How to make Acorn Flour
Even though levels of nutrients vary greatly between red and white oak acorns, they’re both exceptionally nutritious. Leaching removes a lot of the water soluble vitamins and nutrients from the acorns, but not the fat soluble ones. The general nutrition facts (Sources: USDA, 2008 and Mason, 1992) shows that acorns are:
- 50-90 percent complex carbohydrate
- 5-30 percent fat (the healthy monounsatured and polyunsatured fats)
- 5-8 percent protein
- contain all the essential amino acids
- are very high in Vitamins B6, Potassium Manganese, and Copper
- are a good source of a laundry list of other vitamins and nutrients
Cherokee Acorn Griddlecakes
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups acorn meal (*you can remove a bit of acorn flour and replace it with wheat flour if you want a lighter griddlecake)
- 1 egg (duck or chicken)
- 1/2 ts salt
- 1/2 cup water (or hickory ambrosia)
- 1 Tb honey or maple syrup (*Acorn flour is naturally sweet, so only add this ingredient if you want the cakes to be even sweeter.)
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl and beat into a batter. Let sit for 1 hour in refrigerator.
- Turn stove to medium heat and place skillet or frying pan on stove.
- Heat 1 tbsp. of real butter or oil. Using large spoon, put batter into pan to form round cakes about 3-5 inches in diameter. Brown cakes slowly on both sides, serve and enjoy!
