Chestnuts are part of a group consisting of about nine species of trees and shrubs in the fa*gaceae family. Although the shell is very difficult to remove, chestnuts are edible. However, it is rare to eat them raw and can even be dangerous for certain people.
Chestnuts are more traditionally eaten when roasted, especially around the holidays.Roasting chestnuts takes away the raw and bitter flavor and replaces it with a sweetened one instead. People tend to indulge in sweets around the holidays, so it's no surprise that roasted chestnuts became a tradition for many families.
The Nut as a Vegetable
The chestnut fruit from the tree takes a bit of work to get to the nut itself. The nuts are encased in a spiky husk enclosure, with two to three nuts per each prickly burr. When mature, the fruit falls to the ground and is then shelled off the husk to get to the thin, smooth-shelled nut.You will most likely be buying chestnuts already separated from the outer husk.
Although we refer to them as nuts, the meat inside is soft and starchy, more akin to grains rather than crunchy, like traditional nuts. It is the only nut primarily treated as a vegetable due to its starch content. The European varieties are a bit larger than the native American variety. Horse chestnuts (generally considered inedible) and water chestnuts are considered a completely different species.
Beware of Raw Chestnuts
Certain people with severe intestinal issues, kidney problems, liver disease, and those who are pregnant, should avoid raw chestnuts. These nuts are usually boiled or roasted before eating due to the high levels of tannic acid. Ingesting high levels of tannic acid can cause stomach irritation, liver damage, or kidney damage. A tannic acid is a particular form of tannin, which is a type of polyphenol. It is formed in nutgalls by insects on twigs of specific oak trees. Chestnuts should be cooked completely to avoid digestive discomfort.
How to Prepare Chestnuts
The nuts are cured for about a week to permit their starch to develop into sugar, thus sweetening the meat. The outer thin-shell, as well as the inner bitter brown skin, is removed before eating. Removing the skin in its raw state is virtually impossible, but with patience, the outer shell can be removed from the raw nuts. It is much easier and recommended to blanch or cook fresh chestnuts before removal of the shell and skin.Shelled and cooked nuts can be covered and stored away in the refrigerator for a few days. If kept in the freezer, chestnuts can be frozen for up to nine months.
Simply roasted chestnutscanbe made at home in about 30 minutes.They can also be candied, boiled, grilled, grounded into a flour, or pureed and sweetened to create delicious desserts.Because of the high starch content in chestnuts, they also work as substitutes for potatoes or pasta, as done in Europe. Americans mostly use them for stuffings and desserts, however. For example, one easy chestnut stuffing recipe calls forfresh chestnuts, butter, onion, seasonings, and more to mix into a seasoned turkey for the holidays or a traditional Sunday dinner.
FAQs
Make an incision at the bottom of your chestnut. Using your chestnut knife, chisel your chestnut until all the skin is gone and only the nut remains. Peel your chestnut very slowly and carefully. The knife is very sharp and often gets stuck inside the skin, so proceed with caution.
How to eat a chestnut raw? ›
Fresh chestnuts must always be cooked before use and are never eaten raw, owing to their tannic acid content. You need to remove the chestnuts from their skins by either boiling or roasting them.
How to prepare raw chestnuts? ›
How to prepare chestnuts. To peel fresh chestnuts, rinse, then make a nick in the skin on the flat side of each and simmer in a pan of water for 15 minutes or roast in the oven for 15 minutes. Then peel, taking care to remove both the outer shell (quite easy) as well as the inner brown membrane (trickier).
What is the healthiest way to eat chestnuts? ›
Cooking them before you eat them, though not required, is strongly recommended, says Applegate. “It makes the starch more digestible.” The best cooking method depends on how you plan to use them, Kamp says. For snacks and salads, you want to keep the chestnuts dry, so roasting is her pick.
How do you eat ready to eat chestnuts? ›
A naturally sweet, healthy and wholesome snack and a favourite on-the-go picnic for young children. Seggiano premium peeled chestnuts are ready to use in desserts, soups, cakes, roasts and stuffings, or can be enjoyed just as they are. Naturally high in fibre and a source of potassium.
Is eating raw chestnuts good for you? ›
Raw chestnuts are safe to eat for most people. However, they do contain tannic acid, which means they could cause stomach irritation, nausea, or liver damage if you have liver disease or experience a lot of kidney problems.
How many chestnuts should I eat a day? ›
How Much Should You Eat? Aim for a healthy handful (30g) of chestnuts per day.
Should you soak chestnuts before cooking? ›
If you're short on time, tossing them straight into the oven will yield flavorful results, but chef and food stylist Carla Contreras says steaming them first is the easiest way to get the shells off. Her go-to method is to soak them in hot water, which allows them to steam while cooking.
Do raw chestnuts taste good? ›
Chestnuts do not taste very good when raw and freshly picked off the tree. You would find it quite sour and bitter if you tried to eat one after extracting it from its hard shell. No one is going to sing songs about the flavor of a raw chestnut.
Is chestnut good for high blood pressure? ›
As discussed earlier, chestnuts contain potassium and this is one of the most important minerals when it comes to lowering blood pressure. Potassium acts as a vasodilator, which helps in increasing the general blood flow, therefore decreasing the overall pressure.
Edible chestnuts belong to the genus Castanea and are enclosed in sharp, spine-covered burs. The toxic, inedible horse chestnuts have a fleshy, bumpy husk with a wart-covered appearance. Both horse chestnut and edible chestnuts produce a brown nut, but edible chestnuts always have a tassel or point on the nut.
Is it better to boil or roast chestnuts? ›
Oven-roasting chestnuts is the best way to bring out the fullest flavour (if you want to eat them straight away or chop them into your stuffing mix). Boiling them will give a smooth texture for cooking in soups or purées.
Should uncooked chestnuts be refrigerated? ›
To ensure your chestnuts stay fresh, it's advisable to refrigerate them in a well-ventilated bag, placing them in the coldest section of your refrigerator. At our farm, we live by the motto "always buy fresh from the farmer" and emphasize the importance of knowing the source of your chestnuts.
How do you use raw chestnuts? ›
Chestnuts must be cooked before eating, uncooked they are like raw potatoes. The traditional way is to roast or boil them. To roast chestnuts, cut an “X” through the shell of the nut. This enables the shells to open up as the nuts cook, otherwise, they would explode.
Do you eat the skin of chestnuts? ›
Chestnuts are nuts that come from the chestnut tree. They have a thick, dark brown shell (which you can leave on during roasting) and a sweet, nutty taste and soft texture you can enjoy after removing both the outer shell and the thin inner skin that exists between the shell and the nut.
How do you eat chestnuts as a snack? ›
Take the shell off before you eat a chestnut. If you haven't cut them with a knife before baking them, use a nutcracker to rupture the outer shell of a chestnut. Then, put it in your hand and find the opening where you cut it or split it with a nut cracker.
