Chestnuts, raw (marrons, marroni)

Chestnuts ( raw) are known as Marroni in Switzerland or Maroni in Austria. Gluten-free chestnuts are often equated with sweet chestnuts, but there are small differences between the starchy nuts, both of which grow on sweet chestnuts ( Castanea sativa).

Use in the kitchen:

The use of chestnuts as food and cooking ingredients is just as varied as that of the closely related sweet chestnuts. Raw chestnuts are easier to peel than chestnuts and are larger. In addition, the intensity of the taste of chestnuts is impressive.

In the past, sweet chestnuts and chestnuts were considered the main food in the growing areas. Cooked chestnuts are ideal as a side dish due to their high starch content. Making puree from chestnuts is just as easy as making it from potatoes. Cooked chestnuts are also suitable as the main ingredient in a creamy soup, in stews or as a spread on bread. You can even buy "milk" or drinks made from chestnuts.

Can you eat chestnuts raw? You can eat peeled chestnuts raw. You can also eat sweet chestnuts raw. It is best to store freshly harvested chestnuts for a few days so that the tannins they contain are reduced. Then soak the raw chestnuts in water for about 2 hours. Use a knife to score the chestnut shell and then remove the brown seed skin. If you eat chestnuts raw, they taste sweet and a little nuttier than cooked. It is also important to chew well, as raw chestnuts are a little harder to digest.

One way to process raw chestnuts is to make flour. To do this, the peeled, dried, raw chestnuts are ground several times to make very fine flour. This flour can be used for gnocchi or pasta. For bread or pastries, the flour is mixed with other flours, as chestnut flour does not contain gluten. Polenta is made from coarsely ground chestnuts. Chestnut flakes taste great in breakfast muesli.

Chestnuts can be roasted with the shell on. The roasting process gives them a special flavour: roasted, peeled and still warm, they taste great as a snack or go well in a salad, for example.

There are also a variety of desserts made from chestnuts: ice cream, marrons glacés, mousse, soufflé, cream or vermicelles (Swiss dessert made from chestnut puree). Traditionally there is chestnut bread, chestnut cake (castagnaccio) or chestnut fritters (castagnacci), pancakes (necci), pudding or ballotte (chestnuts boiled in water and flavoured with fennel seeds and bay leaves).

In Italy and France, a creamy liqueur is made from the fruit of the sweet chestnut, and in Corsica and Switzerland, a special chestnut beer is known. ¹

Recipes with chestnuts:

Try these vegan chestnut recipes: Autumnal chestnut and carrot bisque with garam masala from the book "Vegans go Nuts" by Celine Steen or Brussels sprouts with chestnuts and fennel seeds from the book "Regional winter cuisine - soy and wheat free, vegan" by Miriam Emme.

Making your own roasted chestnuts:

Soak raw chestnuts in cold water for about 1 hour. Then cut each chestnut crosswise on the bulbous side with a sharp knife. Preheat the oven to about 250 °C. Place the chestnuts on a tray with a heat-resistant cup of water so that the nuts don't dry out too much. Place the tray on the middle shelf in the oven. After 30 minutes in the hot oven, the chestnuts are ready to eat. Let them cool a little and then enjoy a starchy snack. Another tip is to put a wet tea towel over the chestnuts after 20 minutes and then leave them in the hot oven for another 10-15 minutes. But you have to make sure that the towel doesn't start to burn. ² Roasted chestnuts are easier to peel than roasted sweet chestnuts.

Shopping - where to buy?

In autumn and winter (season) you can find chestnuts raw at some weekly markets and in every supermarket. Not only large retailers such as Coop, Migros, Volg (CH), Edeka, Rewe (D), Spar, Hofer and Billa (AT) stock the sweet chestnuts, but also discounters such as Aldi and Lidl offer various (packaged and loose) chestnuts. The term chestnut is not always correct. It is only correct if the fruit is large and round. In delicatessen or organic shops you will definitely find real, raw chestnuts, including organic ones. Pre-cooked chestnuts are often vacuum-packed and placed in jars or tins. These can then be easily reused, but are not suitable for roasting in the oven. In addition, ready-made or semi-finished products often contain additives such as thickeners (guar gum, xanthan), which is why you should avoid these.

