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Sweet Chestnuts are castagne in Italian, from the Latin
castanae, which comes from the Greek town of Castanis where
there were groves upon groves of sweet Chestnut trees in ancient
times.
There is marked distinction between the variety of chestnut that
produces one nut per spiky pod, and the ones that produces several
nuts per spiky pod.
The one large nut is called a marrone, and is considered
superior for roasting, boiling, stuffing fowl, and for making
candied chestnuts, castagne carmellate, a specialty during
holidays (often called the French marrons glaces outside of
Italy). Marroni have a high sugar content, making it a good
source for chestnut sugar and syrup.
The smaller multiple nuts are sold at markets to the
price-conscious, but they are generally used for the chestnut flour
that is still used throughout Italy, especially in sweets recipes. The
flour is also used for making special breads and pastas.
If you've ever been to Italy in December or January, you remember
the lovely scent of chestnuts roasting over fires in steel drums on
street corners. For almost nothing, you can get a handful of
hot-roasted chestnuts, wrapped in paper to warm your hands and your
stomach.
Roasted Chestnuts
- Make a cut the side of each chestnut's skin. Make sure
to cut through the shell. This is to release the hot air
that builds up during roasting. If you don't do this, they
will explode in your oven, or worse, over the open fire!
- Put them in a pan in a hot oven, or over an open fire, and
stir them around a bit to make sure they roast evenly.
- Roast them until the nut meat is tender which usually takes
about 15 minutes.
- If you want, you can test if they are done by inserting a sharp knife into the cut in the nut's skin.
If it enters easily, the chestnuts are done.
- Remove them from the heat and peel them. They are
best eaten warm.
The health properties of 2 1/2 chestnuts:
- 60 calories (a slice of bread is over 100, to put it
in perspective)
- 1 gram protein
- 13 grams carbohydrates
- 1 gram fat
- 1 milligram sodium
- 20 % vitamin C
Chestnuts are a rich source of carbohydrates, which means it
provides a quickly digestible source of energy, giving it a
reputation for making men lusty. It actually stabilizes the
body's blood-sugar levels, allowing for sustained energy and
strength.
Women are said to whiten their complexions by eating
chestnuts (but not the men?), and the nuts are indeed used to make a bleaching
products, as well as a stiffening agent.
Who knows, they may even make women lusty, too, but that was not
something domineering Greek and Roman men considered important,
desirable--or perhaps even possible!
All these recipes are originally with metric measurements.
I've given in parentheses a conversion to the Imperial system of
measurements.
The most basic way to prepare chestnuts is to boil them.
You can eat them as a healthy, energy filled snack. And boiled
chestnuts, pureed in a food processor, blender or hand-press, are used in recipes both savory and sweet.
Castagne Lesse - Boiled Chestnuts
- Make a cut in the side of each chestnut through the shell
(I've a recipe that omits this when boiling the chestnuts, but
I've been afraid to test it and get explosions in the boiling
water!)
- Put the chestnuts in a pot of cold water.
- Boil for 40 minutes.
- Drain and cool the chestnuts.
- Then peel them carefully with a sharp knife, removing
the thin inside skin as well.
I found these instructions for microwaving chestnuts:
- "After scoring, place around the outer edge of a paper plate
and cook on high. Since oven wattage differ, start at 15
seconds, check and adjust the time for your microwave." (Delmarvelous
Farms)
Many recipes call for the use of a chestnut cream. Both
chestnut cream and chestnut puree can be purchased canned and in
jars for easy use in recipes. For the purists, here's how you
make chestnut cream.
Crema di castagne - Chestnut Cream (Pudding)
- Boil a big pot of water.
- Add 500 grams (just over 1 lb) of chestnuts and let them boil for at least 2
minutes. This loosens their tough skin. (This
comes to about 350 grams (12 ounces) of chestnuts if you're
using precooked/shelled chestnuts.)
- Remove them from the water and use a small knife to scrape off the
skins, including the internal fine skin.
- Put the peeled chestnuts in a pot.
- Add 1/2 liter (just over 1 pint) of milk, 50 grams (4
tablespoons) of sugar, a teaspoon of
vanilla extract or to taste (you can also use a vanilla bean).
- Cook over a low heat until the milk is completely absorbed
into the chestnuts, stirring occasionally to make sure it
doesn't stick.
- Smooth out the mixture in a blender or food processor
or hand grinder (I mean hand-powered, not something to grind you
hand, although if you're not careful...)
- Then let the chestnut mixture cool. You can add salt
to taste if you like.
Budino di castagna(e) - Baked Chestnut Pudding
- Boil a big pot of water.
