A fiend gave us a 5 gallon bucket of chestnuts. I have spent part of the day trying to get them scored, simmered and peeled. My goodness, my hands are tired and sore from the scoring. They have tough shells, I must say. But I will persevere.

Good luck. I'm sure they will be worth the effort.
OK. Here's your laugh of the day!
In the early days of our marriage we saw some chestnuts on sale at the local grocery store around the holidays. Hearing the timeless song that has the line "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" I was inspired to get some. First off there was not internet to get a quick "how to". Second, we lived on the second floor of a two story apartment complex in "beautiful downtown Burbank". So, having roasted many a beef roast I just placed them on a cookie sheet in the oven and turned the heat up. After some time all #*#* broke loose. It sounded like world war 3 in our little apartment. It brought our neighbor from 3 doors down and the crazy old man below started to bang on the ceiling with his broom adding to the commotion ( he did that a lot even when we weren't making noise). This went on for quite awhile as I couldn't open the oven after turning it off for fear of getting hit by a projectile. I later learned that you need to score them to allow the steam to escape. What a mess to clean exploded chestnuts from the walls of the oven!

1 comment

by sewilso 07 Oct 2014

Oh my goodness, how awful! It's funny but I bet it was a disaster!

I have seen them in our Fruit and Veg shops but wouldn't know what to do with them..

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by marianb 07 Oct 2014

are they anything like a water chestnut we use them in Asian cooking?

I love them. I remember as a child in England eating them raw and having such terrible stomach ache

We have a tree out in our backyard-the squirrels love these things-makes an aweful mess in the yard though when they tear apart the prickly outer casing then they like to sit on my stone flower box,our patio and the furniture and our carport lol. I have never brought them in to try them out before though. My girls used to like to collect them when they were little and "save them for the squirrels" when the snow covered the ground. I had to make sure they didn't leave them in our shed or else EVERYTHING would have been torn apart by those little trouble makers.
What does the meat of the nut taste like when they are cooked up?

I then freeze mine and chop them when adding to my chicken stuffing ( don't care for turkey). .they add a touch of sweetness. My, how I love them. Sometimes I score them and roast in the oven. Yum!

Man over nut! Has been that way forever! How will you preserve the nuts?

I've not tried them, what do they taste like Karen? They sound interesting!

Love chestnuts. We don't see them much around here except at Christmas time.

What are you going to do with them?

1 comment

by asterixsew 07 Oct 2014

Seeing other comments I often cook with them. I make a stuffing from them and add them to other dishes.