Sweet chestnut

The sweet chestnut is the edible Fruit Châtaignier. One calls maroon S certain sweet chestnuts produced by varieties of chestnuts with not partitioned fruits, selected for the size of the fruits and their savor. Today rather forsaken, the sweet chestnut was a long time the base of the human consumption in whole areas. One called, moreover, the chestnut “the breadfruit tree” but also “the tree with sausages” because the sweet chestnuts were also used for the food of the pigs.

Before becoming the phonetic translation of the data-processing cockroach, the Bogue is the roughcast envelope of prickles which protects the fruits. The various words indicating sweet chestnut in Europe derive all from Latin Castanea .

regional Names: hedgehog or hérissonne, pelou (Of Bordeaux), caloche (Charente), pualado (the Limousin), erissou (the Pyrenees), rusko (Tarn), ecursa (Valley of the Rhone). But also castan, castogné ‚marounié, ramonié, péloussié, moussar, châtonié, fatégnier.

Food value

The sweet chestnut, which is a Akène, is made of a wrapped farinaceous mass of a smooth bark of reddish color brown.

The fresh almond contains 25% of Glucide S, but is low in protids and lipids. The sweet chestnut flour contains more than glucid 75% what in fact an energy food.

It contains vitamins, in particular of the Vitamine C and biogenic salts, in particular of the Potassium.

Varieties

Many varieties are cultivated to meet the needs for the confectionery or preserve.

Modes of consumption

The sweet chestnuts can be consumed roasted under ash or in frying pans perforated or, more simply, pulps or roasted with the furnace. They are sold in the streets in winter with the cry of “Heats the chestnuts! ”. One can also consume them fresh. In French-speaking Switzerland, in particular Were worth some in Fully, the roast chestnuts are called Brisolée S, the sweet chestnuts are roasted in a cylinder called Brisoloir.

They can be crystallized with sugar and crystallized (maroon frozen, which are sold especially at the end of the year), put in alcohol, cooked in jam or mashed potatoes.

Dried, then ground, they give a flour not easily suitable for making bread which, mixed, to a total value of 30%, wholewheat flour can be used to make Pain, Crêpe S, wafers and pastry makings.

In Europe, the sweet chestnuts traditionally form part of certain dishes of Christmas and the New year. Pulps, they accompany by the meat dishes, whose Dinde with the chestnuts celebrates it. The spinning top ( lo topin in occitan Languedocien) is a large pot in which one makes bleach sweet chestnuts.

In the the Cevennes, each farmhouse had its Clède to make dry sweet chestnuts.

Other gastronomical specialities

Blank with the sweet chestnut
Chestnut puree
Torch with the chestnuts, or nest of stork (Alsatian name ), or vermiculations (Swiss name )
Jams, liquors, syrups
Châtaignons of chestnuts of Roasted Olargues
sweet chestnut or Brisolée (were worth, Suisse)

There exist local specialities containing sweet chestnuts, in particular in Corsica and Sardinia.

Economy

The world sweet chestnut harvest is from approximately 1 million tons (FAO 202).

In France, the Ardèche provides 50 % of the national production with 5 400 tons (in 2004). In 2006, INAO recognized the AOC Châtaigne of Ardeche.

Various and anecdotes

the sweet chestnut is undoubtedly the only fruit which is always collected within its wild framework.
a legend, invented by an Italian poet of the Rebirth, wants that the chestnut was born from the fury (pro) creative of Jupiter. Courted by Jupiter, one of the nymphs of Diane, Néa, preferred to commit suicide rather than to lose its virtue. To pay homage to him, the Master of the gods transformed his skin into a majestic tree, Casta Néa, whose fruits furnished with prickles symbolize this sad adventure.
In popular speech, a “sweet chestnut” indicates a punch or an electric shock.
In Ariège, a race of cow is called casta , because of its color sweet chestnut.

See too

maroon Balanin of the sweet chestnuts
Sweet chestnut of water
of Olargues

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