Beautiful Chestnuts by Julie Weatherbee

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Dusting off this feature from 13 years ago (wow!) to help set the table for tomorrow.

Wikipedia’s entry for the American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) explains that this large, deciduous tree of the beech family was once one of the eastern United States dominant hardwoods before it was nearly wiped out by chestnut blight. Curiously enough, one of the few pockets to survive were some 600 to 800 large trees in northern lower Michigan. Chestnut Growers, Inc. is a 37 member cooperative based in Michigan explain the difference between edible sweet chestnuts & non-edible horse chestnuts (the spiky ones with the burrs) & offer preparation tips & cooking instructions:

In Europe, chestnuts are consumed in a wide variety of dishes, from soups, stews, and stuffing to fancy deserts. Matter of fact, chestnut flour is the secret to many of the fancy French pastries. In other parts of the world, such as China, the chestnut is a staple food in the peoples’ diet. Chestnuts have about half the calories of other nuts and have the lowest fat content of all the main edible nuts. Chestnuts have only four to five percent fat as compared to sixty-two percent for the hazelnut and seventy-one percent for the pecan. In composition and food value, the chestnut, with its high carbohydrate content of about seventy-eight percent, is more akin to cereal grains, such as wheat, than to nuts with a low carbohydrate content. Since chestnuts are starchy rather than oily, they are readily digestible when roasted or boiled.

Read on for more and suggestions on cooking. They take orders for fresh chestnuts and ship beginning in October, and are at farm markets through the fall. 

Julie bought these Michigan-grown beauties at Zingerman’s deli in Ann Arbor. Check them out background bigalicious and see more in Julie’s Food gallery on Flickr where she shares some preparation photos & the finished product!

Peeled Chestnut by Julie Weatherbee