"Chestnut" is delicious, and you are right to do so

In autumn and winter, when the wind is cold and the weather is cold, a pack of hot, sweet and soft sugar fried chestnuts has become a favorite snack
.
However, dealing with chestnuts, the "king of dried fruits", many senior "chestnut powder" may have had unpleasant experiences, such as occasionally encountering "saccharin water chestnuts" with blackened chestnuts, accidentally eating moldy bad chestnuts, etc
.
How to eat chestnuts to enjoy delicious food, this expert science will give you the answer
.

Choose chestnuts in five steps

Chestnut has been cultivated in China for at least 2,500 years
.

The shadow of its lush leaves, flowers and fruits can be seen everywhere in the Book of Poetry
.
"The mountain has Jiahui, Houli Houmei", and the fragrant chestnut tree flowers are called flowers
as precious as plum blossoms.

Li, widely spread the great rivers north and south
.
The completely different water and soil environment divides chestnut into two "camps"
in the north and south.

Southern chestnut fruit is large, relatively low sugar content, high starch and water content, hard meat, suitable for cooking, common varieties are Yunnan chestnut, Guizhou chestnut and Hunan chestnut
.
Northern chestnut fruit type is small, low starch content, high sugar content, strong aroma, strong glutinousness, more suitable for sugar fried chestnuts, common varieties are Qianxi chestnut, Qinglong chestnut, Xingtai chestnut, Taishan chestnut, Zhen'an chestnut and so on
.

Chestnut, sweet, soft and nutritious, is a delicacy
for all ages.

Studies have shown that chestnuts are rich in carbohydrates, unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, especially potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese and other minerals content is much higher than ordinary dried fruits, fresh chestnuts contain more vitamin C than tomatoes, and their potassium content is higher than 95% of fruits
.
Therefore, chestnuts can supply more heat energy to the human body and help fat metabolism, and are known as
"hardcore crops", "woody grains" and "king of dried fruits".

How to choose a bag of good quality chestnuts to give the "tip of the tongue" a little more pleasant and warm comfort? Wang Guangpeng, a researcher at the Changli Fruit Research Institute of the Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, reminded consumers that they must go to regular supermarkets or dried fruit stores to buy and keep the shopping voucher
.
During the purchase process, you should pay attention to the following points:

Look at the color
.
The chestnut shell is purplish-brown in color and has a light waxy layer
.
Bright and shiny chestnuts are fresher, while those chestnuts with relatively dark or even dark shells and poor gloss are most likely old goods
.
The flesh of fresh and high-quality chestnuts is bright yellow in color and moisture; The flesh is milky white and there are black spots on the surface of the chestnut kernel, indicating that the chestnut has been stored for too long or has been moldy and deteriorated
.

Look at the appearance
.
High-quality chestnut has a smooth appearance without folds, and there is no other abnormality except for its own inherent white hair; Chestnuts with black-brown mold spots or white frosty mold layers on the appearance of chestnut shells are generally inferior chestnuts
with damaged internal structures.
It is also important to note that the base of high-quality chestnuts (the part where the low end of the chestnut fruit connects with the chestnut canopy) is generally small, with a correct fruit shape and uniform fruits, while the base of poor quality chestnuts is large, the fruit shape is not correct, the size of the fruit is uneven, and there are many
deformed grains.

Look at the size
.
Southern chestnuts are generally larger than northern chestnuts, generally weighing more than 12 grams per grain, but their taste and sweetness are relatively poor, and the glutinity is not good
.
Therefore, consumers are advised not to blindly pick large chestnuts when buying chestnuts, small chestnuts may usually taste better
.

Pinch soft and hard
.
A good chestnut shell is relatively hard, and the hand is generally unable to pinch it, and the chestnut kernel loses less water, the fruit is full, and it is shaken in the palm of the hand, and the impact of the chestnut kernel and the chestnut shell cannot be heard; If the chestnut shell is relatively soft, or even juice flows out, it feels very light in the palm of the hand, and it makes a rustling impact sound when shaking, indicating that the chestnut has lost water and deteriorated
.

Smell the smell
.
Fresh chestnuts smell fresh or have a light chestnut scent, while spoiled chestnuts can have a sour, rancid odor, or other smell
that irritates the nose.

Eating needs to be done properly

Although chestnuts are delicious, how to eat them healthier, is very particular
.

Wang Guangpeng said that chestnuts have a high starch and sugar content, 6 large chestnuts or 10 small chestnuts have about 200 kcal of calories, equivalent to a bowl of rice, so pay attention to eating an appropriate amount, generally speaking, 8-10 grains a day
.
At the same time, it is not recommended to eat a lot after meals, so as not to eat too many calories, which is not conducive to maintaining weight, nor is it recommended to eat on an empty stomach, which can easily lead to bloating
.
The best way to do this is to snack chestnuts and eat them between meals, or as ingredients to make
meals.
In addition, while eating chestnuts, attention should be paid to appropriately reducing the intake
of staple foods.

