What is your favourite Xmas nut?

[cambrensis]

My childhood memories are of handfuls of chestnuts being roasted...yumm! an't be done easily any longer of course as there are few open fires. I have tried using the cooker but it is not the same.

I do like walnuts as well, and crack them they way my father used to do it; hold two together in the palm of your hand and squeeze....great fun!

[astral276]

My childhood memories are of handfuls of chestnuts being roasted...yumm! an't be done easily any longer of course as there are few open fires. I have tried using the cooker but it is not the same.

I do like walnuts as well, and crack them they way my father used to do it; hold two together in the palm of your hand and squeeze....great fun!

I remember having Chestnuts on bonfire night - roasted in the bonfire embers along with potatoes as a child and roasted on a shovel in the hearth on another occasion. I did try once in later years doing them in the oven and, like you, didn't find them the same. That could have been down to the method or a change in taste perception with age. I don't think trying to roast them atop the gas boiler would get very far.

My preferred nutcracker is a Mole Wrench...



...which has more control than the standard(?) lever type nutcracker and can tackle even the hardest nut without smashing the whole thing to smithereens. Though I expect the screw type nutcracker would have similar control but I have never possessed such type.

[FirstGreenIsGold]

My husband has bought chestnuts and tried to roast them in the oven a couple of times. It never worked out and he was left wondering why somebody wrote a song about roasting chestnuts.

[astral276]

My husband has bought chestnuts and tried to roast them in the oven a couple of times. It never worked out and he was left wondering why somebody wrote a song about roasting chestnuts.

Ahhh...but the song is actually 'Roasting chestnuts on an open fire'.

An oven just doesn't seem to give the same result. Probably connected to the temperature and smoke on a fire that an oven just doesn't reproduce. Street sellers usually used some form of brazier (that's not an item of female underwear ).

[FirstGreenIsGold]

Ahhh...but the song is actually 'Roasting chestnuts on an open fire'.

An oven just doesn't seem to give the same result. Probably connected to the temperature and smoke on a fire that an oven just doesn't reproduce. Street sellers usually used some form of brazier (that's not an item of female underwear ).

Yes, we thought that was probably the difference. Husband used to have to burn piles of brush as part of his work. He should have taken his chestnuts out to the bush when he was doing forest reclamation work and starting large controlled bonfires. All that wood smoke might have made for tasty nuts.

[JaBek1]

I have opted for Brazil nuts, though I like Almonds as well. They are just such a pain to crack

Yes, Brazil nuts are a pain to crack. Another nut that is extremely difficult to extricate from its shell is the Black Walnut. I brought a bag of them to a boss of mine years ago that I'd collected from trees on my wife's farm. His secretary later told me that he had broken three nutcrackers trying to shell them. Of course, the proper implement for cracking the shells of black walnuts is a ball peen hammer.

[JaBek1]

"Pistachios I wouldn't class as particularly Xmas nuts;..."
I suppose you are correct, but their green color just seems to fit into the Christmas scheme of things.

[astral276]

And, as everyone knows, Brazils, Pecans, Almonds and Walnuts are not actually nuts; they are all seeds.

The only real nut (botanically) on my list is the Hazelnut.

[JanetB]

Although I am partial to most nuts, (edible kind) For me it is the humble hazelnut. They seem to come out around xmas time, can't really find them all year round. I loved chestnuts when I was living in the UK ~ I always pigged out on them and many times I could bring them down from local trees for free ~ they are very very expensive here in the USA and only see them very briefly for sale once a year (around Nov-Dec). Pistachios are in great abundance here and we can buy them all year round. Almonds I buy all year round as I make my own almond milk and almond flour. I don't like peanuts.

[Gill]

Still...all just for fun and one of my occasional attempts to try and inject a bit of life back into the forums.

Yes, I agree Mel. No fun here anymore but injecting fun back into the forums will not be easy.

As for my favourite nut...it has to be you now.

My favourite nut of all time was the Brazil closely followed by the Walnut - in fact I think they were both on the same par in favouring but cracking them was a different matter. Cobs were good too. I have noticed over the past few years that all fresh nuts have diminished or are far too expensive now compared to my younger days.