Roasting Chestnuts in the Oven
Sunday November 30, 2003
The best way to roast chestnuts is over the coals, but if that's not practical Italians generally roast them over a gas burner, in a simple iron pan that has many holes punched through it to allow the flames to touch the chestnuts -- see my article for instruction. However, you may not have the pan (or want to sacrifice one to the cause) or may not have a gas burner. At this point the oven is your only option.
Preheat your oven to 425 F (210 C). Take your chestnuts and make a cut across the round side of each to keep them from exploding, and arrange them either on a rack or on a cookie sheet. Roast them until the skins have pulled back from the cuts and the nutmeats have softened (exactly how long will depend upon the chestnuts, but at least 15-20 minutes. Remove the nuts from the oven, make a mound of them in an old towel, wrap them up, squeeze them hard -- they should crackle -- and let them sit for a few minutes.
Open a bottle of vino Novello (or Beaujolais Nouveau), open the towel, pour yourself a glass, peel the skin off the first chestnut, and enjoy.
Preheat your oven to 425 F (210 C). Take your chestnuts and make a cut across the round side of each to keep them from exploding, and arrange them either on a rack or on a cookie sheet. Roast them until the skins have pulled back from the cuts and the nutmeats have softened (exactly how long will depend upon the chestnuts, but at least 15-20 minutes. Remove the nuts from the oven, make a mound of them in an old towel, wrap them up, squeeze them hard -- they should crackle -- and let them sit for a few minutes.
Open a bottle of vino Novello (or Beaujolais Nouveau), open the towel, pour yourself a glass, peel the skin off the first chestnut, and enjoy.
Comments
How do you safely cut them though? When we try the skin is way too hard.
We did this today and used a box cutter; our neighbor showed us how.
Use a proper knife! Too many people are frightened by knives… but a dull knife is in many ways riskier than a sharp one!
We roast chestnuts every year – never have a problem!
Yup.. use a sharp pointy knife. I have done this for years too and have never had a problem. I got more paper cuts from paper in the office than from roasting chestnuts!
I use a cheap plastic-handled knife of the sort Italians used to put on their tables in the 60s that has a serrated blade whose scalloped indents cut cleanly through the skin of the chestnut. Never had a problem, nor cut myself.
Kyle
My question is: After roasting them how long can I keep them and do the have to be refrigerated?
They’re best eaten hot immediately after roasting. I’d be afraid they’d dry out in the reheating if I put them in the fridge.
Kyle
I’ve always cut the “X” on the flat side, which is much easier in my opinion. Why bother cutting on the round side, as suggested here.
I cut the round side because as the cestnuts roast the skin pulls back, esposing the chestnuts and making them easier to peel after they’re roasted.
Kyle
Your article states “Preheat oven to 425F”, but at what temperature do you continue to roast the chestnuts?
Thanks & Happy Thanksgiving
V.Gassi
At 425. Happiest Thanksgiving to you too!
Kyle
My chestnuts were impossible to remove from the shell. I was told to soak them (which I did) before roasting. Anyone else have this problem? Solutions?
My Italian grandmother always soaked them before roasting, and her cuts were in thr flat side. We never had a problem with peeling them, save a few scorched fingers from the heat.
They can be saved, and used in recipes in place of other nuts, but I wouldn’t refrigerate them. Gramma put them in a container which could be sealed, and the air removed. It’s the air that makes them get hard and inedible. If she wasn’t going to use them within a few days, she’d put them on a cookie sheet, freeze them, then put them in a freezer container. This is, of course, if there were any left after we grandchildren got at them hot!
Williams Sonoma sells a hand-held chestnut press that easily scores the nut without cutting anything else by mistake (like you). At about $25 you need to like chestnuts (we do). But it really works great. If you can, roast them over a charcoal fire outside, they do taste better.
Do you cut all the way through the shell, half way or just a line?
Not far — about an eighth of an inch, or 2-3 millimiters 9sp?). You simply want to allow the steam that will form as the nuts cooks to escape. If you don’t they can explode.
Kyle
What a great set of comments and answers. Thank you!!
I believe it is necessary to soak the chestnuts in a solution of coyote urine and apple cider while playing Barry Manilo at a high volume. This is just what I have heard.
This has been a fun thread. I didn’t know about the coyote urine, however. We don’t have any around here, and will have to make do somehow. Perhaps wild boar? Problem is getting them to produce. Also, no Barry Manilo. Will Liberace do? :-/
Happy Christmas!
Kyle
Kyle
Our chestnuts never got soft. They were like rocks after 40 minutes and they were of a small size. We baked them in the oven. Did not soak them and did cut tbem before baking. What else should be have done? Leave them longer?
If your chrstnuts never softenend, they were probably too old and too dry to begin with — I had this happen last week when I roasted some nuts I had bought a month ago. They were drier than they should have been going into the process and became very hard by the time I decided they were done. With older nuts you’re better off boiling them with some fennel seeds added to the water.
