Sunday 15 December 2013

Your Christmas Chestnuts.




I live in a SERIOUS CHESTNUT GROWING AREA, so feel slightly qualified to comment on their suitability for whatever use.

Christmas Chestnuts come in various different forms. Fresh (if you're lucky), tinned as purée (natural or horribly sweet), vacuum packed (all glued together), and loose in jars (above).

The above is a relatively new way of commercialising Chestnuts; it's a method that has been used by local housewives for generations, but not on a wider basis. All the work is done, they are presented as 'individual' nuts, and they taste as good as if you'd gathered and prepared them yourself. I'm not quite sure how they end up like this; I think they may be steam processed, and all perfectly peeled beforehand.

May I suggest that you never buy canned 'Chestnuts in Water'; they are horrible. And I cannot see the point of buying 'sweetened' tinned purée either. 

If they're available near you; try to buy them like above, they're excellent. Just the job for bunging in with the Turkey.

Just say 'Cro sent you'.


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12 comments:

  1. I will indeed look for these. I will also tell them you sent me. It's good to have a nut expert in your collection of blog friends

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  2. I wish we could get them here. I've never seen them for sale.
    Speaking of nuts, after reading your post, I bought myself some walnut oil and have taken to mixing in a teaspoon with my muesli every morning. Delicious! It makes me gag straight.

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  3. I shall look out for these Cro - I love chestnut stuffing but can't face the peeling and like you all the other methods are too sweet. If I can find these then I might change my mind, otherwise it will be sage and onion as usual.

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    Replies
    1. I shall use Paxo sage and onion, pork sausage meat, a few chopped prunes, and the chopped chestnuts, and keep my fingers crossed.

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  4. Incidentally, I bought walnut oil as you suggested, and agree it is delicious dribbled on new potatoes.

    If you read my blog today you will see that we have found a branch to decorate a la Cro.

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  5. What else is in the jar with the chestnuts?
    I think they are probably steamed..

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    Replies
    1. Nothing; they're packed-in loose, as if you'd just prepared them and stored them in a jar.

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    2. How long do they keep?

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    3. Un-opened, several years. Opened not long (in our house).

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  6. Hmm. Not sure I've ever had a chestnut. They're not common here. Pecans, on the other hand are abundant and delicious. I plan to make some roasted pecan treats to give out at Christmas.

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  7. I like fresh chestnuts when I can get them - lovely roasted in the fire and a few chopped in with the Christmas sprouts

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