How to Roast Chestnutsposted in Pantry, Appetizers and Snacks by Kathy MaisterOn a recent visit to New York City, the weather was cold and crisp. On such days, my husband (David) and I always share a small brown bag full of freshly roasted chestnuts from one of the street vendors who seem to be on every other NYC street corner. After letting the chestnuts cool down for a few minutes, David always peels these delightful treasures so I don’t have to take my mittens off! They are so rich, sweet and tender!
When I saw fresh chestnuts at the grocery store, I thought it would be great to roast some at home for startcooking. For comparison sake, I bought a jar of pre-packaged chestnuts as well.
Before I begin, I would like to point out that Water Chestnuts are from an aquatic plant and are a totally different food than the chestnuts (from a tree) that I am about to roast. To Roast Chestnuts: Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Wipe the chestnuts off with a damp towel and set them on a cutting board, flat side down.
With a small, sharp knife cut an X in each chestnut. The X allows the steam to escape while they are cooking. (Do not omit this step, otherwise the chestunts could explode in the oven!) This will also make peeling a lot easier. For safety sake, you may feel more comfortable cushioning the chestnut on a (clean) dish towel to cut the X.
Put the chestnuts in a baking pan with the X facing up.
It will take 20-30 minutes to roast the chestnuts. When cooked, the shells will burst open, and the chestnut will be golden brown. The tricky part is actually knowing when they are done. If you over-cook OR under-cook them, they will get hard and the inner skin will be very difficult to remove.
Now comes the hard part: peeling them! You need to peel them while they are still warm. Let them cool just enough so that you can touch them, then start peeling. Be very careful not to burn your fingers!
Be sure to buy extra, because once they are open you may well discover that some have actually turned bad and are not edible.
This task is not as easy as David makes it look. My thumb is killing me!
So now comes the test: comparing the fresh chestnuts to the ones from the jar. There are four things to consider:
Freshly Roasted (on the left) Vs. From a Jar 1. Appearance The ones from the jar have a preserved look about them. 2. Taste and Texture 3. Price I ended up with 12 usable ones. (Yes there are only 11 in the above photo because I ate one!) Two I could not get peeled, two disintegrated when I tried to peel them and one was rotten. The 7.4 ounce jar cost $8.99. 100% were useable. 4. Convenience Conclusion: All in all, my first preference is to buy them off the street vendor in NYC. ONLY as a special treat, is it worth the effort to roast the chestnuts yourself. The look, the taste and the aroma is wonderful. BUT, for use in a recipe, I would probably skip roasting them myself and just buy the jar! Cheers! If you are new to startcooking, or are a regular visitor here, please consider subscribing for free. 40 commentsHi Char, I'll have to give the uncooked ones a try! They must be pretty tricky to peel??? Diana Moneymaker That good ol' tune with "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire." brings back memories. Memories which never included roasting chestnuts on an open fire. This year I'm going to do it. Thank you for showing me how. -Diana Moneymaster Diana, enjoy! Tis the season... Jan Krygier It's Christmas Eve...I have the chestnuts and am gong to give it a shot! The photos and comments are very helpful! Thanks! brian so weve been wanting to do this for "gosh" sence i can remember and every year the reminder is the song, we all know it. So here i am waiting for the oven to preheat and im sure with your great detail in notes and pictures the'll durn our just fine. thanks so much brian Daniel i wish i had read this before! my chestnuts exploded!( i didn't cut an 'x') I knew I could count on you! I just picked up 1/2 a bucket full from the neighbor's chestnut tree. They are a light brown color - not as dark as the ones you got from whole foods. How do I know when they are ready to be roasted? Do I just leave them out on a cookie sheet to dry? I guess I need to do a little more research with my uber fresh chestnuts... :) PS. How do you know when they are done just right? WoW Marcy - right off the tree! Unfortunately, I have no clue if the light brown color means there are not ready for eating! It may just be a different species??? Have you asked your neighbor if they have ever eaten chestnuts from their tree? According to the Gardening Gourmet: "If you find yourself with a chestnut tree in your yard, don't be tempted to pick one, crack it open and eat it. Chestnuts must be boiled or roasted before eating due to their high levels of tannic acid." Good luck and let us know what you discover! tom Thanks for sharing what you learned. My wife and I have a fireplace and for the first time we are going to attempt roasing chestnut. The harvest is in now and we ordered 10 pounds on the internet at $4.50 per pound. 