Don’t step on the wild flowers on the roadside and don’t eat the chestnuts on the ground!

It’s autumn now, and the happiest thing is to buy a bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts on the street!

Move aside, today's protagonist is chestnut｜unisci24.com

Chestnut , scientific name Castanea mollissima, is a deciduous tree of Castanea mollissima, family Castanea , with a huge crown, tall and beautiful. Chestnut is a native chestnut tree in China, distributed in both the north and south, and has a history of thousands of years of cultivation. There are many varieties of chestnuts, generally divided into southern chestnuts and northern chestnuts. The taste of chestnuts in the north and south is different according to the type and content of starch. Long-term artificial selection has made chestnut trees shorter, with fewer thorns and thinner shells, making them easier to pick and thresh.

Chestnut tree｜phytoimages.siu.edu

In addition to Chinese chestnuts, there are other types of chestnuts on the market, such as Castanea henryi, which has a round bottom and a conical top, like a water drop, and is several times smaller than Chinese chestnuts, about the size of a dime, so it is also called pearl chestnut, which has a large production in the mountainous areas of northern Fujian. There are also other types of chestnuts, such as Castanea seguinii and C. crenata. Although these chestnuts taste good, they have not been planted on a large scale in China, so they are relatively rare and are generally used as rootstocks for grafting.

Castanea henryi｜zhuilipifa.com

The true face of chestnut

We have all eaten chestnuts, but have you ever seen the real chestnut? You may be tired of seeing them, with hedgehog-like prickly balls that make your scalp tingle. The outer coat covered with thorns is actually their cupule , which is generally called "chestnut pod". It is developed from the involucre, which is a special type of leaf. Usually, there are three chestnuts in a chestnut pod . When mature, the chestnut pod will open crosswise, and the brown-red chestnuts will be revealed.

The true appearance of chestnuts｜aichi520.com

Note that each chestnut is a fruit, and the chestnut kernel is its seed . The hard, slightly fuzzy outer shell is its pericarp, and the bitter membrane covering the chestnut kernel is its seed coat, which is covered with a layer of silky hair. The pericarp and seed coat are not tightly combined, leaving a gap. Therefore, black sand should be added when frying chestnuts, so that they can be heated evenly and avoid excessive pressure in the closed heat, which may cause them to burst ((﹁ ﹁)~ and they cannot be recalled).

Three chestnuts are wrapped in a chestnut pod｜img01.tooopen.com

Chestnut Blossom: The Most Evil Smell in the World

Every midsummer, chestnut trees bloom. The flowers are monoecious. The male flowers are in catkins that hang on the treetops like caterpillars, while one or several female flowers grow in the involucre at the base of the male inflorescence.

Inflorescence of the chestnut tree, with female flowers at the base｜See watermark

Chestnut flowers are small but have great power. Every time at this time, the entire valley or plantation will be filled with the rich and indissoluble fragrance of chestnut flowers. Some people will be intoxicated and dizzy, but it's not your fault, because the smell of chestnut flowers is very similar to that of semen .

The smell of human semen comes from spermine, while the smell of chestnut flowers is a complex combination of volatile compounds, including esters and terpenes, which are completely different from spermine. I can only say that they are not intentionally evil, it is just a coincidence. By the way, you can also smell heather, which smells pretty good. I highly recommend it.

Chestnut male inflorescence, the source of evil | wiki

Why do we add sugar when roasting chestnuts?

When it comes to eating chestnuts, the words "sugar-fried chestnuts" immediately pop up in my mind. The golden chestnut meat is plump and shiny, dense and sweet, making people unable to stop. Watching people fry chestnuts is also a pleasure. Set up a stove, set up an iron pot, and stir-fry the chestnuts and black sand with a long iron shovel while the fire is burning. From time to time, scoop a spoonful of sugar and sprinkle it evenly on the chestnuts.

In fact, adding sugar does not make chestnut kernels sweeter . Looking at the thick chestnut shell, you can imagine that it is difficult for sugar to penetrate into the chestnut kernel. In this case, why do we have to go through so much trouble to add this procedure? The reason is that the sugar sand will melt under high temperature and become sticky, which can adhere to the fluff and some impurities on the chestnut, while making the shell brighter in color, heating more evenly, and producing an attractive caramelized aroma.

