Walking in the forest in autumn and feeling the crunch of acorns under our feet, we do not realize how important they were for Polish women during the Second World War. They could replace almost everything:flour, potatoes, but also ... a small black one. But did the acorn coffee taste like the real one? And was she able to get on her feet?
On the Vistula river, the "little black" was known since the Saxon times, and even then our resourceful ancestors reproduced expensive products with the help of native ingredients, for example, roasted broad beans. The poorest did not mix coffee with additives, but replaced it at all. One of the most popular erzacs was the one made from acorns. When, due to the war, Poles found themselves in a difficult financial and supply situation, it was enough to dust off the old recipes.
To prepare such a coffee at home, we only need acorn flour. You can take shortcuts and buy it at an organic food store or make it yourself. The latter option is more labor-intensive and requires, among other things, the repeated boiling of the acorns collected in the forest and changing the water in order to get rid of tannins - harmful and giving acorns' food and drinks a tart taste. This is followed by shelling, drying, grinding ...
I confess without hitting:writing "Backstage occupation" I used the option to buy ready-made flour. I also recommend the same solution to you. You only need less than an hour to make an acorn coffee by yourself and check what our grandmothers were drinking during the most difficult times.
Ingredients
- acorn flour
- pan without Teflon coating
- a lot of patience
You can buy "Occupation from the inside" at any time via "Ciekawostek historycznych.pl"!
How to execute
The flour should be fired properly. The easiest way to do it is in an ordinary frying pan, which, after sprinkling a small amount of flour, put on the fire. While testing a recipe for this book, I smoked two heavily heaped tablespoons in a frying pan just over 20 centimeters in diameter. The acorn flour is quite light. By gradually heating it in a dry frying pan, we need to toast it so that it turns dark brown, similar to the color of ground coffee. While smoking, be very careful not to accidentally burn it.
When the flour is the right color, put the pan off the fire and cool its contents. In the meantime, we bring the water to the boil. For a cup of "erzac-coffee", take one teaspoon of the substitute and pour boiling water over it, mix it all. Let the infusion stand for a while so that the particles of roasted acorn flour sink to the bottom.
Impressions
At first glance, the end result looks like ground coffee flooded with boiling water, but the similarities end there. In order to understand what many Poles were condemned to do during the occupation, it is worth drinking a few sips without any additives. While the smell is peculiar but rather pleasant, the taste is very intense, definitely for connoisseurs. Adding milk to this coffee doesn't make it the nectar of gods either.
However, we must not forget about its other advantages. Franciszka Gensówna, the author of the book "Healthy Kitchen" (1943), emphasized that unlike the real coffee, erzace coffee is not expensive and unhealthy. Well, if you don't like what you like, you like what you have and for such a circumstance you still get theories. And only one coffee from acorns could not replace:an injection of energy provided by caffeine, which, after all, does not grow on Polish trees ...
The next edition of the "Historical Lady of the House" in just a week. And you can learn more about the book by clicking HERE.