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Boiled Chestnuts

Boiled chestnuts are cooked in salted water, then drained and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Boiled Chestnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make a slight incision in the outer skin of each chestnut to prevent bursting.

Boil

  1. Boil the chestnuts in plenty of water with ½ tablespoon of coarse sea salt.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes to 1 hour, checking occasionally until soft.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain the chestnuts and wipe them with a coarse cloth.

  2. Serve quickly in a hot napkin.

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
The main ingredient, which softens through boiling to become tender and edible.

The step that matters

Make a slight incision in the outer skin. Cutting the skin lets steam escape during boiling, so the shell does not burst and the chestnuts cook evenly.

“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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