Concession Obsession: Roasted Chestnuts

Chestnuts

also known as: 板栗, Kastanie, castaño, châtaigne

1. the smooth-shelled, sweet, edible nut of any of a genus (Castanea) of trees of the beech family

2. a reddish-brown horse

3. an old, stale joke or phrase

Nutty History

The History of Chestnuts

According to the Cambridge World History of Food, “In the mountainous areas of the Mediterranean where cereals would not grow well, if at all, the chestnut (Castanea sativa) has been a staple food for thousands of years (Jalut 1976). Ancient Greeks and Romans, such as Dioscorides and Galen, …commented on the nuts’ medicinal properties, which supposedly protected against such health hazards as poisons, the bite of a mad dog, and dysentery.”

The article goes on to explain the many different ways that chestnuts can be eaten: raw, boiled, baked, roasted, candied, dried, ground into flour. Chestnuts can be used in recipes for jam, vanilla-chestnut cream, porridge, soup, polenta, bread, pancakes, and stews.

Chestnuts Roasting By The Open Fire

A winter and old-fashioned Christmas tradition, roasted chestnuts are also sold at street concession stands and concession trailers during the winter. Roasted chestnuts are a street food that dates back to 16th century Rome.

For a glimpse into concession obsessions from a Paris perspective, please read ‘Happiness is a Hot Chestnut‘ an entertaining and informative ode to the Hot Chestnut concessions in the Paris Postcards feature at frenchgardening.com.

Chestnut Recipes

There is a good selection of chestnut recipes and a free recipe book offer at chestnutsforsale.com. They have a recipe for oven roasted and oven broiled chestnuts. The site is run by Girolami Farms – a third generation family farm in Stockton California which (you guessed it!) grows chestnuts and sells them online.

Chestnuts: Hot Stuff

You can buy this chestnut candle at lauramercier.com.

If you’re not a fan of the flavor of chestnuts, you also have these options (the following suggestion will only work on non-roasted chestnuts!):

It old school Lego – German children have been collecting chestnuts and building with them for generations. Check out this cute bear, and other crafty chestnut ideas at original-crafts-for-kids.com. There is also a myth that sweet chestnuts will repel spiders, so some people keep chestnuts in bowls around the house. I just looked this up and unfortunately spiders can’t smell, so this won’t work. Ialso have a coffee mug with some chestnuts in it on my desk, specifically for this purpose, and a spider just attacked me so I have firsthand evidence this is not true. (Okay, he didn’t actually attack me but he DID look at me funny. Cringe.)