Fagaceae Quercus kelloggii Newberry

California Black Oak

Pomo, Kashaya - Food, Porridge

Use documented by:
Goodrich, Jennie and Claudia Lawson, 1980, Kashaya Pomo Plants, Los Angeles. American Indian Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles, page 79

View all documented uses for Quercus kelloggii Newberry

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Scientific name: Quercus kelloggii Newberry
USDA symbol: QUKE (View details at USDA PLANTS site)
Common names: California Black Oak
Family: Fagaceae
Family (APG): Fagaceae
Native American Tribe: Pomo, Kashaya
Use category: Food
Use sub-category: Porridge
Notes: Acorns used as flour for pancakes, bread, mush or soup. Acorns were dried in the sun before storing. The acorns were cracked open and the inner nuts put in a winnowing basket and rubbed to remove the chaff. They were then put into a hopper mortar basket and pounded with a pestle to the consistency of flour. This flour was sifted with a basket and placed in a basin of clean sand and water poured over it many times to remove the bitter flavor. The water was poured over a bundle of leaves or branches that served to break the fall of the water and not splash sand into the food. The ground and leached meal was then cooked into mush or thinned with water to make soup. If pancakes or bread were to be made, the flour was ground coarser and was left soaking longer in the water. For bread, the dough was shaped into cakes that were wrapped in large leaves and baked in the coals. Red earth could be added to the dough to make a dark sweet bread. Another method produced moldy acorns that were made into mush. The acorns were not dried in the sun, but were left in the house until they turned greenish with mold. The mold was rubbed off. These nuts were pounded together with whitened dry acorns and made into mush. Another method was to leave cracked acorns in a pool for four or five months. They were then removed from the shell and cooked without pulverizing. They could be used for soup or mush, or eaten whole.

RECRD: 917 id: 32231

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