10 pounds may seem like a lot, but we have 6 kids that have left the nest and will be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas with their families. It's quite a herd when we all get together. ;^) Hi Tom, tom To roast them over the fire you need a metal pan with holes in the bottom and a long enough handle to prevent your hand from burning. One can buy "chestnut roasters" on the internet for about $35 and $20 for short handled ones. I searched the storage shelves of the basement and found an old thick steel strainer/steamer that is just the thing. I was hoping to find an old frying pan I could drill holes in the bottom on, but found something I only needed to put an 2 foot extention on the handle. It'll be fun. Tom, you remind me of my dad - he was always inventing new uses for everyday objects! For everyone else, it's a good thing you can buy chestnut roasters! To test if the nuts are fine for cooking, drop them into a bowl of cod water. If they FLOAT they are rotten, do not bother to cook them Brilliant! Thanks Frank for the great tip! It makes perfect sense. With all the research I did before writing this post, I never once came across this tip! Geoffrey Addison I'm so glad I found your post. For the past few years I have tried roasting my own chestnuts, but I only yielded about 40% usable nutmeat after shelling. I thought it was my method, but I guess (after reading your method) that it's just the nature of the beast. Funny thing is my grandfather used to roast huge batches for the holidays and give them to us kids to shell, and I don't remember it being as difficult as it is now. Selective memory, I guess. Side note for the reader with the light-brown, freshly harvested chestnuts: It's my understanding that you don't actually pick chestnuts. They fall off the tree when they are ready and are harvested from the ground. If they are still on the tree, they're not ready for harvest. Hi Geoffrey, Michelle Hi Kathy, I wanted to compare the price of fresh versus jar. How many were in the jar? Thanks! Michelle Sorry, I did not think to count how many were in the jar! "The 17 fresh chestnuts from Whole foods cost $4.67 I ended up with 12 usable ones. The 7.4 ounce jar cost $8.99. 100% were useable." erica An easy way to cut the chestnuts it to position a strong knife over the chestnut on a towel and lightly tap a hammer on the knife. It worked great and no cut fingers! Erica, The hammer sounds a bit aggressive! What was really rough on the finger was actually peeling the chestnuts after they were roasted! K. Patti My family have been eating them for years. We usualy slit them, I'll have to try the X. One thing we do that you don't is we soak them in water first. I'm looking for a way to roast regular nuts (walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts...) in the shell. I forget and my cookbook doesn't have it. Sorry I can't help you Patti but I have never roasted anything but chestnuts. (You would need Erica's hammer to pierce the shell! Walnuts, pecans, and hazelnuts all have REALLY hard shells to crack!) Does anyone have any experience roasting other nuts? Tom I will be roasting fresh chestnuts in the fireplace tomorrow on thanksgiving. What I learned about the fresh ones is you need to store them properly in the fridge or they will grow mold. I stored my nuts in a plastic bad with holes in it and they got mold. I should have put the in the fridge in a paper bag and when they are fridge temp, then put them in the fridge in gallon plastic bags with holes for moisture to excape. I was able to get rid of the mold by washing it off the nuts, drying them good and putting them in the fridge in a paper bag until they reached fridge temperature. Then back in the gallon baggies with holes in the fridge. When you want to roast nuts take them out of the fridge and put them in a bowl to cure for about 6 days before you roast them. The 6 days is to let them ripen. The starch turns into sugar. They will tase too starchy otherwise. Tom I forgot to mention that I found a decent way to aid it the peeling. When I am done tosting the nuts in the fireplace they are quite hot, but the hoter they are the easier it is to peel them. What I have found is dump the nuts on a towel and twist, squeeze and crush with your hands. You will find when you open the towel that much of the shell is already removed and the rest of the shells are easier to remove. Patti I just made the nuts. I kept them in the oven a little too long. You roast them in the same type of pan as the chestnuts on 325 dgs for about 15 mins. you have to watch them or they will burn. You can tell when they just start to burn by the smell. I love this season. Fall and Winter are my favorite seasons. Madison That was great but what do you put on the chestnuts? Salt,suger sweet n low. I like them just plain without salt, etc. I found a chestnut knife on a website that sells American -grown chestnuts. Has a 5-6 inch handle with a curved metal poInt and comes in it's own plastic tube/container for storage.. (Lamson Sharp Pro, Stainless. USA #32425) it's wonderful! Sorry, I don't remember the site...perhaps DelMarva? Found them through a Food Network segment.. My primary reason for using chestnuts is to celebrate All Soul's Day on Nov. 2nd. I am carrying on my grandmother's annual tradition. Set out a plate of roasted chestnuts with shells on on the night of Nov. 1st.. Use as many or as little as you wish since it's just symbolic, I have a lot of prayer cards from the funerals of dearly departed loved ones and friends.. I place them on a table with the plate of chestnuts and some photo's and/or a list of names and say a prayer over them. I remove everything on Nov. 3rd. Feel free to eat the chestnuts then or whenever you choose, My grandmother wrapped the roasted chestnuts with a clean dishtowel till cooled a little and removed the shells with the towel. Worked every time. Also, my personal taste preference is the Italian chestnuts over the American ones. Enjoy!
