In this blog, you will get to know about chestnuts. About their taste, about their nutritional value, What do they look like, and How to cook and roast them properly, How to cook them in recipes. How to add it to various dishes. About its lumber and the worms present in chestnuts.
What Are Chestnuts?
The shiny reddish-brown colored eatable nut is developed in a round shell case known as a burr. The shell cracks open after the nuts are fully ready. The nuts are generally roasted, either broiled in their shells, cracked open, and then eaten.
These trees are homegrown in the Northern regions. They get harvested and fertilized in the native. The undomestic chestnuts are tiny in size. China is a huge producer of this. Turkey, South Korea, Italy, and many other producers.
Chestnut produce in various species. The species from Europe are sweet chestnuts also known as Castanea sativa. These nuts are then transported to Canada and the US markets.
Chestnuts are mainly sold with their shell cases. These shells are squishy and maybe cracked simply when the nut gets roasted. Seared chestnuts demand to get soaked or steamed before getting consumed. (source)
What are Chestnuts Good for?
Newly plucked chestnuts are stiff but after getting stored for some days, the stiffness gets less. These nuts are big and squishy. They are mostly cooked with their shells. After getting cooked, they will have the firmness of potato.
Chestnuts contain high carbohydrates and low levels of fat and protein. 100 grams of fresh chestnuts contains 200 calories and the other following:
- Fat: 1.3g;
- Recommended Daily Allowance. Minerals (RDA): Potassium 10% and Magnesium (8%)
- Protein1.6g;
- Carbohydrate 44g (sugar 11g);
- Recommended Daily Allowance, vitamins (RDA): vitamin C 48% and vitaminB6 (27%)
Chestnuts consist of double starch levels as compared to potatoes, there is a variety of nuts but these nuts are comparatively less in fat. They are full of vitamin C and contain a high level of fiber. Chestnuts also carry the benefits of selenium each nut. The People of Japan started the harvest chestnuts long before the cultivation of rice.
Chestnuts are an outstanding food crop for China, Europe, and Japan. The Chef there mostly crushes them in their meals for nourishment. Chestnut wheat flour is sugar-free, and Italian chefs mostly add it to make various types of cakes. Chestnuts can be grated in salads as in Tuna Salad, in soups, in gravies, and in pasta recipes, added in stews, and in baking sweet desserts. You can roast these nuts for eating as a snack.
What Do Chestnuts Look Like?
Edible raw chestnuts are simple to recognize from separate toxic or unedible varieties just as horse chestnuts. Edible chestnuts are a circle in shape, thorny burs. The edible chestnuts and the horse chestnut both contain a mahogany-colored nut, but the edible chestnuts mostly have a point or feather on them.
The unedible chestnut is round in shape and shiny without any point or feather. The toxic ones or the unedible horse chestnuts have heavy, rough skin in appearance.
Edible chestnuts are full of vitamins B and C, as well as potassium, magnesium, and iron. They contain a high amount of starch.
What Do Chestnuts Taste Like?
The fresh chestnuts taste nearly rough and harsh. It noticeably gets better when roasted or cooked and they are so appetizing when baked finely.
There is a light taste of the chestnuts that makes it an all-rounder for salty and sweet both in recipes. It has some resemblance to potato, a little savory and crispy when fresh but it will get sweet or buttery if cooked.
Its taste is similar to sweet potato. You can put in flavor when cooked in various recipes like baking items, on Beef or Veal stews, on soups, and when seasoning on pasta.
What Do Roasted Chestnuts Taste Like?
Fresh chestnuts are mostly not as famous as cooked chestnuts or roasted chestnuts. The edible chestnuts are like crackers but contain a slight sweetness in them is delicious.
When roasted chestnuts perfectly, you will surely be honored with a magnificent taste. These are soft and glossy, but they still stay solid in form.
Roasted chestnut tastes like eating into a properly cooked potato. They become soft, smooth, and creamy and remain in the shape due to cooked in their shell.
What is the Best Way to Roast Chestnuts?
Roasting is the finest way to eat the chestnuts. A slight Bitter when fresh but once roasted, they have a fine and creamy sweet taste with a soft feel alike to a sweet soft potato.
If you don’t keep any particular chestnuts pan for roasting them, don't get sad. No particular utensils are mandatory, just roast and cook them in your oven in the kitchen.
These chestnuts are often made at festivals or as a winter snack. From stuffings in meats or into baking cakes and in other recipes, you can just add them in various recipes of chestnuts.
Let me just tell you a simple roasted chestnut recipe.
- Assemble the ingredients. Now at 425 F, Pre-Heat the oven.
- Assemble these on the baking tray.
- Put the chestnuts into the oven. Let them roast until the covering back away from the nuts after the nuts get softer.
- The authentic time will count on chestnuts but it will be 15-20 minutes at least.
- Now take out the nuts and stack them in any cloth towel. Cover them and press hard. Doing this will crack the nuts and now rest them for some minutes.
- Pull off the brown skin to take out the roasted chestnuts. When peeling off, remember removing the husky skin between the nut and the peel.
- Now Eat.
Chestnut Trees
The most Expensive chestnut tree is similar to the oak tree whether in color or skin. These trees have a life of 1000 years and mostly they don’t start producing fruit before they turn 40 years in age.
Worms in Chestnuts
In Europe, Africa, and Asia, chestnuts are frequently replaced for potatoes in daily dishes. Chestnuts do count in a joyous taste if distributed directly from the oven, It will be salty and sweet at the same time with an amazing flavor and odor of freshness.
If you are a chestnut lover and love to collect chestnuts from the ground and chestnuts can be collected in less than 3 days afterward they fall down.
Be careful and confirm that you are not collecting horse chestnuts. The main reason to be careful is that these chestnuts are highly toxic. Chestnut bugs or worms can be found sometimes in chestnuts.
In any observation regarding worm way out holes in these chestnuts now, you have to throw them. Chestnuts should be soaked in the water for about 10-15 minutes is an effective way to get rid of these worms or their eggs. It's a regular routine of the trading companies. Doing this to Chestnuts makes them edible.
Conclusion
Till now, you must have gotten a proper idea about what chestnuts are. From this, I hope you will want to try these yummy chestnuts.
Just ensure that you properly prepare and roast them, and remember that don’t eat the skin or husk of the chestnut. It is highly dangerous.
