The second batch of our foraged chestnuts has now been cooked up nice and easy in our good old-fashioned way. We marked our x; we heated our oil; we plopped those suckers in; and we peeled the hard shell away to get at that sweet sweet nut meat. So this is how it’s been done with every batch of store-bought chestnuts we’ve purchased. And always those nuts end up great, ready to eat off the cutting board, warm and delicious.
The foraged nuts we cooked exhibited a few differences. 1) When we notched the x into the shell, they started to give off some oil. That must mean they’re really fresh and will be especially tasty, much better than those dried out supermarket nuts. All nuts have oil — that’s why you can buy bottles of hazelnut and walnut oils for gazzilions of dollars in the health food store. Gold mine of chestnut oil over here! 2) When we put the nuts in the hot oiled pan, the nuts really started to give off their juice. It just started bubbling out of the marked notch and fried like a thin dough. It smelled absolutely wonderful — just like fresh crispy french fries.
3) Peeling, always a bit of a task, was harder than normal. It took real effort to get the shell and the skin off the nuts. It meant we ended up with chestnut pieces instead of whole nuts. 4) The finished product was still completely inedible. Bitter bitter bitter, like poison.
There’s one more method left to try. The lady down the street (who’s lived here her entire life) described for us her father’s recipe from the old days. We’ll see if baking does the trick.
Magrilless 
Well, it's obvious what the problem is – you're actually cooking petrified tomatoes! If you look closely at the picture, you will see that they're just little cherry tomatoes that have overstayed their welcome. If I were a betting gal I'd bet that trial #3 (baking) isn't going to turn out much better than trials #1 or 2. Love you all. Charlotte
Speaking as someone who lived in northeastern Ohio as a child… these look ever so slightly like buckeyes. And buckeyes, Wikipedia says, “contain tannic acid, and are poisonous for cattle, and possibly humans.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculus_glabra
So, y'know, maybe that bitter taste is telling you something….
You are brave for trying a second time. After the first I think I would have thrown them out. Now, I am not sure what I am going to call you for the third try. 😉
Well, Joel, that's fascinating. We are unsure now whether these are actually chestnuts or buckeyes. Or since we collected from multiple trees, maybe we have some of both. Now what to do?! More research is definitely necessary.
clearly i've been asleep having missed the second batch of foraged chestnut nice and easy receipt. so you marked the spot “X”, bubbled and notched away, and smelled divine …..but the finished product was, ???? poison like in taste. hmmmmmmm . . . did the resident chemist make a thumbs up or thumbs down determination on that poison question.
on a serious note, if chestnuts are this difficult to eat, how & why did early American's incorporated them into an already lean diet?