Roasting Chestnuts

[jyl]

Well, it is December and thus time for me to volunteer at the "Holiday Market" hosted by the kids' school. My wife organizes the market, so I'm not really volunteering - doing what I'm told is more like it.

So this year I hauled a Weber to the school and spent the day selling roasted chestnuts, just like a sidewalk vendor in Central Park. Cool.

I found that there are two kinds of Americans. Those who grew up enjoying roasted chestnuts, and those who never heard of the concept. The former are mostly East Coasters. And West Coasters are usually the latter. Even though chestnuts grow locally in parts of the West Coast.

So, here is my process for roasting chestnuts, for those of you who are interested in learning what those old Christmas songs are talking about.

1. Buy chestnuts at farmers market or some grocery stores. Select only the reasonably-sized ones (say, at least 3/4" diameter).
2. Make a single light scoring cut aross one side of the chestnut, just deep enough to cut through the outer shell, but without cutting too much into the meat. A serrated knife works best. This allows the shell to release pressure when heated (otherwise the shell will explode during cooking) and also makes the roasted nut easy to peel.
3. Soak scored chestnuts in water for at least a couple hours and as long as overnight. I add a bunch of sugar to the water. This helps the meat stay moister, the shell separates more easily from the meat, and adds a bit of sweetness.
4. If using grill, spread chestnuts on the grille directly above the hottest coals, with the scored side facing up. Tongs work well. You'll sometimes see the moisture boiling out of the cut shell. Check the bottom side of the chestnuts periodically. When the bottom side is a bit more than slightly blackened, move the chestnuts to a slightly cooler part of the grill, with the scored side facing down. When the scored side is just starting to blacken, the chestnuts should be done. Sample one - shell should pop off easily, meat should be soft and nutty sweet. If meat is hard or chewy, continue heating. Takes about 20 minutes.
5. If using oven, spread chestnuts on baking pan and place in 350F oven. Check them in 30 minutes. Total cooking time will be 30 to 40 minutes.
6. What to do with the small chestnuts that aren't worth roasting? It's fun to toss them, un-scored, in the coals and watch them blow up. But only if you have eye protection - seriously.

I've never used chestnuts in any other dishes. If anyone has recipies, I'd be interested, got 5 pounds of leftover chestnuts sitting here . . .

[TimT]

stuffing...lots of uses for chestnuts

[onlycafe]

one of my favorite scents of new york city, as you walk down fifth avenue in the fall, is roasting chestnuts.
completely covers the urine in july smell.

[Fritz Peyerl]

roast chestnuts, take them out of shell, great them with fine greater, mix with whipping cream and blueberries or Strawberries.

Or mix into a cream tort filling and slather over a tort.

[jyl]

Well, I may be roasting chestnuts at a local street fair soon. Was asked to participate by the organizer, who was a vendor at the school's market. Don't want to make a habit of this, but daughter thinks its fun and really wants to do it. Yup, I will spend the whole day to gross $200 or so. But to my 12-yr old, that's pretty good money . . .

[onlycafe]

did you ever play chestnut killers?

[BlueSideUp]

What do they taste like? I'm a west coaster and only heard of "chestnuts roasting on an open fire".

[jyl]

Well, a good one is nutty, a subtle sweetness (especially with my sugar water trick), and a little smoky. The meat is yellow, like a yellow apple. Quite yummy.

A bad one might be carbonized (why you don't bother roasting the teeny ones), too raw (kind of bitter), or dark/brownish (has gone bad).

Don't know what chestnut killers are?

[onlycafe]

smelling them is more than half of the whole thing. they do taste good, but the block or two you have to follow the smell to get them is wonderful.

chestnut killers is best played by as many combatants as possible. first select a sturdy looking chestnut. with a hot icepick,or whatever you could get, drill a hole through the nut and string it on a shoelace or twine, tying the most secure knot you could. [i used a small leather thong].
some kids thought that soaking them in whatever secret they had[i tried neatsfoot oil and peanut butter myself, not together, two separate times.] , you could strengthen them.
to play, two guys would face off, one holding the chestnut adangle, and the other swinging his chestnut to strike the other as hard as possible, with a kill by busting your nut. if he connects, the resulting smash would whack you a good one, a miss however would result in the swinger getting himself bashed by his own missed swing. a kill would then make you or him a two chestnut killer or a fifteen killer if you were really good. kind of like wild west gunfighters with the rep someone with a fifteen killer would get. people coming looking for the top gun. if you could smash a fifteen killer you could add the number to yours.
keep in mind that we had no video games back then.

[jyl]

Hmm. We mostly threw dirt clods at people and things. We weren't organized enough for anything like chestnut killing.