Acorns aren't really thought of as food by many people these days, but cultures across the world have used them as a food staple. They can be eaten raw or roasted but blanching the removes tannins that cause the acorn to taste bitter. 
To use acorns to make flour or to eat roasted you have to first shell them. Then warm them in the oven to kill any worms or larvae you might have missed on a visual inspection. Then chop the acorns and pour hot boiling water on top of them and let them sit for awhile, drain the water and repeat this step until the water stops turning brown. After that you can strain off the water and dry the acorns in the oven. The acorn flour is gluten-free.
Acorns have amazing nutritional value and are abundant in many parts of the world. Different oak trees have different amounts of tannins in them so some require little blanching and may even be eaten raw and roasted others are very bitter without first blanching. As you can see mine aren't ripe yet but this fall and winter I want to use some in some recipes.
Our house is surrounded by huge oak trees I believe they are white oak but I am not quite positive. Acorns can be used to make pancakes or flat breads but acorn flour will not rise on its own. They can also be used in stews. Make sure you positively identify any wild edibles before consuming them and do not eat anything where chemicals/insecticides have been sprayed.
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I haven't tried any of the acorns yet because they aren't ripe but my dog Ruby doesn't mind. She loves to eat acorns and is no worse for wear. Animals love them and an abundance of acorns can signal a good place to hunt or trap animals for food also. Be safe and enjoy all that nature has to offer. Keep an eye out for my upcoming posts on wild edibles and look for a contest that my wife @heatherlg89 will be starting involving wild edibles.
Feel free to comment and share anything you may add. I always upvote useful comments.
I tried to cook acorns once. It was a hell of a lot of work. Gathering the acorns, peeling the acorns (this ain't easy), boiling the acorns... and in the end, it tasted terrible. If you are used to eating wild food your whole life it may be possible, but for the modern human I decided it isn't possible. In addition, store bought flour really isn't even expensive. I tried it once, never again! Oh, I almost forgot. Tannins just don't taste bitter. They are poisonous. Eat too much tannin and you are in trouble.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I haven't tried it yet but I would try just to know I could if I had to. What did you make out of the acorns? I saw some recipes that didn't look too bad. I agree it would be a huge amount of work to process all the acorns.
I boiled them (to get the tannin out) and roasted them with salt. I never tried to dry them out and pound them into flour, which would have been even more work. The trick is to find acorns that don't have a lot of tannin. I boiled the shit out of those acorns but no matter how much I boiled them there was still tannin.
Cool I will probably try as an experiment when mine get ripe. What kind of acorns did you use? I believe mine are from a white oak. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Identifying different oak species is beyond my pay grade. All I know is that we have a lot of huge oaks around here.
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