Roasted Chestnuts

[Darienne]

Bought my first ever roasted chestnuts the other day at our local bulk/health food store. Imported from China, peeled and ready to eat, vacuum sealed, distributed by an established Canadian company, Aurora.

Followed the heating directions to try one. And immediately spit it out again.

Now I know I can buy tahini which I like and some which I think tastes awful...ditto for coconut oil. And probably ditto for many other products. Last month I even bought some ginger which I had to toss.

Question: do I have cheap, second rate chestnuts or is it an acquired taste which I haven't acquired?

[David A. Goldfarb]

Vacpacked roasted chestnuts sound like an ingredient to use in something else, like a chestnut soup, if you don't have access to fresh roasted chestnuts. I wouldn't eat such a thing straight up.

Try buying some fresh ones and roasting them yourself to see what they should taste like. Just cut a slit or a cross on top of each one so they'll be easy to peel, put them in the oven at around 425F until they open up and the shells peel back. The kitchen will fill with the great smell of roasted chestnuts. Take one out and peel it to test that it's cooked through (careful, hot!). If some of them don't open up, they are probably moldy. You'll usually have a few moldy ones in any given batch.

[Darienne]

Vacpacked roasted chestnuts sound like an ingredient to use in something else, like a chestnut soup, if you don't have access to fresh roasted chestnuts. I wouldn't eat such a thing straight up.

Try buying some fresh ones and roasting them yourself to see what they should taste like.

Thanks. Sounds like good advice. These are noted as ready to eat, with instructions on how to heat them for straight eating. It also suggests making ice cream, cookies, etc, etc.

I'll look for fresh ones next time I am in the city. It's a small townlike city so they may not be readily available...but then I never looked for them before.

In the meantime I am loathe to make anything out of an ingredient which tastes like these taste.

[djyee100]

It may be that you just don't like the taste of roasted chestnuts. But when properly roasted, they have a slightly sweet, mild taste, and that's not a difficult taste for people to like.

It's my understanding that vac-packed roasted chestnuts are supposed to be almost as good as fresh home-roasted chestnuts. It's not as though these are raw chestnuts that need cooking to mellow the flavor. Trying out your own fresh-roasted chestnuts is a good idea. BTW, for the easiest peeling, you have to peel the chestnuts while they are still pretty hot. The hard shell and the bitter inner skin shd both be removed

Meanwhile, I suggest you trust your tastebuds. Don't eat any more of the store-bought chestnuts. Maybe the chestnuts are rancid or adulterated in some way.

[Darienne]

Tried some of the other nuts in the package and I think perhaps I just got the one bad nut in the bunch. The others are not exciting, but they are mild and sort of sweet. I should have tried a couple more before I came to any conclusions, but I was so taken aback that I didn't think of it then.

Thanks for the help.

[LucyInAust]

I loooove roast chestnuts ... but seem to buy quite a variable tasting lots (roasting myself). Some taste "green" and make my mouth feel awful .... the yummy ones are sweet and heavenly. Never quite worked out how you could have an unripe chestnut!!

[Tri2Cook]

If I'm using chestnut as an ingredient in something, I just buy unsweetened puree. It may not be freshly made by my own hands but it's consistent and (this is where I'm probably going to get things thrown at me by somebody) makes for just as tasty a final result as making your own puree. In a fit of dedication, I made my own puree to use in a recipe once and could tell not at all in the final product that I hadn't used purchased puree. Maybe I'm just not a true connoisseur of the chestnut?

[Jenni]

Hmm, I've tried quite a few vac-packed chestnuts, and really liked them (even though they are ridiculously expensive, well where I live they are anyway). Then again, I've never eaten freshly home-roasted chestnuts.

[BeeZee]

I loooove roast chestnuts ... but seem to buy quite a variable tasting lots (roasting myself). Some taste "green" and make my mouth feel awful .... the yummy ones are sweet and heavenly. Never quite worked out how you could have an unripe chestnut!!

Ooh, a tannic chestnut is awful...we have a family tradition when we go to my parents' house for our day after Thanksgiving dinner (a compromise for going to the my husband's family feast on Turkey Day) my Dad roasts a bunch of chestnuts in the oven for a pre-dinner snack. I always think of them as sort of a sweet starchy kind of flavor. If roasted over an open fire it adds another dimension of smoky goodness.