech, but didn't know that the oak did the same......see, you do learn s'thing new everyday

 

[bikething]

Cheers Cap'n

I know where there's loads near my house

Steve

 

[stovie]

Okay, so having bitten into a couple, I can begin to appreciate the "buttery nuttiness" or was it "nuttery buttiness" , whichever, I'm still curious as to know if the tannins are destryed by roasting...c'mon, wheres the scientists when you need them....

 

[Toddy]

I think you need some tannins, after all that's what gives tea it's kick. I haven't tried my coffee yet....no time going to work in a park in ten minutes and it's pouring down.....again Roger Phillips says to boil the acorns for 15 minutes in their skins; well both Capt. Badger and myself removed the skins before we started, so maybe we don't need to be bothered about the tannins anyway.
atb,
Toddy

 

[Big John]

I've found this about tannins, I've not read it all yet, but it seems that not all tannins are soluble, so maybe the acorn ones aren't - this would explain why you need to boil them out for making flour (where you're actually eating them), but not for coffee (where you're just extracting the flavour).

having said that, if they're not soluble then how do they wouldn't boil out in the first place! Confused !

 

[Cap'n Badger]

stop feedin' yer pigs acorns!!
''Hydrolizable tannins

Hydrolizable tannins are toxic to ruminants. Tannin toxicity from HTs may occur in animals fed oak (Quercus spp.) and several tropical tree legumes (e.g. Terminalia oblongata and Clidema hirta)

Microbial metabolism and gastric digestion convert HTs into absorbable low molecular weight metabolites. Some of these compounds are toxic.

* The major lesions associated with HT poisoning are hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, necrosis of the liver, and kidney damage with proximal tuberal necrosis,
* High mortality and morbidity were observed in sheep and cattle fed oaks and other tree species with more than 20% HT. ''
But then ifin ye belives everything ye reads.....ye'd eat NOTHIN'....
This arrrfter me makin' Acorn bread!!...........tho I have made Wholegrain mustard bread an' Brazil & sunflower seed bread t'day an' all......so not all bad...

 

[Cap'n Badger]

there's also this......on why saliva inhibits tannins.....
http://crobm.iadrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/13/2/184
And ifin ye wants t' fall asleep while readin'.....this is a good one..
http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Entomology/courses/en570/papers_1994/alldredge.html
But tannins in 'tea' (green-black) promote protection from cancer....so it seems ......
http://www.thensome.com/whytea.htm
Still nothin' on 'roastin' tho.....

Just found this one....why gather the acorns?.....gather the 'acorn' gatherers!!
http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/recipes/squirrel.html
this one is good.....tells o' the 'mastin' o' the oaks.....
http://www.hastingsreserve.org/OakStory/Acorns2.html
Ok.....Last one.....this one actually says s'thing about roastin'.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn

 

[stovie]

Don't lose any sleep...I'm sure it's not as bad as all that.....just have a nice cup of tea.....

 

[bilko]

Ok this is another new one on me.
So just for the stupid ( ie me! ), Is it safe to eat RAW acorns or do they need roasting first?

Does one peel them or just munch away?

Lastly is there any calorific or nutritional benefit to eating acorns or am i just munching on baby oak?

 

[Tadpole]

Ok this is another new one on me.
So just for the stupid ( ie me! ), Is it safe to eat RAW acorns or do they need roasting first?

Does one peel them or just munch away?

Lastly is there any calorific or nutritional benefit to eating acorns or am i just munching on baby oak?

Eating too many raw acorns will eventually harm you. Kidney failure is the most common damage. All acorns contain tannins. This is what makes them so bitter. Soak them in fresh water for a few days changing the water regularly when it colours, the longer you soak them the more tannin is leached out. I’d collect them, peel them, put them in a hessian sack and dump them in a flowing stream for a few days. That way you are almost guaranteed to leach all the tannins out.

 

[bilko]

Think i'll give them a miss for now then. thanks for the info Tadpole.

 

[nobby]

I’d collect them, peel them, put them in a hessian sack and dump them in a flowing stream for a few days. That way you are almost guaranteed to leach all the tannins out.

Is this as in an ideal world where I could be sure that I was leaching out tannins and not replacing them with various chemicals washed off the fields into the water supply?