Roasting Chestnuts an effective, easy, successful approach.

FIRST AND FOREMOST BE CAREFUL THEY ARE HOT WHEN THEY COME OUT OF THE OVEN. TAKE CARE WITH KNIVES AND USE A CLOTH.
Ever since being a child I have watched chestnuts explode and scatter the relatives as they were removed from the oven. I have tried a number of different ways of roasting chestnuts but this one works every time. If you put a little salt into the water when you are boiling them that gives a savoury taste to the sweetness of the chestnuts. If you let them boil for a few minutes it tends to soften the flesh of the chestnuts, you can see the shells opening a little and they can be roasted for a shorter time. It really depends on your taste in 'firmness' of the chestnuts. The timing in the oven depends on the size of the nuts themselves and effectively the boiling in water soaks into the husk and then makes it that the roasting assisted by steaming inside the shell. You can put them in the oven after you have been roasting the dinner. The best rule of thumb is to look at them in the tray and see how many have loosened from their shells. If you are doing this with children then you can soak them overnight. Care needs to be taken with the use of the knife; an ordinary, not ultra sharp, vegetable knife is good enough, you don't need to right throught the shell, the scoring is sufficient. Since posting this I have taken to putting the cuts in after the chestnuts have been softened in the water and when they are cool. No chestnuts were spared during the making of this video.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• chestnuts
• roast
• roasting
• effective
• cooking

[thebanj]

More research..... Boil them in slightly salty water and soak them first and then make the cuts, seems a lot easier. The adding of some sherry really opens them out. Place a piece of aluminium foil 'lining' in the baking tray and leave an eighth of an inch of water in with them also gets them moist and open. The research continues.....

[thebanj]

I will definitely try the oil and alcohol part. In the words of the Firesign Theatre, "You've saved me a lot of investigative work" by showing the conversion. What I have found is that the chestnuts that haven't opened out completely peel easier if you leave them for a few minutes the 'internal steam' to soften the skin. Thanks Tony

[thebanj]

There are a few different things that you can try and soaking them for longer can help but I've never tried overnight. In essence the water helps to 'steam' the chestnuts as they come out of their shells. Not cutting from the very tip down the sides also helps but you have to bash the chestnuts with a hammer to get them to open easily.

Thanks for the comment. Tony Happy Christmas

[thebanj]

Thanks for the comment. I've been called some things......

With it being the time to roast chestnuts I have found that with the bigger ones it's best to make a third slit to let the water in. Also boiling them for a little longer helps to keep them moist. It's still oneof the great mysteries of life to get them all to roast the same.

Tony

[thebanj]

You're so right. You do need to be careful but I never said ti would be easy.

Thanks for the comment.

Tony

[thebanj]

Thanks and a merry Christmas to you too.

Tony

[JenniBick]

How do you eat these after they're roasted? Just plain? I've never had chestnuts but I'm excited to try!

[AmberFaithChloe]

My finger became terrible blistered after doing this!

[theuglykwan]

I usually just boil them as i prefer them soft, tender and sweet.

I have the roast chestnuts in south east asia from street stalls, they give you a small plastic thing for your thumb to crack them open - saves your finger alot of stress!

[1bebilo]

thanks Tony for your video I will try it. It's possible to cook the chetnuts adding little oil to the water. Also I found that adding little alcool( wodka per ex.) will let the thin shell peel easier! any way I will try your metod next time.

how to swich from farenheit to celsius?

farent. temp. minus 32 = x

x mutiplicate by 5= xx

xx divide by 9 = the temp.in celsius.

happy christmas for the whole world !!!

[seka1986]

I don't know what "gas mark 6" is but here in the USA 400 to 425 degrees F works well.

[adavison1949]

I can certainly vouch for this method as I was eating them on sunday and they were delicious!!!!

[Daniellerink]

what a gas marker six