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Chestnuts to Roast for Dessert
1151. First boil them for eight or ten minutes, then prick the shells, or cut off a small portion from the pointed end, to prevent their bursting. Before they are cool, lay them to roast in an oven or before the fire for nearly a quarter of an hour. They must be tried to see if well done; and served very hot in a napkin.
A two-stage method — parboil, then roast — that gives softer, more evenly cooked chestnuts than dry roasting alone. The whole thing hinges on venting the shells before they meet real heat.
- Score before, not afterThe original prick or trim the shells after the boil, which risks a burst and scalding water. Cut a cross or a slit through the shell and inner skin on the flat side first, then boil; the steam has somewhere to go at both stages.
- Oven heatThe recipe gives no temperature. A hot oven, in the region of 400F, suits the roasting stage; the text says only 'an oven'.
- "Before the fire"A period alternative to the oven: chestnuts in a long-handled perforated pan set facing the coals, shaken often. A cast-iron skillet on a hot burner, shaken every couple of minutes, is the nearest modern equivalent.
- TimingEight to ten minutes in boiling water, then twelve to fifteen minutes in the oven ('nearly a quarter of an hour'), is about right for medium nuts. Larger ones want a little longer; the recipe says simply to try them to see if well done.
- Peel while hotBoth shell and the bitter inner pellicle slip away while the nut is steaming and grip stubbornly once cool, so the instruction to serve 'very hot in a napkin' works in the eater's favour. Wrap them in a folded cloth and bring only a few to table at a time.
- Sorting firstFloat the raw chestnuts in water and discard any that bob up; those are dried out or wormy inside.
- YieldAllow roughly 4 oz of nuts in the shell per person as a dessert course.