nuts-msg – 1/7/08
Nuts, acorns, nut flours in medieval foods. Chestnuts, Almonds, acorns, coconuts, hazelnuts.
NOTE: See also the files: almond-milk-msg, food-msg, food2-msg, flour-msg, coconuts-msg, almond-cream-msg, chestnuts-msg.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: polsons at cruzio.com (The Polsons)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Acorns give a payne?
Date: Sun, 07 May 1995 18:35:47 -0800
Suze.Hammond at f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Suze Hammond) wrote:
> JTN> From: jtn at cse.uconn.EDU (J. Terry Nutter)
>
> JTN> Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.
>
> JTN> As to acorns, I have definitely heard of their use in porriges (though
> JTN> not bread); I've also heard that they don't taste very good. This
> JTN> does not, of course, contradict their use in hardship (indeed, it
> JTN> indicates it); but it does suggest that people hungry enough to eat
> JTN> acorns are hungry enough to try other unfamiliar grains.
>
> > BTW, do acorns require as much preparation as tapioca to be edible?
>
> JTN> No. My impression is that they need to be ground, then soaked, to
> JTN> leech out the problem substance (which I have a feeling might have
> JTN> been an excess of tannin, but I certainly wouldn't swear to that).
> JTN> This came from a description of making acorn porrige in Europe. I
> JTN> seem dimly to recall something about American acorns not being as
> JTN> problematic, but again certainly wouldn't swear to it.
> [...]
> JTN> Certainly. My understanding is that they taste pretty vile. Anyone
> JTN> on the net ever tried them?
>
> They were a staple food item of many Indian tribes on the central West
> coast before the white invasion. I tasted some as a curious child. I don't
> recall them being especially "vile". About as bitter as raw peanuts, or
> uncooked split peas.
>
> Of course they were native oaks. "Pin oaks" I think they're called.
>
> ... Moreach
Okay, here's the deal. I have done reenacting of the CA Indian life arts
for some years. Acorns must be leached of their tannic acids before you
can eat them. Yes, tannic acid is the same stuff you use to tan hides, or
as a dye mordant. Here's how you leach acorns according to the Central CA
Indians:
Shell the acorns, peel them of their inner skin, and grind the clean nuts
into a fine flour (a blender works okay, but leaves some lumps). Make a
mound of sand about 12" high, level off the top, and make a 2" deep level
basin in the middle. Cross section:
/-\_________/-\
/ \
__ / \__
Line the basin with cloth, evenly distribute the acorn flour in the basin,
and pour hot water over the flour until the basin is full. Use a branch or
basket so the water doesn't make a dent in the flour. When the water in
the basin is gone, add more water. You'll be flooding the basin 10 times,
and the water should go from hot to warm to cold by the last rinse. Remove
the flour by patting it and sticking it to your fingers in clumps.
I have recipes for authentic CA Indian acorn foods, including soup (or
mush if you like it thicker) and bread if anyone's interested. I like the
flavor. It reminds me of mild walnuts (and it makes an absolutely
WONDERFUL ice cream!) Hope this helps...! 8-)
*********************************************************
Willow Polson, Editor polsons at sirius.com
Recreating History Magazine
"The Resource for Living History Enthusiasts of All Eras"
*********************************************************
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: rayotte at badlands.NoDak.edu (Robert Ayotte)
Subject: Re: Acorns give a payne?
Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 03:41:11 GMT
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network
You have to have the correct species, not all acorns are good to
eat. White and live oak are sited by McGee as most often eaten. They
have a high carbohydrate percent (68) which is really very high and low
fat content. Oaks also invest their fruits with their favorite defense
chemicals, Tannins, and as such they need to be ground and steeped in
several changes of water.
There are undoubtedly other species that were eaten.
Horace
From: Maryanne.Bartlett at f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Maryanne Bartlett)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Cooking for 50
Date: Sat, 13 May 1995 11:52:00 -0800
-=> Quoting J. Terry Nutter to All <=-
JTN> As to acorns, I have definitely heard of their use in porriges (though
JTN> not bread); I've also heard that they don't taste very good. This
JTN> does not, of course, contradict their use in hardship (indeed, it
JTN> indicates it); but it does suggest that people hungry enough to eat
JTN> acorns are hungry enough to try other unfamiliar grains.