Ime I bought a box that suggested 400 deg. and 15 minutes. I was skeptical, but they did open well. I did the wrapping them in a dishtowel afterwards thing. Something else I figured out while peeling them, is if you squeeze the unscored side and the corners where it's scored kind of like squeezing open a baked potato for topping, they peel MUCH easier, and the papery part has less tendency to stick. Thanks for the information, my son and I had a great time peeling them. :) Does anyone still have chestnuts for sale? I would love to order some for Christmas. Have you checked your local grocery store? They are still available at mine! Genett Holmes Yes, I have checked and actually purchased some. However, where I live they do not know that chestnuts have to be refrigerated or kept in fresh food section in cooler. So after about a couple of weeks sitting in a hot store, they have hardened. Mary We are getting ready to roast chestnuts soon. My husband and I went to something called Christmas Traditions in St Charles MO. We took three of the Grandkids. That is where I tried my first roasted chestnut. DELICIOUS! Even the kids(5,7,8years old) liked them. It took them a few minutes before they would try one. We are going to try and find some Chestnuts at the stores around here. I have looked at several websites for how to's and one said that if you soak them for a half hour before roasting, they will be easier to peel. Will let you know. Mary I've read about soaking chestnuts before roasting them but have never tried it. Please do let us know how it works! Tessa Beam We tried cooking chestnuts on a wood burning stove BIG MISTAKE!!! it was way to hot and before we knew it they were on fire it only took 4 minutes for it to start on fire! and it smelled terrible! But it was our first time trying to roast chestnuts on an open fire so I guess theres still hope! I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like to cook all food over an open fire! Madeleine I tired the floating method but was disappointed when a full 2/3 of mine floated. So I went ahead and roasted them anyway, first roasting the non-floaters and then the floaters so I could see the difference. Out of 20 sinkers I had 3 bad ones, out of 40 floaters I had 10 bad ones. Yes, there were more bad ones BUT there were plenty of good ones! David I have a tree and when the chestnuts are ripe ( they generally come in spiked hulls in threes) the hulls open up and the nuts are exposed...The ones at ground level can be plucked from the hulls before they hit the ground,,,much preferred method , because every critter in the woods knows to come around..The problem being the same as with fallen apples ( deer, rabbit, squirrel, groundhog droppings can contaminate them..No worries though, Most of the nuts do fall from high up and most are still in the spiked hulls when they hit the ground..they split open in a few days just from drying out....they won't fall unless they are ripe...any other loose nuts should be rinsed in a water with a LITTLE bit of clorox in it just to be safe, and then undergo another rinse and dry process before going into storage. Madeleine, thanks for sharing your floating method! 0 trackbacks |
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Char
My parents have chestnut trees and sell the chestnuts at the farmer's market in the fall. We love hearing everyone's stories of chestnuts from their childhood and how they have had them prepared.
My daughters actually prefer chestnuts uncooked - they have a very sweet taste that way. Me, I prefer them roasted, too.