[Sca-cooks] chestnut cream

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Dec 15, 2006, at 9:39 AM, Stephanie Ross wrote:

> I found a can of chestnut cream imported from France in my local  
> discount
> store for fifty cents, so I couldn't pass it up. From the  
> description of
> the can, it appears to be almost a syrup.

Many French products are subject to strict "standards of identity":  
chestnuts have to be chestnuts, chestnut paste must be a certain  
percentage of chestnuts, and chestnut cream (if anything like the  
same deal as for, say, truffles or anchovies) must be a certain,  
presumably lower, percentage of chestnuts, if it is to be labelled  
that way. Is the stuff actually a liquid? I'm assuming it's more of a  
puree sweetened with sugar or a syrup, in which case it sounds pretty  
much like Mont Blanc in a can. The standard presentation would be to  
pile it attractively high on a platter and cover it with whipped  
cream. You could probably also use it to fill little tartlets or  
something like that.

> Is there anything medieval I can
> use this with/on/in? Are chestnuts new world?

If it really is a sweetened puree, that probably limits its medieval  
applications; the medieval recipes I'm most familiar with for  
chestnuts aren't for sweets. Chestnuts are period for Europe and  
Asia, though, as far as I know.

Adamantius



"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04