Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...
This song always brings back memories of Alvin and the other Chipmunks. Yes, cherished childhood moments. My mother actually tried to sell off the Chipmunks Christmas Album at her garage sale this summer, but my brother nipped that idea in the bud!
I was trying to locate some chestnuts suitable for roasting for a client who needed them for an upcoming event. I found them available at one of our Italian wholesaler, but the sales-desk lady lead me astray. She told me that the price of the nuts( $7.99/kg) is higher than usual from now until after Remembrance day due to an Italian celebration. Italians observe Remembrance day with roasted chestnuts? I tried to investigate, and got no where. Then I started thinking (really!), and realized that Italians don=t even observe our Remembrance Day. But they do celebrate at this same time of year the arrival of their vin novello... or what the French would call Beaujolais Nouveau... or what I would call expensive grape juice.
Chestnuts play an important role in the economy and diet of Southern Italy. They are nutritious , low in fat, and are used boiled, baked or roasted; in soups and stews; or ground into flour to make bread and pastry. Chestnuts were also once an important part of the American economy. They were a source of food, an important source of wood, and a cash-crop. The nuts were also used to feed livestock. In the early 1900s, a fungus was brought into the US on imported Asian Chestnut trees and by 1940, the American chestnut forests were depleted. This affected both man and the wild animals that depended on the nuts as a main food source. Attempts continue to produce a hybrid tree that can withstand the blight, but so far there has been little success.
Now, I know that there are many of you thinking that you have seen plenty of chestnut trees. I thought the same, but the Horse Chestnut is not even from the same family as the true Chestnut. And don’t try to roast and eat these nuts; you will have a very upset tummy. There is some medicinal value in the bark and fruit of these trees, but generally they are just considered an ornamental plant.
The true Chestnut is from the same family as the beech and oak. There are two varieties of the nuts available commercially for eating: the castagne, which is smaller and more suitable for grinding into flour, and the marroni, which is larger, a beautiful shiny brown, and the sweeter of the two. The best way to eat these nuts is roasted. They don’t need to be cooked over an open fire, although this does sound more romantic. They can be baked in an oven quite easily. Whether roasting or baking, it is important to cut into the skin to prevent them from exploding. A popcorn basket, lined with foil and with holes punched through it will work well in the fireplace. The nuts need to be shaken often while roasting to prevent burning. When I was young, I used to see chestnut vendors in Toronto, selling bags of roasted nuts from carts. I wonder if they still do that?
As to the association of Remembrance Day and chestnuts, it would appear that this was just a red herring. The new wine of Italy arrives on November 4th (this is dictated by law), and for the next week, the Italians celebrate the arrival of fall, the harvest of the chestnuts, and their new wine by roasting and peeling the chestnuts and dropping them into a glass of the novello. As the wine is sipped, the flavours of the roasted chestnut mingle with the fruitiness of the new wine. Of course, all of this roasting and sipping is accompanied by a lot of other partying and festivities. Sounds like a good excuse for a celebration to me!
