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Roasted Chestnuts

Roasted chestnuts served hot with coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Roasted Chestnuts

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the chestnuts in water for 5 to 7 minutes, then wipe them dry.

  2. Cut a small slit in the rind of each chestnut.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the chestnuts in a coffee roaster or in a Dutch oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Serve the chestnuts very hot in a napkin with coarse sea salt on the side.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Chestnuts
Starchy flesh that turns soft and sweet when heated, making the main body of the dish.

The step that matters

Cut a small slit in the rind of each chestnut. Chestnuts have a tough shell and a moist interior. Without a slit, steam builds up during roasting and can cause the shells to burst, so the slit lets pressure escape.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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