When it smells seductively again at the weekly markets, then it’s the chestnut time! Did you know that you can collect chestnuts, or chestnuts as they are also called, yourself? So that you don’t confuse them with the common horse chestnut, EAT SMARTER has put together the most important information for collectors.

We probably all collected chestnuts as children to build little people with them or simply to enjoy the deep brown, shiny hand flatterers.

Unlike its noble sister, the chestnut, the horse chestnut is not edible. Not only does it taste unpleasantly bitter, it also causes stomach pains.

The chestnut is completely different: it is a delicious and healthy snack in autumn and winter. If you keep your eyes open, with a bit of luck you will find a chestnut tree around the corner and you can collect the prickly delicacies yourself.

Incidentally, sweet chestnut and horse chestnut are only related by name. Biologically, the two belong to different genera.

This is the difference between horse chestnuts and sweet chestnuts

• Leaf shape: Horse chestnuts have finger-shaped, lush green leaves whose stalks can be up to 20 centimeters long. Sweet chestnuts, on the other hand, have single, elliptically shaped leaves with serrated edges.
• Fruit capsules: Horse chestnuts are in light green to brownish shells that have individual spines. If you break it open, there is only a single chestnut in it. It’s different with sweet chestnuts: their shell is densely covered with green spines that later turn light brown. There are several fruits in the bowl.
• Fruits: If you put a horse chestnut and a chestnut next to each other, the difference quickly becomes
• clear: While horse chestnuts are uniformly round or oval, chestnuts have a clearly flattened side and taper to a point.

Where can I find sweet chestnuts?

Happy are those who live in the south of the republic: In Germany, sweet chestnut trees grow most frequently in the Palatinate, on the Nahe, Saar, and Moselle. You can also go on a chestnut collecting tour yourself in the western Black Forest, in the Odenwald, on the lower Main, and in the Taunus.

But with luck, you can also find some chestnut trees in the rest of Germany. The website mundraub.org offers a good overview, where users can enter the location of “abandoned” fruit trees, berry bushes, and even chestnut trees. Exciting: The makers of Mundraub also offer discovery bike tours in the city, on which you can discover fruit to pick yourself in unusual places – for example, chestnut trees not far from Alexanderplatz in Berlin.

Tips for collecting chestnuts

The greenish-brown fruit cups of the chestnuts lie in the foliage like little hedgehogs. And they are just as prickly. It is therefore best not to use your hands to crack the fruit cups. The heel of a stable shoe has proven itself. So you can collect the brown, shiny fruits without pricking yourself.

Chestnuts are ripe when the skin is evenly brown. Wrap fruits that still have white spots in the newspaper for a few days and let them ripen in a warm, dry place.

It is also best to store your collected chestnuts between two layers of newspaper. In a dry place, the fruits will last for several months.

How to prepare chestnuts

In my opinion, the simplest method is still the best for sweet chestnuts: cut the skin at the pointed end of the fruit crosswise (this works well with a serrated knife, for example, a bread knife).

Now place the fruit on a baking tray in an oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes. The chestnuts are done when the shells are lightly browned and the characteristic chestnut scent can be smelled.

Now let the chestnuts cool down a bit and use your fingers to remove the shells and the furry “skin” around the fruit. Serve with some butter and salt if you like.

However, the peeled chestnuts can also serve as the basis for more unusual types of preparation. For example, the French family I stayed with when I was a student liked to cook chestnuts in buttermilk – different, but not bad either. Chestnuts also taste great caramelized.

Interesting not only for people with gluten intolerance: chestnuts can also be used to make flour that gives bread and cakes a slightly nutty taste. Since this flour has no adhesive power of its own, it can only replace part of the flour.

Chestnuts are healthy, regional and delicious. Chestnuts are in season in the autumn months. Here you can find out everything about their nutritional values ​​and ingredients.