They can be used in bread. They make a good flat bread, much
like corn bread, actually, or can be mixed with finer flours to make
yeast-raised loaves. I've also used acorn flour to make something like a
cross between a cracker and a tortilla chip. Mixed with barley flour, I've
made deep-fried fritters (kinda like hush puppies) of them that are a big
hit.
I had a reference (mine's buried, too!) to an acorn loaf being
prepared as an insult for somebody. I think it implied that he was not
used to better, which would imply that some people did eat this. I *was*
working from the original language on this one so I may have screwed up
the translation, but "acorn" was clear as was the word that implies some
kind of bread or loaf.
> BTW, do acorns require as much preparation as tapioca to be edible?
JTN> No. My impression is that they need to be ground, then soaked, to
JTN> leech out the problem substance (which I have a feeling might have
JTN> been an excess of tannin, but I certainly wouldn't swear to that).
I would. If you don't soak 'em long enough your flour tastes
like *really* strong tea. You know, when you leave the bag in for a hour
without realizing it and then take a swig? Blech!
> And if acorns tasted as good as tapioca, I'm sure they would still be in
> use for food, despite the special processing needed. (Tapioca, after all,
> is made from manioc root, which is highly toxic.)
JTN> Certainly. My understanding is that they taste pretty vile. Anyone
JTN> on the net ever tried them?
Yes, and prepared properly, they're good. They don't have the
*usual* flavour for bread, but neither does cornbread. Actually, if you've
ever worked with *any* nut flours (particularly pecan), the process (and
taste) bears a great resemblance to the acorn variety. The reason that I
mentioned pecans, is that there is a papery membrane around the acorn that
*has* to be completely gotten rid of, just like pecans, or they taste like
somebody's old shoes, complete with a soapy flavour. If they "taste vile"
this is most likely why!
...and, since *somebody* is going to call me on this, I have
made my stuff from American acorns, starting from picking 'em up and
peeling 'em. BTW, that my bet why they're not more popular. They take
forever to peel, worse than chestnuts. Oh, and you can use them in
stuffing like chestnuts, too!
--Anja--
From: Gretchen M Beck <grm+ at andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 13:13:00 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: SC - walnut oil
My current favorite book, The Fruits, Herbes, and Vegetables of Italy
(1614) has this to say about Walnuts and Walnut Oil:
We also have walnust, which are common everywhere. The green ones start
to be good about the feast of St Lawrence [10 August], and are highly
esteemed and eaten by the gentry, who consider the dried ones to be
rather coarse and unrefined.
Dried walnuts are used in a garlic sauce called agliata, and this is how
you make it: first take the best and whitest walnut kernels, in the
quantity you need, and pound them in a really clean stone mortar (not a
metal one) in which you have first crushed two or three cloves of
garlic. When they are all well mixed, take three slices of stale white
bread, well soaked in a good meat broth which is not too fatty, and
pound them with the nuts. When everything is well mixed, thin the sauce
out with some of the same warm meat broth, until you have a liquid like
the pap they give to little babies. Serve it tepid, with a little
crushed pepper.
Prudent folk eat this sauce with fresh pork as an antidote to its
harmful qualities, or with boiled goose, an equally indigestible food.
Serious pasta eaters even enjoy agliata with macaroni and lasagne. It
is also good with boletus mushrooms, which I shall describe in due
course.
In Lombardy they make oil from the poorer quality nuts, which they use
to light the stables. Poor people and evern worthy artisans use it in
lamps about the house or on the table. The peasants in the countryside
use nothing else in their lamps. This oil is good for various ailments.
it also makes furniture made out of walnut wood--bedstads, tables,
benches, and so forth -- shine like a mirror.
toodles, margaret
From: gfrose at cotton.vislab.olemiss.edu (Terry Nutter)
Date: Mon, 26 May 1997 13:06:49 -0500
Subject: Re: SC - butter
Hi, Katerine here. Cariadoc quotes me and responds:
>>There are at least six recipes for almond butter extant from the 14th and
>>15th centuries in England. However, there is no evidence that it was used
>>as a spread. It seems to have been served sliced as a dish.
