Preserved Chestnuts

Ingredients

• some Chestnuts
• some very weak syrup

Method

1. 1

   Peel the brown skins off Chestnuts, immerse in boiling water to remove the light skins.

2. 2

   Put in weak syrup, simmer for several hours, adding more syrup occasionally.

3. 3

   Heat the Chestnuts for two days in this manner, then take them out and drain.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The encyclopædia of practical cookery (1890) by Theodore Francis Garrett, page 311. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

some Chestnuts as if to send to table. Peel and remove the inner skin, then put them into a saucepan with jib. of sugar and 1 gill of water ; let them simmer in this for fifteen minutes, then squeeze in a little lemon-juice, and serve with powdered white sugar strewed over them. Compote of Chestnut-paste. — Boast fifty Chestnuts, peel the skins off, and rub them through a coarse wire sieve. Boil 12oz. of sugar to the ball degree, add the Chestnuts, and work all well together in the sugar-boiler with a spatula ; when thoroughly mixed, take it off and put it by until wanted. Shape the paste in the form of Chestnuts, put them on a baking-sheet, and set them in the screen ; roll them in apricot jam, and then dust some caster sugar over them ; put them again in the screen on a wire drainer, and when dry, dip them in some sugar boiled to the crack. Arrange them on a dish, and pour some syrup flavoured with cnraijoa round them. Compote of Vermicellied Chestnuts. — (1) Slit the skins of fifty Chestnuts, and roast them ; when they are done, rub them through a coarse wire sieve on to a dish. Boil 12oz. of sugar to the ball degree, put the Chestnuts into it, and work all together with a wooden spoon while still on the fire. Flavour this paste with vanilla sugar, and rub it through a coarse wire sieve into the compote-dish in a raised pyramidal form ; set it in the screen to dry crisp, and with a teaspoon place small heaps of whipped cream round the base. (2) Peel the outer skin off some large Chestnuts, and immerse them in boiling water for a few minutes until the second skin can be easily removed ; then lay them flat at the bottom of a large copper sugar-boiler, cover them with syrup at 16deg. Fahr., and let them simmer gently for twenty minutes. When done, strain the syrup off through a conical strainer, reduce it to 30deg. Fahr., put the Chestnuts back in it, and press them through a hair sieve into a compote- dish. The Chestnuts will fall like vermicelli. Croquenbouche of Chestnuts. — Coat about sixty peeled Chestnuts with caramel sugar, and stick them on the outside of a mould, using sugar boiled to the crack to stick them together. Ornament the Croquenbouche when lifted off its mould and placed on the dish with caramel fruit-paste rings and green angelica, or with different sorts of liqueur bonbons. Croquettes of Chestnuts. — There ai-e several modes of pre- paring these little delicacies, but none have been found to supersede the receipt given by Ude. Take fifty good Chestnuts and put them in a hot oven, having scored each of them with the point of a knife, to save them the trouble of bursting. When well roasted, clean them, and put half (taking care to choose those that have most colour) into the mortar, with 3oz. of butter and 1 table-spoonful of cream, and well pound them ; rub this paste through a hair sieve, then mix with it the same quantity of butter as before, a pinch of salt, 3oz. of sugar, and £ pint of cream, and put the whole over the fire in a stewpan to dry. When it has acquired a little con- sistence, add to it six yolks of eggs and any flavour desired, whether lemon, vanilla, citron, or coffee. Let this paste go to the fire again after the yolks of the eggs are added, and stir it well with a wooden spoon till it is rather firm. Butter a dish, and spread the paste over equally with a knife ; cover 2 K uces, &c., referred to, see under their special heads. 370 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL COOKERY. Chestnuts — continued. it with a sheet of buttered paper, and let it cool. When cold, cut it with a knife. Take half of a Chestnut, and make the paste into the shape of a big Chestnut ; put some crumbs of bread over the croquettes, • then dip them into the yolks and whites of three eggs beaten up with a little salt, and into the breadcrumbs again. Give them a good shape, fry them of a nice colour, and serve them as a sweet dish. If dipped into eggs only, without crumbs, they are more delicate. Dust fine sugar over them after they are fried. Devilled Chestnuts. — Put lib. or so of large Chestnuts into a saucepan of salted water, and parboil them ; then plunge them into cold water, and with a sharp knife scrape off the skins, after removing the outer shells. Dry them, put them into a frying-pan with butter, and fry, tossing and shaking them about in the pan over the fire until they become of a golden colour, and sprinkling with salt mixed with double its quantity of cayenne. Take them out when done, and serve hot or cold, as desired. Forcemeat of Chestnuts. — Take some sound ripe Chestnuts, cut off the outer hard skin, and put them into boiling- water for a few minutes to remove the thin skin ; take them out, and throw them into cold water, so as to preserve their colour, then drain and weigh them. Put 6oz. into a stewpan, and cook them for twenty minutes with a little veal stock or gravy. Let them g-et cold, then pound them in a mortar with an equal bulk of butter or 3oz. of fat bacon, add a little grated nutmeg, lemon-peel, 2oz. of breadcrumbs, and salt, with the yolks of two eggs to make the mixture bind well. Form the forcemeat into balls or cakes, dip into flour, and boil in some good stock or water for a-quarter-of-an-hour, when they are ready for use. Glazed Chestnuts. — Peel off the brown skin of some Chestnuts, and immerse them in- boiling- water until the under-skin can be easily removed ; then put them in a saute-pan, with butter spread over the bottom ; cover them with a veal broth and consomme, and simmer gently, but so that the Chestnuts will not break. When they are done, glaze them with a meat glaze, and serve. Preserved Chestnuts. — Peel the brown skins off some Chest- nuts, and immerse them in boiling water until the lig-ht skins can be easily removed. Have some very weak syrup

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.