the song oversold it

The Chief Taster bought a few chestnuts, because she wanted to try roasting them.  She has a brutal addiction to Christmas music, and while I greatly appreciate that she keeps it in check until the day after Thanksgiving, I also blame that addiction for this experiment.  Not that it was a failure, but we were both a little disappointed with them.  What's the big deal?

Fresh chestnuts should bounce like a tennis ball.  I learned this during my research, and enjoyed whipping the chestnuts down at the kitchen counter while she watched, offering no explanation about what I was doing.

Score the flat side of the chestnuts enough to cut through the outer peel.  Then score them again, making an X-shaped cut.

This one isn't cut quite deeply enough, but you get the idea.

While you bounce and score your nuts, preheat the oven to 425F.  When it's ready, roast the chestnuts on a baking sheet or in a shallow dish (I used an 8x8, because we didn't have many nuts, and it allowed me to shake the dish to turn them while baking more easily than I could with a flat baking sheet) for 30-40 minutes, shaking the pan every few minutes to make sure the nuts cook evenly.

When they are done, give them a few minutes to cool, then peel them using fingers or a knife.  We tried sprinkling them with salt, cinnamon, cumin, and curry powder.  Not all together.  Salt was best, but they still just tasted like potato to me.  Later, we found that after roasting, some people like to fry them in butter.  Maybe we'll try that next.