>
>As I recall, almond butter is not, as one might think from the name, butter
>flavored with almonds, but rather a butter like product made (like almond
>milk) from almonds. Is that correct?
More or less right, except that I'm not all that sure I'd call it butter-like.
It's made of almond milk, thickened and coagulated to a more-or-less
butter-like consistency.
Cheers,
- -- Katerine/Terry
From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt <liontamr at postoffice.ptd.net>
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 19:00:35 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #156
>From: "Mark Harris" <mark_harris at quickmail.sps.mot.com>
>Date: 13 Jun 1997 14:40:15 -0500
>Subject: SC - Almond butter and cheese
>
>On Thursday, June 12, Aoife said:
>
>>Almonds also add a richness you can't get with wine/water/broth. In
>>addition, almonds, as you stated, thicken to an amazing degree, and not just
>>when the almonds are sieved out of the almond milk. The milk itself can be
>>heated and made into Almond Butter or Almond Cheese. So we have several
>>purposes for those almonds besides protein on non-meat days.
>
>Has anyone here made either this almond butter or almond cheese? How about
>a redaction or two? I'm not at all sure about this almond cheese, but it
>might be worth a try, after I try making some milk cheese.
>
>Stefan li Rous
>markh at risc.sps.mot.com
I think my recipes came from Huswife's Jewel (Dawson? I'm going on sleepy
memory, aided by 2 two-year olds). They are self-explanatory, so I'll leave
you to look them up, at least until my nephew goes home and I can type in peace.
At any rate, Almond Cheese is merely thicker almond butter. The recipe I am
thinking of is Almond butter "After the Latest Fashion" or some such wording
(newest and best fahsion??), which won me an Ice Dragon Category when
combined with the preserved oranges and some flaky pastry from the same
book. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong about the title of the recipe.
Anyhooo, it's a process whereby you pound the almonds, seive them through
the water, grind/pound 'em again, etc, until you get quite a concentration
of "Almond Milk. This is heated till the bits swell and make a thickened
mixture, which is then strained through cheesecloth to make a more solid
mass. Viola, smooth creamy almond butter. Drain more water, and it would be
cheese. It keeps well, but weeps.
Aoife
From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt <liontamr at postoffice.ptd.net>
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 11:06:44 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: SC - Almond Butter
To Make Almond Butter
Take Almondes and blanch them, and beate them in a morter verye small and in
the beating put in a little water, and when they be beaten, poure in water
into two pots, and put in halfe into one and halfe into another, and put in
suger, and stirre them still, and let them boyle a good while, then straine
it through a strainer with rose water and so dish it up.
**I believe the two pots were meant to be colored differently, then served
parti-colored.
Also:
To make Almond butter after the best and newest fashion.
take a pound of Almondes or more, and blanch themin cold water or in warme
water as you may have leysure, after the blanching let themlye one houre in
cold water, then stamp them inm faire cold water as fine as you can, then
put your Almondes in a cloth, and gather your cloth round up in your hands,
and press out the iuice as much as you can, if you thinke they be not small
enough, beate them again, and so get out milke as long as you can, then set
it ove the fire, and when it is ready to seeth, put in a good quantitie of
salte, and Rosewater that will turne it, after that is in, let it have one
boyling, and then take it from the fire, and cast it abroad upon a linnen
cloth, and underneath the Cloth scrape of the Whay so long as it will runne,
then put the butter togetherinto the midest of the cloth, binding the cloth
together, and let it hang so long as it will drop, then take peeces of
Suger, and so much fine pouder of Saffron as you think will colour it, then
let both your suger and saffron steep together in the quantitye of
Rosewater, and with that season up your butter when you will make it.
**I believe the bit about rosewater and saffron should be inserted into the
bit about using "Rosewater to Turn it" if the directions are to be listed in
correct order. Strictly speaking, since this is not a milk product, it
cannot be 'turned' by the addition of a clotting agent. So although the
flavor would be different, it is perfectly possible to omit the rosewater
and still have a wonderful end result. This additon, however, would give you
your butter color, along with the saffron. Scraping the cloth is excellent
advice, so that the butter will drain well without 'clogging' the holes in
the cloth. My personal experience tells me to call this more of a Cheese
rather than a Butter.
