The grandkids love boiled chestnuts, so I boil them for about 45 minutes, but for the life of me, I can't "easily" get that darn peel & underlying skin off.
Is there a better trick than what I'm doing now, which is to use a utility knife to scratch an X on the flat underside of the hard peel, and then attempt to peel the shell (and underlying skin) off while it's still soft after boiling?
That X process seems to leave too much of that skin still on the nut?
You are cooking way too long. Only a few minutes needed. X top before cooking and peel while hot and skin easily comes off. I do mine in the microwave for a few minutes and only a dozen at a time because skin sticks after getting cold. I'll freeze shelled nuts which will keep for maybe a year. Great in stuffing for turkey. I also make chestnut soup.
Also fun to roast in fireplace for slight smokiness and important to slit first particularly with fireplace and microwave as steam can explode nut.
I wonder if that's why the skin is so tough to remove?
Just to confirm which is the "top", I consider the flat heart-shaped part the "bottom", so the top would be the dome. Is that what you X? The dome?
My microwave has been broken for so many years, I forgot to mention that it doesn't exist. It's a built-in black 1350Watt Jenn-Air M170B, which seems to have strange dimensions of 21-3/4 by 13 by 16 inches.
Hmmmmm... Freeze? It works? You don't lose the taste? That's nice to know, considering they are seasonal, like huckleberries are.
The wonderful Christmas song always comes to mind! :)
Thanks for the laugh Danny-I didn't mean it to be at your expense-a Klystron is a radio transmitting tube while a magnetron is what you were referring to.
Ah. I stand corrected. And embarrassed! It's all good though, as you can *always* correct me because I (sometimes) learn that way.
Meanwhile, I'm dealing (like everyone else) with mudslides closing *every* road in the area, flipping cars, tumbling houses, ... it's all good! :)
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It's the fourth time this year that they closed the entire highway, the last few due to mudslides, bank robbers, PG&E power lines down, etc.
The power went off for 4 days, 2 days, 1 day, etc. (the power out here is like we're in a third-world country). Luckily we all have large (1,000 gallon) propane tanks, where even a 20KW generator (which is average, although mine is less than half that size and it still works just fine) drinks up the propane at a couple gallons an hour.
It's all good this pineapple express "river of rain".
What I can't stand are those idiotically sophomoric Caltrans highway signs constantly telling us to conserve water!
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