what to do with chestnuts, how to preserve?

[Berti]

now that the chestnuts are getting ripe for foraging.
how can I store / preserve them? what can I do with them?

[Caradec]

I'm disappointed that nobody has replied as I would like to know this aswell!

[GeorgeSalt]

I've made chestnut stuffing with wild chestnuts and frozen that in the past. I believe you can boil them and then freeze whole on their own. Hopefully I'll have the same problem this afternoon.. off to Sandringham to poach the Queen's nuts..


(I'm sure Andy has a recipe involving steeping chestnuts in a liquid of some sort in BFF..)

[Zech]

I think they keep pretty well if you do nothing at all to them - just let them dry so they don't go mouldy.

As for what to do with them, nothing beats roasting in an open fire, but once cooked chestnuts can be crushed to make flour, which is very nice in biscuits.

[Odsox]

The "old fashioned" way of storing chestnuts is to put them in a biscuit tin (or similar) and bury them in the garden, about a foot deep.
The coolness and humidity keeps them fresh until spring and stops them going dry and withery.
Used to work very well back when nobody had a fridge, provided you remembered where you buried them.

(Squirrels know best )

[GeorgeSalt]

Sad to say, the Queen has no nuts worth poaching (again) this year.

[Millymollymandy]

Normally I cook them up as soon as possible then go through the horrendous job of trying to peel the inner layer off and then freeze them.

I haven't bothered going out foraging for them this year because I've been told by my neighbours and also someone else in the village that they are no good this year as they are tiny. That's a bit odd but maybe it's due to the dry autumn last year and dry Jan/Feb/March this year. Maybe? Because we had a wet spring after that so you'd think that would have been fine but normally the trees produce nuts even when there has been summer drought. We also had zilch blackberries - so small and just didn't swell up - I've seen better during a drought year.

Ho hum well it's been a pretty rubbish year for a lot of things.

I thought I'd buy some marrons in the supermarket and cook them as I really want chestnut stuffing for Xmas, but they are about €7.95 a kilo!!!

[Skippy]

No bodies mentioned it but I have tried pickling chestnuts in the past although I can't say I'd go mad for it again , the taste is ok ish perhaps a bit of an aquired taste.
I agree though that this seasons nuts are on the small side. I went picking some the other day and was disapointed with what I brought back. On a related note my almond tree hasn't produced anything like the amount it did last year.


Pete

[JeremyinCzechRep]

Why not make some fantastic soup and then freeze it? Something like this perhaps?
http://www.jeremytaylor.eu/recipes/ches ... snip-soup/ :-)

[IanSouthWales]

I remember the "Two Greedy Italians" Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo visiting a place in Northern Italy in their last TV series. There they met a guy who made Chestnut Flour which one of the chefs used to make a chestnut gnocchi, which I'm sure was delicious. I know I'm a bit out of season, but perhaps it's something worth thinking about for this Autumn.

ps - I believe the four is Gluten Free, so, good for anyone who needs to avoid gluten.