Have fun.
Aoife
From: Uduido at aol.com
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 10:31:49 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SC - Re: Marzipan texture
In a message dated 97-06-23 13:56:43 EDT, you write:
<< I often wonder just how "smooth"
>medieval almond paste was compared to what I can get from the
>processor. They had plenty of time and lots of muscle power. >>
Surprising smooth, IMO. To test> take 2 or 3 almonds and grind them in a
mortar and pestle. With a little elbow grease these may be made to come out
extremely smooth and pasty. During the middle ages, there were "professional"
people who made the rounds, so to speak, grinding various spices, etc. in
large batches.
Lord Ras
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 11:13:20 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Redactions
ND Wederstrandt wrote:
> Admantius (and also Ras) said concerning their redactions
> *Mine contained (more or less) 1/2 cup hazelnuts, 1/2 cup pine nuts,
> toasted and crushed,*
>
> After you toasted the hazelnuts did you rub the skins off? Or did
> you leave them on. I happily spent part of the weekend squeezing the
> skins off almonds
> (Great projectile weapons) making almond milk. I hadn't really
> thought much about the skins until now.
>
> Clare St. John
In my case, I cheated, and used hazelnut meal. Finely ground, but not
quite flour. I had it in the house and it becomes rancid if you don't
use it up in a couple of months. Pignoles were whole, though. The
hazelnut meal's color suggests that they were not peeled before
grinding.
Adamantius
Date: 10 Jul 1997 08:59:31 -0700
From: "Marisa Herzog" <marisa_herzog at macmail.ucsc.edu>
Subject: SC - nut skinning (was Redaction
> After you toasted the hazelnuts did you rub the skins off? Or did you
> leave them on. I happily spent part of the weekend squeezing the skins off
I don't know how it would work for hazelnuts, but to de-skin almonds: drop
the lot of them into boiling water for just a few seconds, until the skins
start to balloon a bit, then quickly scoop them out with a strainer so they
don't get water logged. lay them out on a table between two dish towels and
knead the bundle for a few minutes. It goes faster this way than trying to
pop each little nut out of it's skin [ ;) ]. And it is worth the little bit
of time to save the dollar difference between store bought blanched almonds.
(Having blanched alot of nuts, being a marzipan junkie)
brid hecgwiht
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 09:17:40 -0500
From: "Sharon L. Harrett" <Ceridwen at commnections.com>
Subject: Re: SC - recipe request
> If I may trouble the list, I have a friend looking for a recipe for 'acorn
> cakes'? Can't imagine why as acorns are so bitter,
Puck,
Acorns were a staple food for the indigenous peoples of North America.
for centuries. The bitterness in acorns is tannin, which is suloble in
water. The old method was to place your acorns in a net in a running
stream and let the running water carry away the tannin, then roast them
and grind them to meal. Somewhat easier method is to peel your acorns,
then boil them in water, changing the water as it becomes dark with
tannin, until the water remains clear. Drain them, then roast as you
would peanuts in a slow oven until dry and brittle. Grind in a grain
mill or coffee grinder, or salt and eat them as is. I can't find a
recipe here in the house, but if you can find sources of Native American
recipes, they'll be there. Survival cookbooks also will be useful, as
will the Euell Gibbons publications.
Oh, by the way, White Oak acorns contain the least tannin, thereby
being the best for food. They are high in protein and B-vitamins, IIRC.
Happy Gathering!
Ceridwen
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 10:59:00 -0500
From: margali <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - recipe request
kappler wrote:
> If I may trouble the list, I have a friend looking for a recipe for
> 'acorn cakes'? Can't imagine why as acorns are so bitter,
>
> Merry Yule, Puck
acorns tannic acid leaches out and leaves a very mild flavored flour,
and acorn cakes are easy, parched acorn flour, a dolop of melted lard,
salt and water to make it a thick paste, pan fry relatively dry[no extra</