There are many ways to eat chestnuts, in addition to the common sugar fried chestnuts, simmering, stir-frying or adding a few pieces when cooking porridge is a good choice
.
From the perspective of Chinese medicine, raw food also has a good health care effect
.
Modern medicine has also confirmed that eating chestnuts in the elderly helps prevent aging
.
It should be reminded that whether it is eaten raw or cooked, chewing carefully is the healthiest choice
.

If you are a fan of cooking at home, you must know how to prevent chestnuts from popping when you stir-fry
them.

Wang Guangpeng told reporters that chestnut meat can easily cause chestnut shells to burst after heat expansion, which may burn the operator's hands and eyes, and it is recommended that consumers master the following tips:

Soaking in water for a while before stir-frying can effectively prevent water loss and avoid dry and hard
meat.
At the same time, cut a cruciferous knife on the chestnut surface in advance, and the length of the incision is at least 1 cm long and 2 mm deep, which can not only effectively prevent bursting, but also make the chestnut shell easier to peel off
.

Buy stir-fried salt from formal channels to fry chestnuts
.
When the salt is cold, put the pot down, then turn the heat to medium heat and gradually heat, and keep turning to make the chestnuts heat evenly
.
Local heat can charred chestnuts or cause bursting
.

If you buy fried chestnuts from the market, you should be wary of chestnuts that are too oily and have a particularly sweet taste
.

Wang Guangpeng explained that the main role of sugar in sugar fried chestnuts is not to make chestnuts sweeter, but to remove the fluff on its surface, so that the fried chestnuts are not sticky to the hands, better peeled, and can also increase the oil brightness of the chestnut appearance and make people more appetizing
.

However, at the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to chestnuts with too shiny surfaces, which may be due to the paraffin
used by individual illegal traders when frying chestnuts.
Although paraffin wax can make the surface of chestnuts more crystal clear after heating and melting, according to relevant regulations in China, even food-grade paraffin wax cannot be used for dried fruit fried
.

As for those sugar-fried chestnuts that taste too sweet, the kernels are often black after peeling, and some are even bitterly sweet, then such chestnuts are likely to be soaked in saccharin water
.
Saccharin water is made of sweetener sodium saccharin by adding water, although sodium saccharin is not absorbed in the human body, but the amount is too much and has a metallic bitter taste
.
In fact, good chestnuts themselves are about as sweet as sweet potatoes, and there is no need to add
anything.

Store carefully

Although chestnuts have a hard shell, they are actually a difficult food
to store.
Fresh chestnuts bought home may deteriorate after a few days if they are not properly disposed of in time, and may rot if they are not careful
.

Wang Guangpeng suggested that consumers can refer to the following preservation methods
.

Refrigerated storage: for short-term storage, fresh chestnuts can be cleaned and drained to the surface, and then divided into crisper bags or crisper boxes, and then sealed the bag or box mouth and placed in the
refrigerator refrigerated layer.

Natural cool storage: For a longer period of time, you can directly put the chestnuts into a woven bag with good air permeability, and then place the bag in a cool, ventilated place such as a cellar, kiln and other cooler places for storage
.
Although this storage method is simple, it is more demanding on the environment, and if the environment is too humid or dry, it may cause problems such as air drying and deterioration
.

Direct frozen storage: After buying the chestnuts, wash and drain the surface water, divide them into sachets and freeze them immediately in the refrigerator, and then remove
them when you want to eat them.
Chestnuts are frozen (do not thaw) and stir-fried or boiled directly with sugar to maintain the taste
of freshness.
This method can be left
short or long.

Reprocessing and storage: After the fresh chestnuts are cooked, peel the chestnuts and divide them into plastic bags for freezing
.
It can also be used in the method of semi-cooked freezing, that is, after buying back, the chestnuts are first placed in a cool and ventilated place for a day or two, and then washed and boiled in boiling water for three or four minutes, cooked until half-cooked, fished out to dry to room temperature, and then divided into plastic bags, sealed and frozen in the refrigerator, this method is suitable for a long time
.

In addition, check the chestnut shell for worm eyes
before storing.
Because chestnuts themselves are more likely to attract insects, the quality of chestnuts with insects is poor, and the taste is not good
.
It should be noted that the insects hidden in chestnuts do not appear during storage, most of them are flying insects laying eggs on them after flowers and pollination, and when the chestnuts mature, the insects also grow
.
In this case, it is important to remove chestnuts with worm eyes to prevent the worms from continuing to gluttonize other chestnuts
.

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How to peel chestnuts

Although chestnuts are delicious, peeling them looks like a hassle, so mastering the following tips will make it easy to peel off chestnuts.

Soak
in hot water.
Put the washed chestnuts in piping hot boiling water, then cover and leave for 3-5 minutes, take out the chestnuts and cut them with a knife, the chestnut shell and the chestnut coat between the shell meat can all fall off, and the taste will not change
.

Freeze
in the refrigerator.
The chestnuts are first cooked in lightly salted water, and when they cool, they are frozen in the refrigerator for two hours before peeling, the shell meat is easily separated
.
(Li Jian)