Sweet Chestnut Jam recipe. Storing sweet chestnuts
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Jam Jelly and Preserves | 35 comments
I always associate sweet chestnuts with late autumn. And darkness. As a child, there were men on street corners selling chestnuts from glowing braziers, piling them into tiny paper bags. I always wanted my mother to buy them for us. And when she did, I didn’t like them. I’d peel one as we walked along, hoping that I’d suddenly find them delicious. But I never did. The floury texture put me off. I think I probably forced one down as it was the ritual that I liked. Watching the man rake the nuts across the grid, the warmth of the brazier and most of all being out after dark.
Being out after dark seemed so grown up. When my sister and I were thrown out of the Brownies, for disagreeing with Brown Owl, we found ourselves in the centre of Cambridge surrounded by street lights and illuminated shop windows. I can still remember the heady sense of freedom, heightened by the fact that we were out at night alone.
Finally, in my twenties, I nibbled a marron glacé one Christmas and fell helplessly in love. Sugar and chestnuts are a winning combination for me. A glimpse of beautifully packaged marrons still tempts me to do terrible things. I have eaten an entire box, without sharing. Or even feeling guilty.
When we saw men roasting chestnuts in Como last weekend, I decided to search for sweetened chestnut recipes on my return to England. I found five recipes for Chestnut Jam. Three Italian, two French. I couldn’t understand why there weren’t any more until we started to peel them. Only attempt this recipe if you are not rushing to put on the Sunday roast. Danny lost most of his nails and lasted 20 minutes of the 120 minute shelling session.
We studied the five recipes, and extracted the ingredients and method that we though would work best. I’m tired, it’s two in the morning and the Chestnut Jam is sublime. Having thought “never again” during the peeling stage, I’m now planning another batch.
It is a jam in that it’s spreadable. It is more of a delicious purée. It is probably just too special to spread on toast. Although I know that a spoonful of this would salve that 4 pm yearning for something sweet. This would be good in tiny pastry cases under a thinly sliced apple topping, or folded through whipped cream for an chic dessert.
If you have a glut of sweet chestnuts and want to store some, they can be frozen, complete or unshelled. Just put them in a freezer bag. Remove as much air as possible and freeze.
Sweet Chestnut Jam recipe
Ingredients:
- 1.5 kilos of fresh chestnuts (buy and prepare at least 1850 gms to allow for bad ones)
- The zest of a large lemon
- 800 gms white granulated sugar
- I vanilla pod
- 200 ml water
- 100-200 ml rum (depending on taste. We used 200 ml)
Method:
- Shell the chestnuts carefully to avoid breaking the inner skin (see Tricks and tips below).
- Put them in a saucepan with the lemon zest. Cover with waterBring to the boil and simmer for an hour until soft.
- Remove chestnuts in small batches from the hot water, with a slotted spoon, and peel the inner skin. The nuts need to be warm to be peeled easily. Discard any hard of bad ones (these are much harder and dark inside).
- Press the soft husks through a sieve and set aside.
- In a clean saucepan slowly dissolve the sugar and water over a low heat. Stirring constantly.
- Add the vanilla pod and the sieved chestnuts. Bring to simmering point and simmer for twenty minutes. Stirring every now and then to stop the mixture burning on the base of the pan.
- After twenty minutes add the rum and simmer for a further ten minutes, string constantly.
- Remove the vanilla pod.
- Ladle into warm sterilised jars. Label when cold and store in a cool dry place.
Tips and tricks:
- Buy more chestnuts than you need. We had to discard 250 gms out of the 1500 grms that we had bought at the first peeling stage.
- We found that the best way to peel them was to insert a small knife carefully under the skin at the top of the nut and work down towards the base. If you can then remove the base the peeling process is much easier.
- When the chestnuts have softened it’s easy to remove the skins if you snap the nuts in half, the skin should easily peel away. We found that the nuts that were still hard were the bad ones. Discard these as they would taint the good nuts.
- Don’t try and skip the sieving. Bunging the chestnuts in the blender takes out the air and you need a light pile of sieved chestnuts to add to the syrup.
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This recipe should come with a more forceful warning!! Must’ve sped-read it and missed the 120min shelling session part!
It’s a hell of an effort and not sure I’d do it again. The queen should issue some sort of medal or certificate for anyone who has actually made sweet chesnut jam to recognise the accomplishment!
Thanks for the recipe though 🙂
We roasted some chestnuts in our woodburner the other day. No chestnut pan (or at least I couldn’t find it), so we just slit the skins, double-wrapped them in foil to make a package, put the package in the embers, and turned it frequently to prevent them burning. They turned out well, though it was a bit difficult to tell when they were done as we couldn’t see them! A few were burnt, the rest were fine and peeled easily.
Hello Marybeth
That sounds delicious. Thank you.
Hi Lindylou
There’s a video an the AGA site of how to roast chestnuts in the oven
http://www.agalinks.com/food/video_clips/1176_roastedchestnutsontheaga.htm
I don’t have an AGA, sob, so can’t advise.
Sounds silly I know…but I’m trying to find out how to roast chestnuts. I know about slitting the skin but I’m not sure how long to roast them for. I’ve an Aga and I’ve tried putting them straight on the hotplate but they just burned. Can I try them in the oven and if so for how long.
If all else fails I think I’ll try your jam, it sounds great!
Thanks for answering, re.nesselrode pie. I always thought it was ‘English’ in origin. It is a very unique flavor, a cream pie with rum soaked fuits in it, and when (maybe not too soon) I discover the ‘best’ recipe (as my memory remembers) I will share it with you!! I really enjoy your site!!!
Hello WG
What a lovely thought – a sweet chestnut avenue.
Hi Marybeth
I’m sorry but I don’t know what nesselrode pie is?
Hi Syl
I agree they are worth all the palaver!
Hi Liz
Yes you can freeze whole unshelled chestnuts. I reckon that it would be best to unfreeze them before roasting.
Hello, I wonder if you could clarify something for me please – when you say that you can freeze whole unshelled chestnuts, would you be able to roast them after that? If so, would you need to deforst them first? Have just picked way more than we needed, but they all looked so lovely it seemed a shame to leave them, and it would be wonderful to have them roasting on the fire at Xmas. Thank you.
Having pickled and preserved virtually everything around – I set my eyes upon a local sweet chestnut tree ignored by everone except the street cleaners. What a waste. As most were too small for marrons grace I decided to try your recipe. Worth all the bother and by far (excepting my fresh raspberry!)one of the most delicious ‘jams’ I have ever tasted. I’m not worried about shelf life as I don’t expect it will be around for very long. Next year I’ll be waiting under the tree. Thanks! PS a friend suggested filling merangues with the jam and fresh cream, we’re trying tomorrow and that will finish off my last jar.
Your marron glace recipe is perfect, and now, if possible – another request . . . do you possibly have a good (delicious) recipe for nesselrode pie?
I would be forever grateful, and my memory of it
as a child has yet to be duplicated from the
recipes I have tried. Perhaps you have a more
authentic one??? Thanks so much – and I will
definately be trying your chestnut jam!!!
spent this afternoon at Bisley (N.R.A.) collecting a three gallon bucket of ‘castanea sativa’; will probably attempt the above recipes, but was really there to collect nuts to propagate new trees to form my own Sweet Chesnut avenue.