Raw chestnuts bad for you?

I read somewhere that eating raw chestnuts is bad for you because of tannic acid. I hope thats not true because I just planted five chestnut trees. I bought a container of Italian chestnuts at the grocery store and have nearly eaten all of them. I tried roasting them but I just don't like them that way, I think they taste better (sweeter) when raw.

No. That's just WRONG!
Maybe they meant eating raw chestnut oak acorns, but not chestnuts. I'm unaware of any significant amount of tannins in chestnuts.
I'm with you - roasted, they're just NASTY! Maybe I didn't do it right, but I was singularly unimpressed.
However, fresh off the tree, they're kind of 'starchy', but if you give 'em a few days to 'cure', some of the starches are transformed to sugars, giving that sweet flavor.

For those of you who don't like them roasted, how are you roasting them?
An overcooked chestnut is indeed awful. I do like them lightly roasted to bring out the nutty sweetness. The Americas chestnut is by far the sweetest, and the Chinese chestnut the least sweet. We are fortunate to have some old (over 100 years old) stands of American chestnut here in the west, where the blight has not spread.

http://www.acf.org/Chestnut_history.htm

Here's where I read that http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8126-1876703,00.html

Personally, I think Ms. McDonald-Joyce is full of it. I can't locate a quick reference, but I'd doubt that chestnut NUTS contain any significant amount of tannins. Certainly the bark, leaves, and buds do, but not the nuts!

Funny this thread popped up cuz I sitting here with a Chinese Chestnut and figured if I could get it open I would eat it just raw too.

If its not making you pucker when you eat it, I don't think there are many tannins there. We have good taste receptors for tannins precisely to avoid eating too much of them. Now I'm curious to try a fresh one, I have always roasted 'em. My guess of why they are saying the fresh ones have too much tannins is the skins are on pretty tight when they are fresh and so if you eat them like e.g. a Brazil nut you are going to eat that tannic skin. Here is a "raw food" page which talks about eating fresh chestnuts: http://chetday.com/nutprocessing.html where they also talk about the astringency of the skin.

Scott

They are so much better raw. Roasting them takes away the sweetness and makes them soft and mushy.

escambia, are you roasting or steaming? Our chestnuts certainly do not get soft and mushy when we roast them. We find them sweeter after roasting. We only roast them for 10 minutes. Do folks roast them longer out there?

I had the same experience as E-guy. A nice fresh chestnut - after removal of the shell and pellicle(the thin skin round the nutmeat) is sweet, but roasted - and I followed recommended procedures - they were soft and mushy, and had a raw-sewage aroma. None for me, thank you.

I roast mine for 10-15 minutes in my BBQ grill, just cut X's and roast no other preparation. I stop when the shells start to loosen. I would not call them mushy and I don't recall any sewage-like aroma or other negative taste. The consistency I would compare to a green banana, not a ripe one.

Scott

Well, I don't know what happened with your chestnuts, but I've NEVER had anything but a sweet nutty aroma from the ones we get. If they had smelled at all like sewage they would have been thrown in the compost.

I followed the directions on the package. I cut an "X" into the rounded side of the shell and them baked them for 20 minutes at 400°. The package said product of Italy, so I'm assuming they were fromC.sativa? I agree with Lucky, I was expecting to have the house filled with a nice nutty aroma and instead I smelled a skank odor coming from the oven. I'll be so glad when my hybrid trees get old enough to produce nuts. With the American DNA in them,the nuts should be even sweeter(when I eat them raw).

My experience exactly, Chad. Pretty well put me off of doing anything with chestnuts altogether, other than planting a few as a mast source for deer around my wildlife foodplots. Hence, I channeled most of my efforts toward hickories & pecans.
None of my family is enthralled with eating them raw, and I can only eat just so many by myself, so I've not bothered purchasing or grafting any.

I just slit them (X's) and put on a small plate with some water on it. I then put them into the microwave until the slits start to peel back.

I don't know if I'm getting the proper roasting, but we like them.

~Chills