* Chestnuts, unlike most other nuts, are perishable. Over 50% of their weight at harvest is water. It is important to keep them refrigerated until you use them or the nutmeat may become moldy very quickly.
* Because chestnuts have such a high moisture content, the steam caused during cooking can cause the nut to explode unless you cut a slit in the shell. This allows the water vapor to escape without making a mess of your stove or microwave.

Preparing Chestnuts

Chestnuts may be roasted “over an open fire” or by many other means from heating in a skillet on a kitchen stove to a microwave oven. Ten to twenty minutes is typical when roasting with bottom heat, the preferred procedure, and 2 – 4 minutes is adequate with the microware.

The important thing to do when heating chestnuts is to put a cut in the shell to allow the vaporized moisture to escape without exploding the shell. There are a variety of tools and methods to do this, much of it culturally oriented. Personally I prefer a small hooked “chestnut knife”, common in Europe, and a single cut down one side of the nut. Others suggest a cross cut on the nut scare or various other locations and patterns. Try different approaches for yourself to see what works best.