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Chestnut Sauce for Turkey
Remove the outer husks from about fifty chestnuts and place them on a chestnut roaster (which is a kind of warming pan riddled with holes), over a clear fire, stirring constantly and shaking them until the second skin will come off easily. Then put them in a stewpan with a wineglassful of white wine, sufficient good stock to cover them, a good lump of butter, a heaping teaspoonful of pounded lump sugar, and a little grated nutmeg. When they are boiled quite tender, but still remaining whole, put the chestnuts into a hot sauce tureen, reduce the liquor by boiling it a minute or two longer, and pour it over them. They are then fit to be served with the turkey.
A whole-chestnut sauce closer to a garnish than a gravy, and the whole point is that the nuts stay intact. Everything below is aimed at that.
- The hinge: peel hot, cook gentlyChestnuts shed their inner pellicle only while they are hot, so work through them a few at a time and keep the rest warm. Once peeled, they should barely tremble in the liquid; a rolling boil breaks them into mush and the dish becomes a puree.
- Fifty chestnutsRoughly 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb / 550 to 700 g in the shell, depending on size, yielding perhaps 1 lb peeled. Vacuum-packed or jarred cooked chestnuts are a fair substitute and skip the peeling entirely, though they are more fragile and want only 10 minutes in the liquid.
- The chestnut roasterA perforated pan held over open coals. A modern equivalent: score an X through the shell of each nut and roast at 425F for 15 to 20 minutes, or boil them scored for 10 minutes and peel from the water.
- A wineglassfulIn this period roughly 2 fl oz, so about 1/4 cup of dry white wine.
- Pounded lump sugarLoaf sugar crushed fine, which is superfine (caster) sugar today. A heaping teaspoon is all it takes; the sauce should read savory with a rounded edge, not sweet.
- Good stockThe recipe specifies nothing beyond 'good stock', which in a hotel kitchen of this date would have meant a real meat stock rather than water. Turkey stock from the neck and giblets is the natural choice here, and a low-sodium commercial stock will need the seasoning checked once the liquor is reduced.
- A good lump of butterAround 2 tablespoons. Reducing the liquor once the chestnuts are lifted out concentrates it and helps pull the butter together; it also keeps the nuts out of a hard boil, which is what would break them.
- Timing and yieldFigure 20 to 30 minutes at a bare simmer for whole raw chestnuts, testing one for tenderness rather than trusting the clock. The quantity serves eight to ten alongside a roast turkey.
Chestnuts and turkey are an old pairing in English and French cookery, where the nut did the work that bread stuffing does now: bulk, sweetness and a soft starch to set against dark roast meat. Oscar Tschirky, the Swiss-born maitre d'hotel whose name carried the Waldorf's reputation, assembled his 1896 book largely from the classical European repertoire that a New York luxury hotel was expected to serve. The equipment note is the giveaway of its age: the perforated chestnut roaster held over a clear fire belonged to a kitchen built around coal ranges and open hearths. Chestnuts were also cheaper and more common in American markets then, before the blight identified in New York in 1904 destroyed the native American chestnut and left the trade to imported European nuts.