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The holidays are fast approaching. Want to visit the nostalgic side of yourself? Try the old and widely known and esteemed recipe of roasting chestnuts. You listen in regards to roasting chestnuts in all the old songs and from memories shared with elder members of the family. They are a terrifi addition to any Thanksgiving or Christmas gathering. But how do you do it?

Here’s a simple guide to roasting chestnuts that you may do yourself and have fun at the same time.

Where do you buy chestnuts? Your grocery store will probably have two kinds of them: Castagne, which are the more mutual type of chestnuts, and Marroni which are the meatier, more spectacular chestnuts. At times, Marroni are as much as an inch or more all over in size. Castagne is fine for boiling but for roasting you will need the Marroni chestnut.

Screen the chestnuts by looking over them cautiously and choosing just those that are firm and whose skins are a shiny, rich brown color. Obviously, If they smell moldy, or have a blotchy look, or pin holes – toss those out!

First thing to do in learning how to roast chestnuts, make a little cut in the round side of each chestnut. This keeps them from exploding. If you don’t do this, you will have a huge mess to clean up!

A little history: In the country, a good deal of persons still use a terracotta baking dish (sometimes looks like a colander) to roast the chestnuts over the coals. Today, it’s easy sufficient to buy a chestnut roasting pan to use over your stove. It looks like an iron skillet or pan with a bunch of holes punched into the bottom of it.

Next, put your cautiously chosen chestnuts into the pan and sprinkle them with water. Cover the chestnuts and put the pan over a medium heat.

Then, shake your pan oftentimes while roasting until you see that the skins have blackened and have pulled back from the chestnut meat (you’ll detect this where you made the cut previously). Roasting them will have to take when it comes to 5 to 10 minutes. If the chestnuts appear too charred, then that means you didn’t shake the pan enough.

You’ll recognise when they are roasted to perfection by the fact that you may effortlessly open the shell and find pretty golden colored chestnut meat inside. It’s sweet to the taste and a little crumbly in texture. Delicious!

Another way to roast your chestnuts is to place them, with the cut sides up, on a baking sheet or cookie sheet. Roast them in a hot oven (about 400 degrees F) until the chestnuts appear tender. This will take with regards to 20 minutes. To test to see if they have been roasted enough, stick a fork through the cut in shell and test for tenderness.

Finally, wrap the hot chestnuts in an old towel (no matter which way you chose to roast them) and squeeze them hard. Squeezing the chestnuts will break and crush the skins which will make peeling them much posing no difficulty to do. Let the crushed chestnuts rest inside the towel for with regards to 5 mintues before unwrapping them.

Open up the towel and feast and enjoy!

Roaster Pan Image

Roaster Pan Pic

Roaster Pan Pic

Most helpful customer reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
perfect pan
By Sandra
I have always made do with whatever pan I already had in my kitchen. This Thanksgiving I purchased this stainless steel roaster. It was perfect in every way and cleans up bright and shinny like brand new again. I especially like the rack with handles. Should have had this pan all along for all my Thanksgiving Days and all my other big family gatherings. I would recommend it.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
The size listed is deceiving
By J. W. DiDomenico
I ordered this because it was listed at 16 inches. I have a small, apartment oven and a 16-inch pan would just fit. The handles on this pan extend outward beyond the pan itself by 2.5 inches, making the total size 21 inches: too large for my oven. I returned it for an All-Clad 14-inch, (whose handles are upright and don’t contribute to the overall length anyway; ironic) and it’s perfect. Otherwise the Cuisinart appeared to be an excellent pan.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
A bit on the lightweight side.
By Cory West
I ordered this roaster because I really wanted a stainless steel rack (instead of the standard racks that are covered with nonstick). The rack is great… but the roaster is made from metal that’s a bit thinner than I was expecting.

See all 13 customer reviews…