# Why are chestnuts roasted? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 8, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819 "2013-05-08T17:28:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819/41 "2013-05-10T20:33:35Z")
> [@kcor1953](#): > > Where I come from, about half of the people who prepare the meals eat some while, um, preparing them. And where would that be, approximately? > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > This. Part of the cook’s privilege is to eat a slice of raw, salted potato when prepping potatoes. I don’t know that I’d want to eat a whole raw potato, but a raw potato slice is kind of tasty. I cook with potatoes all the time, and I’ve _never_ eaten them raw or seen anyone else do it either. In fact, I was raised with the idea raw potatoes were poisonous (now I know it’s only the green ones). ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819/42 "2013-05-11T01:43:05Z")
The allure of chestnuts, particularly at Christmastime, is a holdover from the days when chestnuts, that is AMERICAN chestnuts, were plentiful, and had just been gathered in Fall. American chestnuts WERE wiped out sad to say, except for some isolated specimens. Which is a shame, since American chestnuts were superior in taste to European and Chinese varieties. Hybridizers and other tree scientists are crossing Chinese chestnuts with American specimens, to breed IN resistance to the blight that killed the American trees. Then they breed OUT as many of the Chinese characteristics as they can, leaving us with, hopefully, almost 100% American trees that can be successfully grown in many areas of the U.S. Some varieties are available already. They wouldn’t be going to all this trouble if they didn’t think it was worth it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819/43 "2013-05-11T02:03:00Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Why do we toast bread? SO it doesn’t stick to out teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819/44 "2013-05-11T04:16:01Z")
> [@quiltguy](#): > > The allure of chestnuts, particularly at Christmastime, is a holdover from the days when chestnuts, that is AMERICAN chestnuts, were plentiful, and had just been gathered in Fall. American chestnuts WERE wiped out sad to say, except for some isolated specimens. Which is a shame, since American chestnuts were superior in taste to European and Chinese varieties. Hybridizers and other tree scientists are crossing Chinese chestnuts with American specimens, to breed IN resistance to the blight that killed the American trees. Then they breed OUT as many of the Chinese characteristics as they can, leaving us with, hopefully, almost 100% American trees that can be successfully grown in many areas of the U.S. Some varieties are available already. They wouldn’t be going to all this trouble if they didn’t think it was worth it. I have never heard that before. I am not sure I believe it because this is the Straight Dope but it is a fact that chestnuts as we know them today are as nasty as a witch’s crotch when even roasted and there had to be a reason why they were romanticized at all in songs or stories. American chestnut trees used to be ubiquitous until they were largely wiped out by Chestnut blight in the last 100 years. I would love to believe the American ones were superior to the others but I am not sue I can believe that without any other facts to support it. Some American Chestnut trees survived however. Please tell me that they are like the versions people imagine. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819/45 "2013-05-11T04:23:28Z")
> [@kcor1953](#): > > Quoting you because you have the best list–all of those are fine raw and some people prefer them raw. Well, maybe not squash. > ! I prefer yellow squash and zucchini raw. I like to cut them up and dip them in ranch dressing. Yummers. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819/46 "2013-05-11T05:22:39Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > And where would that be, approximately? > > I cook with potatoes all the time, and I’ve _never_ eaten them raw or seen anyone else do it either. In fact, I was raised with the idea raw potatoes were poisonous (now I know it’s only the green ones). I live in Texas in the US. We are culturally considered to be southwest US, with some south holdovers. Geographically, we’re quite far south (Mexico is our southern border) and about in the middle of the continental country, on the east-west axis. I picked up the habit from my mother and grandmother, who grew up a couple of states north and one state east of here. This might just be a cultural oddity. My maternal grandfather used to eat boiled potatoes as a snack, but that was during the Great Depression and he was damned grateful to have ANYTHING to eat as a snack. Or at least he claims he was grateful. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819/47 "2013-05-11T05:38:32Z")
My sergeant at Fort Snelling in Minnesota used to eat raw potatoes. I’ve always thought they were revoltingly slimy. There’s so much bad rap above about chestnuts, I’m wondering if people aren’t confusing the good kind with horse chestnuts, which are inedible raw or roasted. I first had roast chestnuts on the streets of Cambridge, England, around Christmastime and loved them; they tasted like particularly flavorful roast potatoes. When I spent a year living in a small town in Czechoslovakia, I was delighted to find the streets littered with chestnuts in October and November. I gathered up a whole bag full and rushed home to put them in the oven. Turned out they were **horrible** , and I ended up chucking them all out. That was my introduction to horse chestnuts. I haven’t had much better luck here in Canada: last winter, I bought five pounds of imported chestnuts at my local supermarket (they were from somewhere south of the Rio Grande), and when I got them home, I found at least three-fourths of them were infested with mold. The only ones I buy now come from Italy in little yellow plastic bags, and they’re already boiled and peeled. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819/48 "2013-05-11T05:55:10Z")
I was living in Spain when I tried the chestnuts…my husband was stationed just outside of Madrid, and since I’d taken a couple of years of Spanish in middle and high school, I frequently bought things in regular Spanish stores, as opposed to buying everything at the base stores. Some things were cheaper, and some were better, at the Spanish stores, and I was at least able to ask simple questions. I enjoyed trying new foods. So I guess that I ate European chestnuts. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819/49 "2013-05-11T13:08:39Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > I prefer yellow squash and zucchini raw. I like to cut them up and dip them in ranch dressing. Yummers. I like raw vegetables dipped in sour cream with curry powder. I know at least one Mother besides mine who would give their kids a raw potato slice with salt to keep us from continually asking when dinner would be ready. I often eat one when slicing potatoes. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819/50 "2013-05-11T13:32:35Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > That is, are they no good raw, or what? > > (I live in Florida, BTW, I’ve never eaten a chestnut in my life; but for some reason they have this cultural presence around Christmastime.) They’re no good roasted either, IMO. Starchy, mealy, and generally unpleasant, like others have said. I had mine in Europe- Prague, between Xmas and NYE about 5 years ago. They had stands everywhere, and my wife and I thought “Roasted chestnuts- like in the songs! We should give them a try.” And we were promptly disappointed and frantically searched for a beer stand to get that awful taste out of our mouths. I think no small part is that when we heard “chestNUT” I think we were thinking they’d taste like a hot toasted hazelnut, pecan, walnut, almond or at least similar to other tree nuts that we are familiar with. Instead, the texture and taste were very far off, and it turned us off. Had they called them something not involving the word “nut”, we’d probably have tried them, and proclaimed them not our thing, and gone on, without the revulsion and disgust. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-chestnuts-roasted/657819.md?page=2)