Chestnuts (Marrons)

Marrons teach one unforgiving lesson: the shell opens only while the nut is fiercely hot. Score the round side before heat touches it, roast just long enough for the cut to gape, then peel away both the hard shell and the tan pellicle in small batches. Let a marron cool and it grips its skin like a miser grips a coin.

The original entry offered two service routes, a damp oven tray or a frying basket plunged into very hot fat, and assumed enough hands to peel batch after batch immediately. This home version keeps the damp-tray method, scales the quantity to four people, and replaces the frying basket with an ordinary rimmed sheet pan and a folded towel. The deep-fat route is brigade scaffolding; scoring the shells and peeling them hot are the technique that must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

After seven or eight minutes, the shells will have darkened and opened at their cuts, while the flesh remains pale and firm. That is correct: this entry prepares marrons for further holiday cooking rather than roasting them through. If several cool before you reach them, warm them again and continue. Ça se rattrape. Keep the unpeeled marrons hot, because peeling before they cool is the one step that decides everything.