"chestnuts" news and stories

Photo: Barbara L. Hanson, Flickr.

The potential restoration of the American chestnut -- which took a giant stride toward reality with the American Chestnut Foundation's recent announcement that last year's test-planting of hundreds of trees in an undisclosed North Carolina location was successful -- could have exciting implications for the nation's foodies.

Chestnuts were once a mainstay of the Appalachian diet, showing up in stews, sauces and breads. The Cherokee and other native peoples didn't wait until Christmas Day to enjoy their chestnuts roasted: They relied on the nutritious, fat-packed nut to fuel their activities throughout chestnut season. After European settlers shimmied their wagons across the Blue Ridge, they too developed a fondness for chestnuts. Honorary ACF board member and past president Jimmy Carter recalls filling his pockets with chestnuts for snacking.

"People really like them," says foundation spokeswoman Meghan Jordan. Compared to the Chinese and European chestnuts now available, she adds, the American chestnut is "much sweeter and much tastier."

But for the last 50 years, few people have had the chance to test Jordan's contentions. That's because in the early 20th century, blight struck more than 5 billion trees, wiping out a cash crop previously so plentiful that Southerners had little trouble collecting enough nuts to fill northbound railroad cars, destined to sate the cravings of Yuletide-minded city dwellers. "We want to see these trees thriving again," Jordan says.

Guess what? Calories do count. And as more restaurants post nutritional info on menus, more people are counting.

Battery-powered cakes, hot gravy fountains, electrified Twizzlers, pixelated sugar cookies: When lab meets kitchen.

A resurgence of Brooklyn breweries.

The Minimalist does a chestnut shrimp stir-fry.

An easy chicken soup with rice recipe.

Eric Asimov talks cheap reds.

A wine writer stomps her own grapes.

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Chestnuts, their glossy shells a reddish-brown shade that launched a thousand hair dyes, look like the acorn's voluptuous, glammed-up cousin. The starchy nut of the Castanea sativa tree, they're often viewed as a Christmas-only food in America ("chestnuts roasting on an open fire" and all that). But back in the day, chestnuts were so prevalent they were considered a poor man's food, a staple of everyday early American cooking. The nut, which matures in fall, is still used in all kinds of dishes around the world, but has become much rarer and more expensive in America due to a blight that killed off most of the country's chestnut trees in the early 20th century.

In Italy, chestnuts are ground into flour to make breads and cakes, and fermented into beer. In New England., they're sometimes still used in stuffing (check out this recipe for chestnut and mushroom stuffing).
In France, marrons glacés, or candied chestnuts are a popular winter treat, often wrapped up in frilly layers of gold and silver paper to be given as presents. In China, they're eaten roasted and salted as snacks, or used in stir-fries (see The New York Times' The Minimalist's recipe for shrimp and chestnut stir-fry).