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Boiled Chestnuts

Boiled chestnuts are chestnuts simmered in salted water until soft, 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. Place the chestnuts in a pot of boiling water with the salt.

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

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

Serve

  1. Serve immediately 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
Starchy flesh that softens into a tender, mealy texture as it cooks through in boiling water.

The step that matters

Make the incision in the skin. As the chestnut heats, steam builds up inside the shell. A small cut gives the steam a way out so the shell does not burst.

“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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