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Roasted Chestnuts
Cut a little piece of the outer shell off each chestnut; this is to prevent them bursting when hot. Boil them for about ten minutes; do not allow them to cool, but put them into a tin in the oven, or into a Dutch oven before the fire, and let them remain until they are quite soft. Fold them in a napkin, and serve quite hot. Salt should be eaten with them. Time to bake, about ten minutes.
A two-stage method — a short boil, then dry heat — that gives softer, sweeter chestnuts than roasting alone. The scoring step is not optional.
- Score deeplyCut through the shell and the brown inner skin, not just the glossy outer layer. A steam pocket in an unvented chestnut will burst it loudly in the oven.
- Oven heatThe original gives no temperature, only 'a tin in the oven, or ... a Dutch oven before the fire.' A hot oven, roughly 400-425F, answers: the chestnuts have already been partly cooked in water, so they only need to dry out and colour.
- "Dutch oven before the fire"In this period that means a hooded metal reflector standing on the hearth, not the enamelled cast-iron pot sold under the name today. A shallow baking sheet in a hot oven is the equivalent.
- Don't let them coolThe shell and pellicle come away most cleanly while the nut is hot, and cooling sets the inner skin tight against the flesh. That may lie behind the instruction to move them straight from water to oven, though the recipe does not say so.
- TimingTen minutes boiling and roughly ten minutes in the oven suits medium chestnuts; large ones want fifteen or more. Test by squeezing one in a cloth — it should give like a cooked potato.
- BuyingChoose nuts that feel heavy and fill their shells. Light, rattling chestnuts have dried out and will be leathery whatever you do.
- The napkinFolding them into a cloth is practical rather than decorative: it holds the heat while people peel, and the steam trapped inside loosens the skins further.
- YieldAbout 1 lb of chestnuts in the shell serves four as a snack or accompaniment. Salt on the side, as directed.