Chestnuts: their nutrients

Chestnuts are very healthy because they are full of vitamins, minerals and trace elements. They provide about as much vitamin C as oranges. Chestnuts also contain all the B vitamins and vitamin E. Sweet chestnuts contain the following important ingredients per 100 grams:
Potassium: 707 milligrams
Calcium: 33 milligrams
Phosphorus: 87 milligrams
Magnesium: 45 milligrams
Iron: 1.4 milligrams
Vitamin E: 1.2 milligrams
Vitamin B1: 0.23 milligrams
Vitamin B2: 0.22 milligrams
Vitamin B3: 0.9 milligrams
Vitamin B6: 0.35 milligrams
Vitamin C: 27 milligrams
100 grams of chestnuts contain the following nutritional values:
Calories: 200 calories
Carbohydrates: 41 grams
Fiber: 8 grams
Protein: 2 grams
Fat: 2 grams
Chestnuts are a type of nut, but have significantly fewer calories and fat than other nuts. They contain just as much high-quality protein and are also rich in simple and unsaturated fatty acids

The healthy chestnuts also have many complex carbohydrates and fiber. They ensure that your blood sugar level only rises slowly after eating. If you eat chestnuts, you will be full for a long time afterwards without developing a feeling of fullness. The roughage supports your digestion – chestnuts contribute to a healthy intestinal flora
Chestnuts also contain flavonoids, which are antioxidants in the body

Therefore chestnuts are healthy

Thanks to their many important ingredients, chestnuts have a positive effect on the body. The gesonden chestnuts have the following advantages, among others:

They provide a lot of energy.
They serve as food for good intestinal bacteria.
They hold the connective tissue
They strengthen bones and teeth
They support the immune system
They balance the acid-base balance.

Chestnuts: What you should know

Sweet chestnuts are in season from September to December. During these months you can buy them loose in many supermarkets and health food stores. For the rest of the year you will receive the healthy chestnuts pickled or vacuum-packed. You can also easily freeze cooked and peeled chestnuts.

Good to know: chestnuts are healthy, but not edible raw. You have to roast them either in the pan or in the oven. Then they are easy to digest. You can eat roasted chestnuts pure, but you can also process them into a delicious chestnut cream, puree or soup.

Peeling chestnuts is not always easy. Here we show you a few tricks on how to quickly free the fruit of the sweet chestnut from its hard shell.

The chestnut is a further bred form of the chestnut and a little sweeter than this. Nevertheless, there is no difference in how you peel chestnuts or chestnuts. So you can use these tips for other sweet chestnuts as well.

Tip: Only use fresh chestnuts. You can recognize them by the fact that their shell is shiny and they feel heavy. If they seem hollow to you, they’ve already dried up. If you collect chestnuts, it is best to only use the largest fruits. Make sure they are intact.

Roast the chestnuts in the oven

You can prepare chestnuts in different ways. If you roast them in the oven, the typical chestnut flavor comes out particularly well. In addition, the sweet and nutty fruits are much easier to separate from their skin. How to prepare the chestnuts for peeling:

If you have enough time: Put the chestnuts in water for one to two hours, then the skin will give way more easily.
Score the chestnuts crosswise on one side. This is particularly easy with a serrated knife. Basically, it doesn’t matter which side you cut into. With a cut on the round side, however, you can arrange them better on a tray or grid.
Place an ovenproof bowl of water on the bottom of the oven, this will keep the chestnuts particularly juicy.
You don’t need to preheat the oven. Set it to 200 degrees top/bottom heat or 175 degrees convection and roast the chestnuts in it for about 20 minutes. How long they take depends on the variety and size. When they’ve all risen along the cut side and you can see the yellow flesh, they’re done.
Take the chestnuts out of the oven.
You should now be able to easily remove the fruit from the shell. The hotter they are, the easier it is to peel the chestnuts. In order not to burn yourself, you should still let them cool down briefly.

Tip: If the furry skin of the chestnuts doesn’t come off completely, rub it off with a clean kitchen towel.

Boil chestnuts before peeling

If you only boil chestnuts and don’t roast them, the flesh will remain soft. This makes it easier for you to puree them and, for example, to make homemade chestnut puree or chestnut soup. However, it is then also more difficult to separate the furry skin from the chestnuts.