Dried chestnuts are peeled, air-dried chestnuts that are ideal for storing. Before eating, you soak them in water overnight and then cook them for an hour the next day. They can then be used in many dishes.

Found in the wild - Season:

Wherever sweet chestnuts are cultivated, they also grow wild. Mainly found in the Mediterranean region, they also grow wild in southwestern Germany. These wild forms bear significantly smaller fruits than chestnuts.

In principle, collecting chestnuts is permitted. The law can limit the amount that can be collected or impose a temporary ban on collecting. The canton of Ticino, for example, has a ban on collecting in certain well-maintained selves (fruit groves) until November 11th. The owner of a managed forest can also prohibit collecting, provided that he clearly indicates this with a ban. On chestnut paths promoted by tourists, it is usually permitted to collect chestnuts to the left and right of the path. Please wait until the nuts have fallen from the tree: before then they are not ripe enough and hitting them off with sticks or shaking them down is not permitted. The collecting season is around the end of September to the end of October.

Storage:

The high sugar and water content of fresh chestnuts makes them easily perishable. The risk of mold is very high, so they should be consumed or preserved as quickly as possible. In general, chestnuts last about 1 week at room temperature, and up to 4 weeks in the refrigerator. To do this, put them in a perforated plastic bag so that they do not dry out too quickly. Peeled and blanched chestnuts can be frozen; they will then last for about 12 months.

There are many different ways of preserving chestnuts. The traditional method is the "Ricciaia" method, which is now only used in Turkey. The fruits are piled up with the shell and fermented, which means they can be kept for several months. Today, hydrotherapy is more commonly used for preservation: the chestnuts are placed in cold water for a few days, the beginning of lactic acid fermentation preserves the chestnuts and then they are dried. The shelf life can be extended by storing them in a cool place, drying them, fumigating them with methyl bromide, storing them in a carbon dioxide atmosphere or smoking them. ¹

Ingredients - nutritional value - calories:

How many calories do raw chestnuts have? The ingredients of raw chestnuts are very similar to those of sweet chestnuts. Due to the high degree of relatedness to the sweet chestnut, which results from further breeding of the sweet chestnut, we have adopted the ingredients. The energy content is around 210 kcal/100g. Although chestnuts are nuts, their fat content is particularly low at around 2%. The carbohydrate content, on the other hand, is very high at around 46%. After cooking or roasting, some of the starch is converted into sugar, giving them a sweet taste. The proteins they contain (around 2.4%) are free of prolamine and glutenin, i.e. gluten-free.

European chestnuts also provide vitamin C, folic acid, pyridoxine (vitamin B₆), thiamine (vitamin B₁) and riboflavin (vitamin B₂). They also contain nutrients such as potassium, phosphorus, manganese and copper. ³

Health aspects - effects:

Chestnuts are an excellent source of energy, whether raw, cooked or roasted. The complex carbohydrates fill you up quickly and blood sugar only rises very slowly after eating, especially slowly when raw. The potassium they contain helps to strengthen the nerves and thus avoid stress. Potassium is also good for neutralizing excess sodium and counteracts cardiovascular diseases or cardiac arrhythmias. ^4.5

The fruits of the sweet chestnut are gluten-free. Therefore, their flour is very popular with people with gluten intolerance (celiac disease). However, due to the lack of gluten, it is not good for baking on its own and must be mixed with another flour.

Occurrence - Origin:

The origin of the sweet chestnut is probably in Asia Minor or the Caucasus. Since ancient times, the sweet chestnut has been cultivated throughout the Mediterranean region ⁶ and in the northern neighboring areas, so that its distribution area can no longer be determined. The altitude limit is around 1000 m in the Alps, 1500 m in Sardinia and Sicily and 1800 m in the Caucasus. The sweet chestnut can also be found occasionally in southern Scandinavia. In East Asia and Portugal, the Chinese chestnut (or soft chestnut, Castanea mollissima) and the Japanese chestnut ( Castanea crenata) are grown. In Europe, hybrids of the European and Japanese chestnut are increasingly found, as they are more resistant to chestnut cancer. This tree cancer has been massively weakening the stocks since the beginning of the 20th century. ¹

Cultivation - Harvest:

Sweet chestnuts are deciduous trees that very rarely grow into shrubs. On average they reach a height of 20-25 m in high forests, the average trunk circumference is 2 m (sometimes even 4-6 m).

