Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Wild Food guide to Sessile Oak along with all the Sessile Oak containing recipes presented on this site, with 14 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Sessile Oak as a major wild food ingredient.

The term 'oak' refers to of any of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus (from Latin 'oak tree') Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with a lobed margin in many species; some have serrated leaves or entire leaves with a smooth margin. The flowers are catkins, produced in spring. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a cup-like structure known as a cupule; each acorn contains one seed (rarely two or three) and takes 6-18 months to mature, depending on species.

In Britain the commonest oak is the sessile oak, Quercus robur and certain parts can be used as a foodstuff. The leaves, when fully fallen from the tree and dry and brown can be used as a bittering agent in mead. It is also possible to make a mead out of young oak leaves. The acorns when roasted and leached of their tannins in running water can be made into a substitute for coffee. But they should be soaked in boiling water before roasting or the resultant drink will be unpleasantly bitter. The same is true for making flour from acorns.

Acorns are the nutty fruit of the various species of the genus Quercus (oak). The acorn itself is a nut, containing a single seed, enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. There are almost 130 species of oaks, all of which generate acorns of one description or other.

Only mature oaks produce acorns and mature oak trees and mature oaks are extremely tough. As a result oak trees will bear their fruit even during the worst droughts. This is why acorns, turned into acorn flour were a survival food during times of drought in all periods up to and including the Middle Ages and why they were very important to the diet of many native Americans.

It should also be remembered that the Europe of the past was a continent of broad-leaved oak-based forests. Oak trees were the natural biological climax and oak trees covered the entire continent. As a result oaks would have been in abundance and acorns along with acorn flour would have been a staple of the diet. Despite this, European (and especially the English oak, Quercus robur contain lots more tannin than their North American equivalent, Quercus alba. Tannins are toxic and though roasting removes some tannins the only effective way to leach tannins from acorns is to soak them repeatedly in water. Our ancestors probably suspended baked and shelled acorns in streams for several days before rendering the acorns into flour. Once leached, the acorns can be chopped and toasted. These were used as an almond substitute.

As well as the acorns, the leaves have also, historically, been used as a bittering agent. Young green leaves have been used in beer and the dried leaves have been used in mead. A form of oak-leaf mead is still prepared in Wales even today.

References:

[1]. David Evans Notes from field observations, tastings and cookery experiments.
[2]. Huxley, A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992
[3]. Tanaka, T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World.
[4]. Lim T.K. Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants, Vols 1–8.
[5]. Thomas, G. S. Perennial Garden Plants
[6]. Milner, E. Trees of Britain and Ireland
[7]. Rose, F. & O'Reilly, C. The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) – How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland
[8]. Streeter, D. & Garrard, I. The Wild Flowers of the British Isles
[9]. Clapham, A.R.; Tutin, T.G. & Moore, D.M. Flora of the British Isles
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
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[13]. Facciola, S. Cornucopia — A Source Book of Edible Plants