Dried fruit refers to the fruit that after the fruit is ripe, the peel and fruit are dried.
We are all strangers to dried fruits. In the market, the more common mainstream dried fruits today are walnuts, almonds, cashew nuts, almonds, chestnuts and so on. However, if the "old friends" who have had life experience in the countryside should know that in addition to the more common dried fruits in the market, there are many unpopular wild dried fruits.
For example, acorns, which are more common in the wild in China.
Acorns, in the current mainstream dried fruit market, have basically been kicked out, and most places rarely sell acorns as edible dried fruits. However, the meaning of acorns to humans is not just a dried fruit that resembles a snack, but also acorns are actually called "food trees". Why?
This time, we will talk about the wild dried fruit that many people used to be common when they were young - acorns.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > you also deserve to be called acorn? </h1>
Acorns, also known as acorns. It has many different names, but unlike other wild fruits with "various names", acorns never refer to a single dried fruit. Acorn refers to a type of dried fruit.
Some people say that an acorn is the fruit of an oak tree. This is true, of course, but oak is just a broad name, and it does not refer to a specific kind of tree.
Friends in some places think that the bitter oak used to make bitter oak tofu is an acorn, some people think that Qinggang oak is an acorn, and some people call some other wild dried fruits an acorns. Everyone sometimes thinks that the wild dried fruit in each other's hand is not an acorn, and makes a fuss about "You deserve to be called an acorn?" "The acorn controversy.
In fact, in the botanical classification, there is no such taxonomic name as acorn and oak, and what we call oak usually refers to the generic name of the plants of the family Chitopodidae (except chestnuts). Acorn also refers to the fruit of a chestnut shell of a plant of the family Psittaculidae. In the botanical classification of China, it is believed that there are 7 genera and more than 500 species of plants in the family Crusades. At present, there should be at least more than 200 kinds of shell hoppers widely distributed in China.
So, it's not easy to really tell what an oak tree is and what an acorn is. Everyone can call the fruits of the shell family acorns, bitter oak, green oak, sweet oak, rice oak, etc. can be called acorns or acorns, which is not wrong.
In our country, as long as you look at dried fruits that are almost like "acorns", they can generally be called "acorns".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > why are acorns also called grain trees? </h1>
Acorns are called grain trees, and one is that they can indeed play the role of "grain".
Acorns are rich in starch, and the starch content of general acorns is 50%-60%, which is very high in many dried fruits. And we eat cashew nuts and walnuts every day, and the starch content is only 10%-20%. Starch is the best source of energy for us to eat grain, and acorns can play the role of wheat, corn and rice to some extent.
The acorn is called a grain tree, and the second is determined by its consumption history.
Through the archaeologists of our country, it was found that at least 5,000 years ago, human beings have begun to eat acorns, and the staple food at that time was not wheat, millet and other food crops, but acorns. Among food crops, acorns can be said to be the predecessors of wheat, corn and other food crops.
In ancient China, when the grain harvest was not harvested, acorns were often eaten as "spare grain". In the "Spring and Autumn of Lü's", there is an earlier record of acorns:
"Uncle Zhu Li thought he did not know, and went to live on the sea. In summer, it eats anchovy, and in winter, it eats oak chestnut. ”
Among them, the acorn refers to the acorn. In ancient times, when the grain harvest was poor, the consumption of acorns was a dietary habit, and it can be said that acorns were "the backup staple grains in the staple food".
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > why were acorns kicked out? </h1>
Nowadays, in the dried fruit market, it is difficult to see the ancient edible acorns. Most acorns are kicked out by mainstream dried fruits, and although the edible value of acorns is high, it also has very big drawbacks.
First of all, the taste of acorns is really unpalatable compared to other dried fruits. The acorns are bitter and somewhat sour, making them difficult to swallow. If you are very hungry, you can eat acorns, but as long as there is something to eat, few people should choose to eat it.
Second, some acorns have tannins in them, and it is not good to eat too much.
The development and utilization of acorns in the form of mainstream dried fruits such as cashew nuts and alumba wood is not a very good direction in the eyes of most people. In the market, the use of acorns is mainly the application after processing.
For example, the use of acorns to make pig feed, because acorns contain high starch, but also contain protein, can completely replace corn as pig feed. It's just that the cost doesn't know if it can be covered, after all, in our impression, dried fruits are more expensive.
In addition, the wisdom of working people is infinite, and people often create some wonderful ideas. The invention of foods such as bitter oak tofu and acorn cold powder has opened a new door to the use of acorns. Under normal circumstances, acorns are more bitter, but after the production process of tofu and cold powder, these bitter tastes can be completely removed, leaving only the pure "delicious".
Compared with using acorns as pig feed, I personally think it is better to use acorns to make tofu and make cold skins. After all, I'm also a foodie.