Stewed Chestnuts

Suppress the shells from two pounds of fresh chestnuts without breaking the meats; soak them for seven or eight hours in cold water with a little citric acid added. Drain and place in a recently tinned saucepan with plenty of water, having a bag containing bran. At the first boil remove the pan to the side of the fire so that the liquid only quivers for two hours, being careful to replace at times a part of the black water by a little clean boiling water, so as to keep the chestnuts as white as possible. When tender but yet whole, drain off a few at a time to peel without getting cold, then put them at once into another saucepan with tepid syrup cooked to twelve degrees and half a stick of split vanilla; use only the whole chestnuts. Cover the saucepan and keep it on one side of the range to have the liquid hot without boiling, and two hours after drain off half the syrup, replacing it by a stronger hot one of thirty degrees; keep the chestnuts in this for one hour on the side of the fire. Drain them again delicately one by one to dress on a compote dish; strain the syrup, reduce it to twenty-eight degrees, and when cold pour it over the chestnuts.