Chestnut

A starchy and sweet, roughly spherical nut with a shiny brown husk enclosing crunchy, ivory-colored flesh which softens when cooked. Produced by temperate-zone species including the American chestnut, Castanea dentata, the Chinese chestnut, C. mollissima, and the European or Spanish chestnut, C. sativa, chestnuts were eaten by Native Americans, and early Greeks and Romans. Collected from both wild and cultivated species, they remained an everyday staple, subsistence food and common livestock fodder on both sides of the Atlantic until the early 20th century.

Often eaten whole, chestnuts were also ground into flour or meal that earned them the nickname "bread of the mountains." The meal was used in the original Italian polenta; the flour is still used in bread and other baked goods, particularly in southern Europe. Candied for the famous French confection, marrons glacés, the nuts are cooked and sieved for the classic Mont Blanc and Nesselrode puddings. Contemporary cooks use sliced or whole chestnuts in hors d'oeuvres, pilafs, salads, soups, stews and stuffing, and puréed in dips and pesto, as well.

Dubbed "the king of the forest" and growing to a height of more than 100 feet (30 m) and a girth of more than 8 feet (2.4 m), the American chestnut once covered 9 million acres (4.75 million hectares) of Carolinian woodlands from southern Ontario to northern Florida. Across the Appalachians, where the abundance of chestnut blossoms gave the peaks a snowy appearance in the spring, the nuts -a significant source of cash for local families - were gathered in the fall. Shipped to large eastern cities, they were a popular snack in the chilly weather (served hot from the portable roasters of sidewalk vendors), and a favorite Christmas treat at home (roasted over the fire or added to poultry stuffing). But an Asian fungus began killing this native species early in the 1900s. Virtually wiped out by the 1950s, it is now considered a threatened species by the World Wildlife Fund. The American Chestnut Foundation and The Canadian Chestnut Council, work for its restoration. Since the 1700s, several varieties of chestnut species (including the bushy, blight-resistant, Chinese chestnut) have been introduced to North America.

To prevent stomach upsets, chestnuts should not be eaten raw. Before cooking, the meat may be removed by halving each one using clean secateurs, then roasting, steaming or microwaving the nuts until the flesh falls easily from the shells. Whole chestnuts can be boiled, roasted on an open fire or baked in the oven by first piercing a small slit or scoring an X in the shell of each one to prevent it bursting in the heat (specialty knives are sold for this purpose). Dried, frozen and vacuum-packed chestnuts are available throughout the year; fresh ones from October to February, mostly imported from Italy and Portugal.

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