How do you cook chestnuts in an oven?

[Millymollymandy]

How long and what temp? All I can say from just hazarding a guess yesterday is that 20 mins at 200C is too long! I've got a lot of crumbly stuff that took me hours to pick out from the shell and pith which I'll use for stuffing, but I want them whole!

Sadly the pith STILL stayed on - yet it doesn't when you roast on an open fire . I just want a way to eat them without having to spend 10 mins peeling the horrid pith off each one. (I've done all the boiling and microwaving in the past for ones I want to freeze but yesterday wanted to eat them whole with that roasted flavour).

[Green Aura]

Iwouldn't put them in the oven if you want to eat them, MMM. Stick them under a hot grill and turn them half way through. Same principle as on the fire. And presumably easier on the leccy bill.

Or, I could sell you a very nice chestnut roaster that we got sold as a coffee roaster (it's been happily roasting coffee - we didn't tell it what it was).

[Millymollymandy]

Unfortunately I have one of those electric grills that takes half an hour to heat up to full temperature - much longer and hotter than heating up the oven - and then when it gets to glowing red it turns itself down as it thinks it's too hot - it is incapable of browning meat because of this strange function therefore I never use it (and I think it uses more power!).

Maybe I should light the barbie? ha ha! This is the ONLY thing I miss an open fire for. My wood burner would cremate them in seconds.

[JeremyinCzechRep]

I love the smell of roasted chestnuts but am not wild about the taste. However I am wild about parsnip and chestnut soup so if you have plenty of chestnuts, give it a go: http://www.jeremytaylor.eu/chestnut_soup.htm

[chilitony]

my wife Helen puts them flat side down on a tray and cuts the shell in a cross and prinkle some salt over the top then puts in oven at medium temp till the shell opens and go grisp. But its not an exact science cos its still quite hart work to get them out.
When i grew up me + my family used to go chestnutting and my dad would to peel them raw then grill them, so the prep was the hard work but the eating was really good

[Millymollymandy]

The prep is certainly hard work! Well I don't really want to 'waste' any more but I guess if I have the oven on and some space I could pop 5 or so in for 10 mins to try that I just get a bit fed up with them being soooooooooo hard to peel after boiling or microwaving yet don't remember having any probs when they are roasted on an open brazier thing. But it's been years since I had chestnuts like that - about the only thing good about London was that smell on the streets at this time of year, and I miss it!

[MKG]

The last time I had anything to do with chestnuts was as a small child. But I distinctly remember that they were cooked (after being slashed) on a small shovel stuck right on top of a coal fire. The charred skins came off reasonably easily if they weren't underdone. You could tell when they were nearly done because they spat and hissed - and some even jumped into the fire.

Fire up that barbie, MMM. That has to be the nearest equivalent to a coal fire.

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

Good idea Mike and I've got a friend coming next weekend so we could have a barbie.... no maybe not I've seen the weather forecast! ..... but it could be fun just to fire up to roast some chestnuts for fun - and the good thing is of the 20 I overcooked in the oven not a single one had bugs in which is a very good sign - I've got quite used to seeing boiled maggots since I moved here. Our first winter here we had the open fire and I bought a chestnut roasting pan which roasted them just right, but which has been unused since we had the wood burner installed.

[Sinmara]

I cut them, put them into the oven at about 180 degrees for 20-30 Minutes with a heat-proof bowl of water.

Works a treat :)

[Millymollymandy]

Do you mean a bowl of water under them so there is steam circulating? Might have to try that!

[Sinmara]

Do you mean a bowl of water under them so there is steam circulating? Might have to try that!

yes, exactly - my parents used to make them like that when it was too wet outside to roast them over fire