- Add 500 grams of chestnuts (just over 1 lb) and let them boil for at least 2
minutes. This loosens their tough skin. (This
comes to about 350 grams (12 ounces) of chestnuts if you're
using precooked/shelled chestnuts.)
- Remove them from the water and use a small knife to scrape off the
skins, including the internal fine skin.
- Put the peeled chestnuts in a pot.
- Add 1/2 liter of milk (just over 1 pint), 50 grams of sugar
(4 teaspoons), a teaspoon of
vanilla extract or to taste (or a vanilla bean).
- Cook over a low heat until the milk is completely absorbed
into the chestnuts, stirring occasionally to make sure it
doesn't stick.
- Smooth out the mixture in a blender or food processor
or hand grinder.
- Then let the chestnut mixture cool.
- Beat 2 egg yolks with 50 grams of sugar (4
teaspoons) until smooth and
frothy.
- Beat 2 egg whites with 50 grams of powdered sugar
(6 tablespoons) and 4
tablespoons of a sweet liquor until the whites are stiff.
- Mix together 50 grams of cocoa powder (7 tablespoons) with the nut mixture
and the egg yolk and sugar mixture.
- Fold in the whipped egg white mixture.
- Put in a lined or greased pie or tart dish.
- Cook in a moderate oven for 15 minutes.
- Serve it cool or at room temperature decorated with whipped
cream and sprinkled with cocoa powder, and/or chocolate
shavings.
Montebianco di castagne - Chestnut Mount Blanc or Montebianco
- Boil a big pot of water.
- Add 700 grams of chestnuts (1 1/2 lbs) and let them boil for at least 2
minutes. This loosens their tough skin. (This
comes to about 450 grams (just under a lb) of chestnuts if
you're using precooked/shelled chestnuts.)
- Remove them from the water and use a small knife to scrape off the
skins, including the internal fine skin.
- Mix together in a pot 1 liter of milk (just over 2
pints), 200 grams of
sugar (1 cup), a
teaspoon or two of vanilla extract (or a vanilla bean), and bring it to a boil.
- Add the chestnuts and lower the heat. Let it cook for
25 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking.
- Let the mixture cool, then smooth it out in a blender or food processor
or hand grinder.
- Then in a bowl, mix together the chestnut mixture, 100 grams
of cocoa powder (just under 1 cup), 50 grams of powdered sugar
(6 tablespoons), and 4 tablespoons
of a sweet liquor.
- Form the dough into a mountain (Mont Blanc) on a large
serving dish.
- Chill it until you are ready to serve it.
- Just before serving, top the mountain with whipped cream, to
simulate Mont Blanc's snow cap.
- Serve it and accept the raves with humility. It's a
show-stopping kind of dessert.
Castagne caramellate or Candied
Chestnuts or marrons glaces
This is a recipe for patient people only! It takes
several days to complete the whole process. But once done, the
candied chestnuts remain good indefinitely.
- Score (cut slits through the shell) 800 grams of
chestnuts (1 2/3 lbs). (This comes to about 500 grams
(1 lb) of chestnuts, if you're using precooked/shelled
chestnuts.)
- Put them in a pot and cover with cold water.
- Bring it to a boil and cook for 40 minutes.
- Peel off the outer and inner shells being very
careful to keep the chestnuts whole. It doesn't
change the flavor, just the pretty appearance.
- Arrange them in a baking dish so that they are not
piled on top of each other.
- Make the syrup by boiling together 1 kilo of sugar
(just over 5 cups), 1/2 liter of water (just over 2
cups), and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (or a vanilla
bean). When it first reaches a boil, add 10 dl (just under
7 tablespoons) of vinegar, then let it boil for 5 minutes when
it should become completely clear.
- Pour the syrup over the chestnuts.
- Leave it overnight covered with a clean kitchen
towel.
- Then put the pan in a hot oven to bring the syrup to
a boil for just 3 minutes.
- Leave it to cool and absorb more of the syrup for
6 hours.
- Repeat these last two steps until all the syrup is
absorbed into the chestnuts (about 3 more times, remember, I
said you needed to be patient!).
- You can store them layered in glass containers that
seals hermetically (with the rubber ring), or you can wrap them
individually in candy papers like the fancy-schmancy
commercial candy makers do.
- If you have extras or pieces, you can store them under Rum
as described below.
Castagne al rhum or Chestnuts Under Rum
If you have candied chestnuts, you can:
- Put the candied chestnuts in a glass container that
you can seal hermetically.
- Pour Rum over the chestnuts until they are covered
and then add more Rum until you have a finger's width of Rum
above the chestnuts.