Kyle
Help I have already roasted and peeled my chestnuts and now I want to use them in a recipe which calls for 1 1/2 lbs (before roasting) chestnuts. Is there a chart some where to tell me how many cups of reasted and peeled chestnuts you get from a pound of unroasted ones?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a chart that gives weight losses, and would wonder about one in any case, because results will vary with heat of fire and such. I’d guess a 20-30% decrease in weight by the time you’re done roasting and peeleing, and go with that.
I’d weigh, in any case, because with cups you’d also have to deal with shrinkage, and nut size — fewer big nuts will fit into a cup, and there will be proportianally more air in a cup filled with big nuts, if this makes any sense.
Kyle
It’s actually a fun experience to roast the chestnuts without scoring them. Once. It makes an unbelievably loud bang in the oven and is an experience you shouldn’t miss. For extra credit, try doing the same using hot oil to cook the chestnuts. Ouch.
use a simple paring knife to make the cuts; flat side OK. When roasted, peel and make chestnut risotto…ambrosia!
The reason I use the knife with the serrated blade is that the chestnut skins are hard enough to dull paring knives quickly, and then I have to resharpen them
I want to know what happened to our chestnuts — I prepared and cooked them as instructed — some exploded before the cooking time was up and made quite a mess in the oven I must say and then the others that were still in tact had the consistency of dry potatoes and had a bitter taste. They were fresh because I had gone to pick them earier that day and others were just falling from the trees — I think it was with the cooking process — but not sure — any suggestions so the next batch are better??? Thanks I appreciate it!!
I’m not sure. In my experience, chestnuts only explode if the cuts aren’t deep enough to make clean slices through the chestnut rinds – the slice should be about a half-inch, in other words close to completely across the nut.
Not sure about the flavor either, because the chestnuts we have in Italy are sweet even if they’re raw, at which point they do have a dry potato sort of texture – they soften with cooking.
If they’re bitter, however, there’s something wrong with them. Are you certain you picked edible chestnuts? There are trees that drop beautiful looking chestnuts in the parks of a town not far from where I am in Tuscany, but the old men who sit on the park benches told me they’re inedible (horse chestnuts, perhaps?). I wonder if your trees are like those.
Sorry not to be more helpful,
Kyle
Thank you for this fabulous posting!
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I bought chestnuts last Monday, per my mother’s request to bring to our pot-luck gathering. I asked her how she did it back when we were kids, and she told me her secret….they were bought from the vendors who roasted them in the market. LOL! By the time they got home, they were the perfect temperature to crack the shell and eat. Here’s what I did. I had placed the chestnuts in the freezer after I bought them, in fear that it would go bad before Thanksgiving. I spent a good 2 hours researching the appropriate way to roast them in the oven, and THIS SITE fits the bill! I tested 10 pieces tonight, and cut the “X” on the round of half of it, and on the flat side on the other half. I’ll conclude that it doesn’t matter where you cut. As long you cut, there won’t be any explosions! Also, line the baking sheet with foil as these things tend to get messy after wards. 425 degrees for 20 mins, and it’s done. I’m eating #6 right now, 4 more to go! Eating these chestnuts brings back great family memories.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I didn’t have any problem with the roasting of ‘em. Seems like they’ll be pretty good when they’re done in 20 mins… We’ll see.
We have the ability to pick chestnuts here where I live (Portugal: chestnuts=castanhas) and love to get them out of their furry outer coat and then prepare them as described here.
I find that using a serrated knife makes cutting easier.
Great advice. Thanks everyone who posted. I just roasted a load and made an awesome chesnut and chorizo soup. Cheers from London for the help!
We always put our roasted chestnust after roasting in a dishe towel with some red wine poured over them, leave for about ten mintues yum.Close dish towel around the nuts
I make a X across top with flat side down for easier cutting and placement on baking shhet. I use a pairing knife short and sharp.
Helpful hint you should open the cooked chestnut asap if they cool too long they tend to stick to the shell and come out in pieces . If you have made a proper x and open warm they usually stay in whole pieces. Any extras can be stored and used for stuffing YUM
This discussion was extremely helpful! Thanks everyone! I bought some today because I felt like it and then was not certain about the cooking so this was just what I needed.
I’m interested in jarring my own chestnuts. Buying then already jarred is outrageous. Any suggestion on how I might go about this or find directions on it?
What do you mean by jarring? If you mean making marrons glacees (sorry about the missing accent), see http://italianfood.about.com/od/tastysweettreats/r/blr0664.htm.
Kyle
I just roasted chestnuts last night and the inner brown skin would not come off the nut. I wonder if there is a trick to getting the skin to come off. It definitely decreased the pleasure of eating the chestnut. Any suggestions? The chestnuts were fresh and meaty.
The nuts may not have been roasted quite long enough. Were they also slightly crunchy? If they were they weren’t cooked quite enough.
i roasted large, meaty chestnuts from chinatown in s.f. at 450 for 15, 16 min. i had scored an x on flat side.
some exploded.
they ALL resisted peeling the inner shell after they had cooled about 20 min. almost tossed the lot. insides were soft but tough.
also there were black spots inside and outside of meat. impossible!
and i had been successful with smaller ones a couple months before. any idea on what went wrong?