Nuts

Meal

Acorn meal is a coarse grind of leached, dried oak kernel, grittier and more flecked than pastry-fine flour. It still carries the starch-forward body of acorn, so porridges and hearth cakes set with a soft, cereal density rather than a greasy nut crunch. Skin fragments often remain, giving a darker crumb and a slightly more astringent edge that some traditional breads welcome. Toast the meal briefly to bloom aroma before stirring into batters, coatings, or pinole-style mixes. Because leaching happens on the kernel stage, meal should already taste mild; residual bitterness means the batch was rushed or mixed with high-tannin red-oak stock. Quality meal feels dry and sandy, not oily or musty. Choose meal when you want rustic texture; reach for flour when smooth jelly or fine cake crumb is the goal. Keep sealed and cool—coarse particles still oxidise at the fat they hold.