It’s Christmas Eve, and it’s hard to imagine this time of year without hearing “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” playing downtown – or in my head. Unfortunately, I’ve never roasted chestnuts on an open fire, but some day I will.

As I’ve mentioned before, roasting chestnuts has been a big part of Tretter tradition. But recently, since meeting Celso Paganini, owner of Italian foods importer Bella Vita, I’ve tried roasting chestnuts using two different techniques. The first technique, completely new to me, involves soaking freshly cross cut chestnuts in cold water for 6-10 hours or in warm water for 5-10 minutes before roasting them. I tried that technique, which I’d also found on other websites and, which, of course, was bit more time consuming. The results turned out great as shown here.

But I also saw on one of the sites, Aysegul Sanford’s Foolproof Living, that she saw no difference between soaking and not soaking chestnuts before roasting, as explained below.

After trying both the soaking and not soaking technique, I agree with Aysegul completely. At the same time, though, I like Celso’s idea of pre-heating the oven to high heat, though I chose 500° F (260° C) instead of Celso’s preferred 550° F (290° C) because not all home ovens can warm to 550° F (290° C), and then right away turning the heat down to 425° F (220° C) as soon as the chestnuts go in the oven. I also like the idea that I learned from both Celso and Aysegul of wrapping the hot chestnuts right out of the oven in a clean dish towel for 5-10 minutes to allow the chestnut meat to soften and make peeling easier.

In the end, here is my new favorite way of oven roasting chestnuts – no rinsing or soaking in water required – that you can get by clicking this link or the picture below.

Of course, I love freedom of choice. If you’d like to try the chestnut pre-roast water soaking technique, or you’ve read about it and want picture book directions to make it plainly easy, either click this link or the picture below.

Most of all, I hope you make the most of your own family traditions, and I wish you a warm, fun and spirit-renewing holiday week!