Chestnut Basics

The fruit of the majestic chestnut tree, the chestnut is a highly nutritious food that can be enjoyed year-round, though chestnuts are most commonly eaten during the winter holiday season. Chestnuts must be peeled prior to eating in order to remove their heavy protective husks. Once peeled, the nuts inside are usually dried, roasted, boiled, pureed, or ground into a flour that can be used to make bread, cakes, and cookies. The nuts can also be canned in water or syrup, candied or crystallized with sugar (a dish known as marrons glacés), preserved in alcohol, and used to make sweetened or unsweetened jams. Chestnuts are used to flavor ices, puddings, pastry creams, and pies.

The chestnut tree is thought to have originated in the Mediterranean basin and Asia Minor. The chestnut has been eaten since prehistoric times in both of these regions as well as in China. A very nouri­shing nut, it has long been a staple food in several parts of the world, including Italy, the south of France, Corsica, and North Africa. Most of the world’s chestnuts are now grown in China, South Korea, Italy, Japan, and Spain.

The chestnut tree is related to the oak and can live for up to 500 years. It usually measures about 50 feet but can grow to be 100 feet tall with a trunk more than 3 feet in diameter. Its long, veined, deciduous leaves have jagged edges and are a very dark shade of green. Used to make parquet floors and furniture, the hard, finely grained wood of the chestnut tree is much sought after. It also contains numerous tannins that are used to cure leather.

There are more than 100 different species of chestnut trees, several of which produce clusters of two or three nuts at the base of their leaves. Solitary chestnut trees start to produce nuts after 25 or 30 years, though if chestnut trees are planted close together they may take 40–60 years before growing nuts.

Chestnuts are enclosed in spiky husks or burrs, most of which hold three separate small, flat, triangular nuts. Improved cultivated varieties of the chestnut tree produce a single large nut, which is fleshier and more flavorful. These larger chestnuts, which are better for cooking, are sometimes referred to as marrons. Each chestnut contains a very wrinkled cream-colored kernel that is covered with a layer of thin brown skin.