Why not cook them in your oven to get that softer meaty texture? I tried some raw myself to see how edible they were last month. They def are edible, slightly sweet vut definately very ‘raw’ tasting.
Score them with an ‘X’ scorer tool (off amazon), soak in water for 1hr, then 400F for 10-15 minutes (you can see the skin where u cut it curling open). I use my Breville oven to do it. Easier to control than on chestnut pan on a fire.
I just cook mine in the microwave. I cut a slit through the pointy end in the nut so moisture can escape while cooking. I don’t soak them or do anything special. I cook on high heat about 15 seconds per nut. 1 minute for 4 nuts. Experiment with cooking time to get the taste and texture you want.
If you are intending to save labor and not use your oven then it’s easy to:
Use a serrated knife to cut a big X across each chestnut (one of the 2 cuts can go most of the way through).
Add some oil to a metal saute pan and saute on low heat for 20 minutes, then test one to see if the nutmeat has started turning yellow yet. If not, saute 4 more minutes and check again until finished. They should fill the room with a cooking nut smell when they are about finished.
After cooling it’s faster to open them and the skin comes right off.
The shells can leave some dark marks on the pan that can be scraped off easily with an abrasive pad.
It’s less time consuming this way. But I started out taking the nutmeat out of each shell, like you, and learned they only took 6 minutes to cook that way. On mine it was harder to separate the bitter skin until they were fully cooked. Once fully cooked the skin lost the bitter flavor and crumbled off.
I ended up boiling some, I have some left to try in the oven.
Some of them easily peeled and had a better flavor and others were harder to peel and had a little funk and it made me wonder if my bag had two different varieties in it.
When cooked, they reminded me of an “almost all the way cooked” bean that had sugar in it. Starchy. I heard the Chinese chestnuts are denser and better and have a flaky texture, so I am hoping that the trees I get give superior nuts compared to the Italian ones.
I prefer to eat my fresh (not canned) chestnuts raw as well. I use a paring knife to remove the dense outer husk as well as a small amount of the pith and then enjoy the rest. What, why are y’all all looking at me weird?
When we moved into our house over 20 years ago there were 2 small Chinese chestnut trees planted in front of the house at the time, though we didn’t know what they were until they started dropping nuts a few years later. Since then we collect baskets of them every Fall and shared with my colleagues at work. Unfortunately, one of the tree broke during a storm a couple of years ago and we had it cut down and now only 1 is left. Some years quite a few of the nuts were full of weevils and inedible. They are awesome fresh out of the oven while still warm and easy to shell.
When fresh out of the oven, they’re very moist, sweet and nutty with a buttery starchy texture. My colleagues are crazy for them and always ask if they’re dropping yet every Fall…LOL. The thin skin beneath the shell is very hard to remove if they’re not cured properly for a week or two to dry out first before roasting. And waited too long, then the weevils eggs hatch and they will chew through the shell and wiggle out all over, though it’s easier to see and throw away the ones with tiny holes in them once they crawl out.
