I personally have never found a truly "sweet" acorn around that area. Just ones that are less bitter.

You might try soaking them in several changes of water (changing it twice or more a day) until the tannin is gone. You can get a pretty good flour that way. You can also use the water to tan hides.

It does indeed make good pancakes.

I've read somewhere where if you boil and pour off the water a few times to remove the tannin, even bitter tasting acorns become somewhat edible.

As far as I know there are no acorns native to Oklahoma that are edible right off the tree for humans. "Forest Trees of Oklahoma" put out by the Oklahoma Forestry Division Edition 13 page 80 on the Swamp Chestnut Oak states "Called Cow Oak because the cattle eat the sweetish acorns."

randy

No sweet acorns in southern Ok that I know of. The cows down here eat acorns sweet or not.

I used to eat large amounts of them and got them from Native Seeds Search in 'Tucson, but they don't seem to have them anymore. And I used to gather them from a tree that I don't have access to now. Sure do miss those little tasty bits, my favorite snack.

I had forgotten about having started this thread 15 years ago! Oh my, to see Okiedawn's response! That sure brings back memories!

Just recently I came back to this topic and did some more research and experimentation. I've found that with proper leaching, one can make bitter acorns sweet enough to eat. I've mainly been using white oak acorns (small ones) because I started experimenting after the main crop of this year's acorns had already passed. I've been delighted with the success I've found.

At this point I've settled on baking the acorns at 350 F. on a tray, for about an hour. This makes many of them crack open and speeds shelling. I then place the shelled acorns in a large pot on top of our wood stove and simmer them overnight, changing the water in the morning and letting them simmer again, for about 9 more hours. At this time they are no longer bitter. I spread them on a tray and dry them before grinding them into flour. I use a hand cranked tortilla mill for grinding, which gives me a coarse flour. (Picture below).

Here's a link to a thread on my experiments.

How do you know if the tannins are gone?

Just nibble on a piece of acorn meat. If makes your mouth dry at all or tastes bitter, then it still has tannins. After the process I used, I could crunch down an entire acorn without any such sensation in my mouth.