* Chestnuts, unlike most other nuts, are perishable. Over 50% of their weight at harvest is water. It is important to keep them refrigerated until you use them or the nutmeat may become moldy very quickly.

* Because chestnuts have such a high moisture content, the steam caused during cooking can cause the nut to explode unless you cut a slit in the shell. This allows the water vapor to escape without making a mess of your stove or microwave.

Preparing Chestnuts

Chestnuts may be roasted “over an open fire” or by many other means from heating in a skillet on the kitchen stove, in the oven or even in a microwave oven. Five to fifteen minutes is typical when roasting with high bottom heat, the preferred procedure, depending on whether your skillet has holes in the bottom or not. Our favorite form of a chestnut roaster is a light weight skillet with holes in the bottom.

The important thing to do when heating chestnuts is to put a cut in the shell to allow the vaporized moisture to escape without exploding the shell. There are a variety of tools and methods to do this, much of it culturally oriented. Personally I prefer a small hooked “chestnut knife”, common in Europe, and a single cut down one side of the nut. Others suggest a cross cut on the nut scare or various other locations and patterns. Try different approaches for yourself to see what works best.