More on Chestnuts

After discovering that these were chestnuts and letting the first four I had sit on my kitchen counter for 2 weeks without doing anything, we gathered some more this morning and I brought them home to roast.  (I had an ulterior motive - my furnace wasn't working so heating up the house with the oven as a side effect seemed like a good idea).

I had since learned that you need to score the outer skins with a sharp knife before roasting.  I did that.  The ones on the right are the first four that we brought home.  They were noticeably lighter than the fresh ones so I wanted to keep them separate.

After 30 minutes of roasting the skins were peeling back and were quite crispy.

Those first four?  Hmmmmm, they didn't even really crack open.  My guess is they had dried out and there wasn't any moisture left to "burst" them open??

Close up picture - they look pretty good.  And smelled great!

I can honestly say I've never had a roasted chestnut.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  I nibbled.  It was...interesting. Nutty for sure.  And then oddly addicting. After the first one I wanted another one right away!  I stopped at 4 to leave some for Madison to try.  My guess is that she won't like it...she hates nuts.  But for her it's more the texture than the taste so maybe!