Nuts
The nuts are an important food crop in southern Europe, southwestern and eastern Asia, and also in eastern North America before the arrival of chestnut blight.
In southern Europe in the Middle Ages, whole forest-dwelling communities which had scarce access to wheat flour relied on chestnuts as their main source of carbohydrates.
The nuts can be eaten candied, boiled or roasted; candied chestnuts are often sold under the French name marrons glacés.
Another important use of chestnuts is to be ground into flour, which can then be used to prepare bread, cakes and pasta.
Another little known use is to eat chestnuts raw by just peeling them (almost unknown in North-America but customary at least in Northwest Europe).
When chestnuts are fresh from the field/store, peeling is not easy. However, after leaving them out at room temperature for 24-48 hours, using a simple small, pointed kitchen knife will allow the consumer to easily peel away the outside shell.
Next, you peel the thinner inside skin.
Wash, and if present cut away contamination, and eat.
Chestnuts' taste (may vary slightly from one to the next) is somewhat sweet and certainly unique.
If you leave chestnuts out for more than 5-7 days the quality starts to degrade.
Chestnut-based recipes and preparations are making a comeback in Italian cuisine, as part of the trend toward re-discovery of traditional dishes.
Mountainous parts of France and Italy seem to yield the plumpest chestnuts.
Our home-grown ones are never a match for size and, when you have pounds to prepare for a party, or for the Christmas stuffing, size does matter. (Vacuum packed, shelled chestnuts are a good quality alternative.)
Chestnuts do not contain much oil and traditionally were ground to produce a form of flour which is still used in some regions of Italy.
Marrons glacés are a much better known form: these are candied chestnuts