Chestnut Foods

Chestnuts have been used as a food source for many hundreds of years. The word "food" has two meanings when we talk about chestnuts. The traditional meaning is something like "things humans eat for dietary substance". The second meaning is "an area of knowledge or studies specific to food". For most of us all we care about is the first meaning while asking the question, "Can I eat it?". There are many people who feel the answer to this question is just the start of a quest for a better life. For these people they want to know:

Are chestnuts nutritious?
How are chestnuts prepared?
How are chestnuts stored?
What foods go well with chestnuts?
How can chestnuts be preserved to be used later?
Can chestnuts be used as a substitute for other foods?

Since nutrition is one of the most important parts of deciding what to eat, aside from tasting good, we will examine nutrition first. One of the most important components of foods is the fat content. If the fat content is to high the excess fat might be bad for you. If the fat content is to low nobody will like the taste of the food. As compared with almonds, chestnuts have only a very small amount of fat and less than half the calories. When compared with potatoes, chestnuts have almost no sodium.

Nutrition: Chestnuts compared to other foods

Component	Chestnuts	Baked Potato	Whole Wheat Flour	Almonds Dry Roasted
Protien (grams)	3.17	2.43	13.7	22.09
Fat (grams)	2.2	2.2	1.87	52.83
Carbs (grams)	52.96	20.5	13.7	19.29
Fiber (grams)	5.1	2.1	12.2	11.9
Vitamin C (mg)	26	9.3	0	0
Calories	245	109	339	597
Cholesterol (mg)	0	0	0	0
Sodium (mg)	2	235	5	1
Potassium (mg)	592	519	405	746

Now that we know chestnuts are nutritous, lets turn our attention to how to get the chestnuts to the table using fine culinary arts and good food handling procedures. One of the most important things to know about chestnuts as a food is chestnuts are parishable. Just like fruits and vegitables. This means chestnuts must be handled properly to keep them in prime condition for eating. Make sure you store your chestnuts in the refridgerator in a sealed plastic bag. If storing chestnuts for longer than 2 weeks then you must dry the chestnuts right after you purchase them and store them in a sealed container until they are neaded. A good resource of information is available from the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry Technology Transfer Unit at http://www.centerforagroforestry.org.

Make sure you cut open the outer shell of the chestnuts before you cook them or the chestnuts will explode!

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