chestnuts: a cautionary tale

Boyfriend and I are still relatively new to cooking. We make a number of mistakes. For example, here is how we figured out not to deep fry 20 pot stickers at one time:

 

Did I say "we"? Because that one was totally all Nick's fault.

Well, we learned another valuable lesson the other night. Nick bought some chestnuts. He had baked them once before in the oven and figured that it would make a nice holiday snack. He threw them in the oven and we put on some Christmas music. Nick was getting ready to pull them out of the oven when we heard something pop from inside. He opened the oven and discovered that one of the chestnuts had just exploded.

He pulled the rest of them out and set them on the counter. He stood there, trying to figure out what happened when another popped, sending burning hot sprays of meat and shell flying all over the kitchen.

He quickly covered it in foil and waited. Nothing happened.

This shell flew about five feet away.

We went back to see how the rest of the chestnuts did. Then another exploded, taking the foil with it.

We didn't feel safe until we put a plate over the whole thing. But even then, we would hear chestnuts bang against it as they continued to explode while gently cooling.

Only then did it occur to us to read instructions and it turns out that you need to slice an X on the flat side of the nut to prevent pressure buildup.

Please have a safer holiday season than us.




much love,
hedgie