Chestnuts roasting

You got me missing my Grandma's house now. She had this old steel basket-thing for cooking them over a fire. She taught us kids how to roast them. When we'd visit during the holidays she'd have already gone out around the neighborhood and gathered bunches of chestnuts. And me and my brothers would take turns roasting then in the fireplace until they were done. Boy, I remember the smell to this very day.
But all I can turn up in my neighborhood is black walnuts. Nothing to sneeze at, but they're a royal pain to crack open.

My English Grandmother had a steel basket as well with a long handle on it that she use to
let us cook chestnuts over her wood fired cook stove with one of the burner covers removed.
Usually the largest one and when she and my Grandfather moved to live with us it was used over the coals in the fireplace.

Thanks fellas, you awakened yet one more great memory. I think there is a trip to the store to see if there are any available.

Steve.

Allen_Wrench said:

But all I can turn up in my neighborhood is black walnuts. Nothing to sneeze at, but they're a royal pain to crack open.

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I used to use the workshop vice for black walnuts. Back in my smallholder farming days we had a black walnut tree, - there's nothing nicer than fresh black walnuts.

It's been a long time since I've had those.......gramps used fix 'em back in the 60's.

My favorite now is pecan halves drizzled with honey (or agave nectar), brown sugar, and cinnamon --- mighty tasty fresh outa the oven!!

I had to look it up again but the chestnuts with the hard spiky outside shell are poisonous.
They are called horse chestnuts because deer and horses can eat them but people can't. The animals can break down the toxins in the nut.

There are a few stands of American chestnuts left and they have a soft hairy type of spike on them. Many of what we get today are from Chinese chestnut trees that are planted around the world to replace the chestnuts that have died off from a disease that oddly enough was found on the bark of the Chinese chestnut trees that were brought into various countries at the turn of the last century.

Mr. B,
The annual throwing of the chestnuts. A time honored tradition in so many parts of North America. There are few thing as much fun when your young as catching someone on the ear with the perfectly thrown green chestnut husk. Ah, the scream of pain and the absolutely murderous look in their eye as they gathered up as many as they could so that they may pay you back ten fold. Of course the smarter young man made sure that it was necessary for them to catch you first so they could deliver the deadly blow.

Spent a few years as a kid making sure that I had a bag of chestnuts with me at all times as I traveled around town. There was the always dreadful chance that the three or four guys you nailed got together and were waiting for you equally well armed. The nut in a well made sling shot? Very painful.

Steve.

Intrepid Wheelwoman said:

I used to use the workshop vice for black walnuts. Back in my smallholder farming days we had a black walnut tree, - there's nothing nicer than fresh black walnuts.

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Of course! My bench vice! Thank you. I feel silly now.
Nothing else I have would have worked anyway. I even used an old pair of Channel-Lock pliers, and now my thumb muscles hurt. I tried hitting them with a hammer, but they'd shoot across the room. I couldn't see how to use a bolt cutter on them. They just scooted out when I squeezed it shut. I was starting to consider C4 or gelignite. I think the thing that did it was I used a cold chisel and mallet and beat on it for all I was worth. But a bench vice will be less exhausting.

My biggest problem (and I LOVE chestnuts) is the ones at the store aren't very fresh at all. If you get fresh ones, consider yourself blessed.

When I was in Hong Kong there were street vendors right on the sidewalk roasting chestnuts in huge woks. Every once in awhile a nut explodes and flings whitish magma on passing Chinese girls......er people.........