There are different ways of growing sweet chestnuts: The most extensive way is in high forests. Here the trees grow from seeds. In a high-stem plantation (selve), the trees are grafted onto a suitable rootstock. The chestnut trees then have a shorter trunk and a large crown. Around 80-100 trees are planted per hectare. If the trees are a little taller (such as in Ticino or Corsica), cattle can graze underneath them. Chestnuts are also grown in low forests, where the trees produce a yield for between 15 and 40 years. In the past, this method was associated with viticulture, as the chestnut wood was used for wine barrels. ⁸

Danger of confusion:

Horse chestnuts ( Aesculus hippocastanum) can easily be confused with sweet chestnuts ( Castanea sativa), but they are not related. Horse chestnuts have fingered, compound leaves and the rounded chestnut fruits are in a green, prickly capsule with thick thorns. In contrast, the fruits of the sweet chestnut are flatter and have a slightly hairy tip. The thorns are finer and the trees have simple leaves.

Horse chestnuts are inedible and slightly poisonous. The saponins and glucoside aesculin they contain can cause digestive problems. ^14,15 If you eat more than one horse chestnut, you should consult a doctor.

Sweet chestnuts and marrons are often confused, and these names are often used synonymously. Marrons are a special breed of sweet chestnuts.

However, the use of the terms is not clearly defined. In France, the term "marron" defines those nuts in which no seed coat has grown in. However, less than 12% of the nuts are split, i.e. the seed coat encloses both cotyledons individually. In Italy, the term "marroni" is used when the varieties are particularly large, of the best quality, have a slightly elongated shape and a reddish, shiny shell with dense stripes, and only have a small scar. The taste is sweet, they are not split and are easy to peel. Chestnuts usually contain only one, maximum two fruits per fruit cup, which is why they are rounder. ⁷

General information:

Sweet chestnuts and marrons grow on sweet chestnuts ( Castanea sativa). This tree is the only European representative of the chestnut genus ( Castanea). In terms of their appearance and taste, marrons are more cultivated than sweet chestnuts. European sweet chestnuts usually reach an age of around 200 years, but there are trees in Western Europe that are over 1000 years old. ⁸

In addition to the nuts, the flowers are also used to make chestnut honey, which is amber in color or sometimes even darker and has a very aromatic taste. The leaves of the sweet chestnut are sometimes used for aftershave lotions or to dye fabrics. ⁷

Leaf extracts from European sweet chestnuts are said to be effective against MRSA bacteria. MRSA bacteria are multi-resistant bacteria against which conventional antibiotics (e.g. penicillin) are no longer effective. ^9,10

Chestnuts are a special feed for pigs, especially in Spain, southern Italy and Corsica. This is said to give the meat produced a special taste. ⁷

The leaves were used as bedding in the stables or as fertilizer. In folk medicine, the leaves were used to treat coughs, wounds or diarrhea. ⁸

The wood of sweet chestnuts is generally very popular. The warm, golden-brown tone is reminiscent of oak, although the grain is not as strong and it is very easy to work with. ¹¹ High forest wood is used for furniture, window and door frames. Due to its weather resistance, it is also suitable for telegraph poles and similar. Low-growing trees are processed into garden fences, pasture posts, wine and liquor barrels. Chestnut wood was previously used for making charcoal or as firewood. ¹² It can also be used for railway sleepers, ceiling and roof beams, for slope and avalanche structures and in shipbuilding. ¹³

Alternative names:

Alternative names for sweet chestnuts (nuts) and chestnuts (trees) are: Ketschen, Keschde (Palatinate), Keschtn (South Tyrol), Chataignes, Castane, Castanen, Castanien, Chestbom, Chestinna, Kesten, Kestenbaum, Kestenenbaum, Kestenenboum, Kestenne, Kestenzbom, Kesteza, Kestina, Kestinneboum, Kestnitz, Kiestebum, Köstenbaum, Marren, Marronen, Maronen, Maroni (Austria), Marroni (Switzerland), Macronen, Questenboum. ¹

Literature - Sources: