On Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:20:48 -0400, "jmcquown" >
wrote:

>"MtnTraveler" > wrote in message
om...
>>A friend with several chestnut trees gave us 10 kilo of chestnuts.
>>Wonderful! I love chestnuts. Terrible! For many of the dishes we have to
>>peel the chestnuts first.
>>
>> Last year I purchased a chestnut peeler in Shanghai. This may well be an
>> insidious device designed to destroy the Western world... person by
>> person. A very clever kitchen/torture tool, it looks similar to pliers,
>> with one side having a razor edge and the other having gripper teeth. One
>> only needs to snip around the chestnut to easily remove the shell. And
>> remove bits of finger at the same time.
>(snippage)
>> I now have a nice bowl full of shelled chestnuts ready for Sunday dinner
>> dishes, and sticking plasters on four of my fingers! I think it is time to
>> invest in Kevlar gloves.
>>
>
>I was always given to understand chestnuts should have an X cut in the base
>(with a sharp knife but not some thing designed to peel them while raw).
>Then you boil them (briefly) or bake them (again, briefly) to soften the
>shell so it can be peeled away by hand. I'm glad you had a nice bowl of
>chestnuts, but you could have spared your fingers.
>
>Jill


I think the OP is speaking of removing the thick tough husk that one
rarely sees when shopping for chestnuts... check out the image at the
Home Page:
http://www.chestnutsonline.com/