Roasted Chestnuts
This was an experiment with no prior knowledge or experience. If you have actually roasted chestnuts before, please offer some input in the comments!
December 14th will be Roast Chestnuts Day according to the sources I use when scheduling Facebook posts for the library where I work, so I decided it would be worth trying this holiday treat so lauded in song this time of year. The instructions I followed were an amalgamation from several sources.
Cut an X in the chestnut hull to vent steam and provide a starting point for it to split open.
Soak for 30-60 minutes in a bowl of water so there is more moisture to steam open the hulls
Preheat oven to 400°F and bake for 20-30 minutes.
Peel the shiny outer skin and inner pithy later that form the shell in order to eat the nut kernel inside.
Two roasted nuts, one showing the expansion along the slit and one split in half to reveal the internal structure
I think I need to cut a deeper and larger X next time. I may also need to bake them longer. Nonetheless, it was a tasty experiment. The consistency of the roasted chestnut is similar to a baked potato, and the flavor is slightly sweet and slightly nutty. Peeling away the hull was a bother though. Either the nut is too hot to handle, or the hull has started to harden again.
Here you can see the shiny outer layer, the fibrous pithy inner layer, and the pale nut meat in the center.
This one is still intact after my clumsy and barbaric removal of the shell.
Inside, it is almost like a walnut in that there seem to be multiple chambers separated by a thin membrane of shell. However, there is no hollow space whatsoever.
I would recommend giving this a try if you want an interesting experiment for yourself. Please let me know how it goes if you do, and what you can do better!
Next time I see some, I will try this. I tried the roasting on an open fire, it did not work well! Just a mess.
:)>An oven gives far more control. Just know what you're doing first, or you may get results as mixed as my own!
Well they are not common here, so I will try your method.
I will look for some recipes too, buy I couldn't find any the last time.
:)>I can only offer advice on how NOT TO roast your nuts...
Heh, I have been pretty successful thus far in avoiding that kind of mishap!
OUCH, ROFLOL! Time to be elsewhere for sure!
:)>been craving these for days.. lol guess it's just that time of year
This is the first time I have had them, so it was a novel experience. What advice can you offer to improve the end product?
i've never tried making them myself 😂
I always just threw them in my campfire, then ate the ones that popped out. After letting them cool a bit.
I've had these as a kid, my dad put them in the oven until they were as hard as a hard rubber eraser. Many years later I bought some and roasted them in a fireplace, in a tin can on top of ambers. I never scored them or soaked them in water, cooked them until they were breaking open and some had a bit of a burnt shell/yellow meat but you cannot really cook them too much though if you cook em untill they shrivel and are hard as a rock you'll have to brace yourself if you plan on eating them as they will be really hard to chew, kinda like hard candy. They always tasted kinda like chicken to me, and the texture was also "meaty". So I would do some without putting them in water or scoring/cutting into them and check to see when they split open if they are hard and decide on how much longer to leave the rest in the oven for based on that.
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