Prepare the chestnuts as described in steps 1 and 2 above.
Put them in a pot of salted water and bring to the boil.
Boil the chestnuts in the water for 10 minutes, until all of the chestnuts have risen in the scored areas.
Drain them in a colander.
The same applies here: the hotter they are, the easier it is to peel the chestnuts. As you can see, the right tactic depends on how you want to consume or process the chestnuts later.

Also delicious raw

Although raw chestnuts are more difficult to peel than roasted or boiled ones, you can still eat sweet chestnuts raw. Soaking them for a few hours beforehand will help get them out of their shells and skin off.

Chestnuts and chestnuts are rich in protein, valuable vegetable oils and contain vitamins C, E and all B vitamins. They are gluten-free foods and offer a nutrient-dense alternative to grains for people with gluten intolerance.

Cook chestnuts however you like: Roast them in the oven, cook them in a pot or eat them raw. Depending on the method of preparation, you have to prepare the chestnuts differently. We show you how to prepare chestnuts.

Cook chestnuts correctly: Roast them in the oven

Chestnuts from the oven taste particularly delicious. Because here the edible chestnuts keep their typical taste. Roasted chestnuts from the oven are particularly good for snacking. How to prepare chestnuts in the oven:

First cut off the pointed brush of the chestnuts with scissors.
Use a sharp knife to slit a cross into the skin of the chestnuts. This is important so that the chestnuts do not burst open from the heat. Depending on the size of the sweet chestnut, the cross cut should be about one and a half centimeters long.
Now you can put the chestnuts in the oven at 175 degrees and circulating air.
Place a bowl of tap water next to the chestnuts so that the chestnuts don’t dry out while roasting.
Cut the chestnuts correctly: It doesn’t matter whether you make the cross on the flat side or on the lower end. It is only important that the shell is really severed and the cut is big enough. It doesn’t matter at all if you cut the flesh in the process.

Tip: You don’t have to preheat the oven to prepare the chestnuts. After about 20 minutes, check if the chestnuts are ready. You can tell by the fact that the indentations have clearly opened up and the shell is a bit darker (see picture). Then you can take them out of the oven and remove the shells. If your oven only heats up slowly to 175 degrees, the chestnuts can take up to 30 minutes in the oven.

Cook the chestnuts in the pot

You can also prepare chestnuts as a side dish. Because chestnuts contain a lot of starch and thus replace potatoes. The dish is particularly useful if you have your own tree in the garden – because bought chestnuts are quite expensive. How to prepare chestnuts in a pot:

First, slit the chestnuts crosswise. The incision should be about one and a half centimeters long and reach down to the flesh of the fruit.
Then boil the chestnuts in lightly salted water for about 20 minutes.
The chestnuts are done when the skin has split open at the indentations.
Then you can let them cool down a bit and remove the shell.

Alternatively: prepare chestnuts raw or fry them in a pan

You can also eat chestnuts raw. The taste is very reminiscent of walnuts. You have to remove the peel with a sharp knife beforehand, then the light-colored flesh is already in front of you.

Alternatively, you can roast chestnuts in a cast-iron pan with a lid. To do this, you have to slit open the chestnuts, otherwise they will burst. Keep the following in mind when preparing the chestnuts like this:

Don’t use oil, instead put the chestnuts directly into the hot pan.
Roast the chestnuts at low temperature until the shell opens.
To prevent the chestnuts from burning, you should keep tossing them in the pan.

How healthy are chestnuts really?

Chestnuts are available from the end of September/beginning of October. They are a real power food: chestnuts contain a lot of high-quality protein and much less fat than nuts. In addition, they are rich in potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, as well as vitamin E, vitamin C and almost all B vitamins as well as beta carotene.

If you buy chestnuts at the market in autumn or at the Christmas market in winter, they are usually very expensive. But chestnuts also grow in many parks and deciduous forests. Although they are much rarer than the normal chestnuts (which are poisonous, by the way), once you have found a few trees, you can harvest many chestnuts there every year. Because there are up to three chestnuts in each shell. Walking carefully through parks and forests can therefore be worthwhile.