- Seal and leave for 1 month.
If you are not using candied chestnuts:
- Roast the chestnuts as described
above.
- Peel them.
- Put one layer of the peeled chestnuts in a glass
container that you can seal hermetically.
- Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of sugar over the
chestnuts.
- Build up the layers of chestnuts sprinkled with sugar
until the jar is nearly full.
- Pour Rum over the chestnuts until they are covered
and then add more Rum until you have a finger's width of Rum
above the chestnuts.
- Seal and leave for 3 months.
Marmellata di castagne or Chestnut Marmalade
This is a delicious, nutty, energy-full spread that you can use
on pastries, between cake layers, on cookies, ice cream, or eat by
the spoonfuls for quick pick-me-up.
- Boil a big pot of water.
- Add 1 kilo of chestnuts (2.2 lbs)and let them boil for at least 2
minutes. This loosens their tough skin. (This
comes to about 650 grams (just under 1 1/2 lbs) of chestnuts if
you're using precooked/shelled chestnuts.)
- Remove them from the water and use a small knife to scrape off the
skins, including the internal fine skin.
- Put the chestnuts in a pot with 1 liter of milk (just
over 2 pints) a
teaspoon or two of vanilla extract (or a vanilla bean), and bring it to a boil.
- Cook at a low boil for 35 minutes, or until the milk is
completely absorbed by the chestnuts.
- Let the mixture cool, then smooth it out in a blender or food processor
or hand grinder.
- Put the puree into a pot with 300 grams (1 1/2 cups) of
sugar and cook, stirring, for 20 minutes.
- Put the marmalade in sterilized jam jars with a thin layer
of Rum on the top of the marmalade to keep it clean of germs.
- Store the jars in a cool, dark place (like that wonderful
place that was once called a root-cellar).
The Romans roasted chestnuts to grind into flour, the main flour
used during Roman times for most sweets and many breads. If
you're lucky, you can see the Roman method still used today in
Italy.
Roman Chestnut Drying
- A special smokehouse barn sits above a furnace room.
- The barn is filled to the rafters with Sweet Chestnuts.
- A fire is started in the furnace room below, and tended for
several weeks.
- The chestnuts dry out above the tended furnace fires.
- Then the nuts meats are ground into flour.
Chestnut flour is used today for sweets, breads and pastas.
Il castagnaccio - The Bad Chestnut
- Soak 100 grams of raisons (just over 1/2 cup) in warm water to plump them up,
then drain, dry, and dust them in flour. (If you don't
soak raison before cooking, they draw out moisture as they cook,
making whatever you're cooking very dry. If you don't
flour them, they sink to the bottom of a cake batter as it
cooks.)
- Mix in a bowl 400 grams (2 1/3 cups) of chestnut flour with 1/2 liter of
milk (just over 2 cups), adding the milk slowly as you mix it into a dough.
- Then mix in 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, the prepared
raisons, and 50 grams (6 1/2 tablespoons) of pine nuts.
- Put the mixture in a greased pan large enough for the batter
to no deeper than your thumb.
- Cook in a hot oven for 30 minutes.
- Serve at room temperature.
Fritelle di farina di castagne -
Chestnut Flour
Fritters
- Prepare the dough for Il castagnaccio.
- Boil abundant vegetable oil, or preferably peanut oil, in a deep pot.
(Peanut oil heats to a higher temperature, letting less oil
enter the fritter, and lessening the risk of an oil fire.)
- Drop the dough by spoonfuls into the boiling oil and
let it cook until golden. (Be patient and don't
overload the pot with dough balls, or you risk lowering the oil
temperature, which allows more oil to enter the dough, making
the fritter soggy.)
- Drain the cooked fritter on absorbent paper.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve immediately.
Recipes from the late middle ages and the early Renaissance used
chestnuts (see my Ancient Cookbook
section on the Food page).
I decided not to report the recipes here because they no longer
appeal to modern tastes, and the measurements are huge. Cooks
back then, the ones who had access to cookbooks, cooked for very
large manor estate households.
But to give you an idea...
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Cooked or roasted chestnuts were added to mushroom,
bean and vegetable dishes to add substance and starch.
-
A chestnut tart was made with ginger, pepper,
cinnamon, sugar, fresh and dried chesses, ground pork or veal and
saffron to make it yellow.
-
The tart was cooked in a crust made of soft cheese,
egg whites, sugar, ginger, lard or butter, and milk.
Roasted or boiled chestnuts, and chestnut flour,
have been eaten by people in the Mediterranean region and Switzerland since
the time of the earliest human settlements.
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