Fried chestnuts｜iphoto.ipeen.com.tw

This process is repeated over and over again, which is time-consuming and laborious, until the tempting chestnut smell wafts out. The chestnuts do not need to be cut with a knife in advance. The moisture in the chestnuts is steamed by the heat of the black sand to create the best taste of "like flour but crispy". If they are cut and then fried, they will easily become dry chestnuts. In the biting cold wind, rubbing hands and blowing out, stamping feet and waiting for the hot fried chestnuts is definitely an unforgettable delicious memory. Now more and more stores use machine frying. The chestnuts taste almost the same, and people do not have to endure the severe cold, but they lose the aftertaste of childhood.

The frying machine, please imagine it as an animated picture｜wiki

Tianjin Ganli: From Japan?

There is a classic line in Gintama: You are so naive, you are even sweeter than Tianjin chestnuts . There is also an episode in White Bear Cafe where Panda said that Tianjin chestnuts were a gift he brought back from his hometown in China. Ranma 1/2 also has a special skill called "Fire Tianjin Chestnut Fist". So, what is the relationship between Tianjin chestnuts and Tianjin?

"Fire of Tianjin Sweet Chestnut Fist"｜Takahashi Rumiko / Kitty firm

In fact, it is the Japanese version of sugar-roasted chestnuts . Because Hebei is the production area of ​​chestnuts, buyers purchased chestnuts and exported them to Japan from Tianjin Port. Over time, the Japanese believed that these high-quality chestnuts were produced in Tianjin, so they called sugar-roasted chestnuts "Tianjin Sweet Chestnuts". Later, regardless of the origin or type, as long as it is sugar-roasted chestnuts, they are all called Tianjin Sweet Chestnuts. Now you can buy a bag of hot Tianjin Sweet Chestnuts around many major train stations in Japan.

Japanese sugar-roasted chestnuts - Tianjin sweet chestnuts | wiki

Don't eat the chestnuts on the ground. Your life is at stake.

In many European cities, when the season arrives, you can often see "chestnuts" all over the sidewalks. Chinese students or tourists will wonder: In the face of delicious food, are foreigners really indifferent? Many Chinese people think it is a waste, so they pick up a bag and carry it back to make "chestnut roast chicken" to add to the dish. Unexpectedly, the "chestnuts" taste bitter and astringent, and finally have to be thrown into the trash. If you have done this, be glad that you didn't eat too much, otherwise you will die without knowing how.

This is the "chestnut"｜See watermark

I am not trying to scare you. What you picked up are not edible chestnuts , but poisonous seeds of Aesculus hippocastanum, commonly known as horse chestnuts. It is said that the leaves were first used to feed horses to relieve their coughing symptoms. Now it has been confirmed that there is no such effect. On the contrary, horse chestnuts contain a large amount of aescin and some alkaloids. Eating more than a certain dose will irritate the intestines, damage the central nervous system, cause vomiting and diarrhea, convulsions and paralysis, coma, and even death.

It's not that Europeans don't eat chestnuts. European chestnuts C. sativa are distributed here. Chinese people call them sweet chestnuts or western chestnuts. This kind of chestnut looks similar to Chinese chestnuts, but it's smaller and not as sweet as Chinese chestnuts. You can eat it boiled or fried. French cuisine has chestnut soup, which tastes great! It's also good to make desserts, such as the dense and delicious chocolate chestnut cake.

Chestnut Cake｜Watermark

During the harvest season, foreigners also go to pick chestnuts. Many people wonder: Horse chestnuts look like chestnuts, and they also look like chestnuts when peeled. How can you tell the difference? Don't worry, I will teach you step by step.

First, look up at the leaves. Chestnut trees have simple leaves with serrated edges . Horse chestnut trees have palmately compound leaves, usually with seven leaflets (otherwise why would they be called horse chestnut trees).

Secondly, look at the ground and observe the "shells". The chestnut shells are covered with sharp thorns and are very prickly, while the horse chestnut seeds are covered with a relatively smooth peel with only a few small thorns.

European chestnut | ascotheathcejuniorschool.co.uk

Finally, if you play with it in your hands, you will find that the chestnut is flat at one end and round at the other end , while the horse chestnut is round all over and has fuzz, while the horse chestnut is smooth.

Horse chestnut｜ecomaster74.ru

So don't pick wild flowers on the roadside and don't eat chestnuts on the ground. What the old driver said does make sense.

Author: Attack of the flesh

This article comes from GuokrNature (ID: GuokrNature)