Chestnuts, Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Make a slight incision in the outer skins of the chestnuts.
Place them in a pot of boiling water with salt.
Cook until soft, about 1 hour.
Finish and serve
Drain and wipe the chestnuts.
Serve in a hot napkin laid in the dish.
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
- Provide the starchy, tender flesh that becomes soft and mealy when simmered.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the chestnuts as they cook in the boiling water.
The step that matters
Cook until soft. Chestnuts need enough time in boiling water for starch to gelatinise and the flesh to soften fully. Stopping early leaves them hard and chalky, while the incision lets steam and water reach the interior and helps the shells split for peeling.
“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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