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The Chestnut
From the Tree to the Pulenta
Chestnuts [Ph.
Desjobert]
A Bit of history
Foster father of man and animal, used as a currency for all kinds of products
coming from the rest of the isle, raw material for cabinetmakers, firewood.
In a word dead or alive, from the root to its fruit, the chestnut was a such
value that, during the joining of Corsica to France, the Council of the King
prohibits by a decree - which was fortunately abandoned - every new plantings
of this tree which
"constitutes the food of laziness for his fruit substitutes for everything:
we gather it, we dry it, we grind it and we make of it our bread, their very
horses are fed with it and the ground is very neglected ! " !
A long Preparation.
The Chestnut after having dried in
the opened attic of the family house
was turned into flour, mashed between the two
flat stones of the mill,
to be consumed
according to twenty-two different recipes.
Chestnuts in autumn [Ph.
Desjobert]
Typical Dishes
Today, the drift from the land as well as the disease of ink got the better of
the most beautiful chestnut groves of the isle, but the perseverance of a few
farmers believing in the future of a product of quality, specific of the corsican
authenticity, allows to keep on enjoying the chestnut.
This chestnut is appreciated when toasted or boiled with the flavor of fennel
and its by-products: Pulenta served with Brocciu, mush crowned with cold milk,
plain, brocciu or apple fritters, cakes or bread with chestnut flour..
Shelled Chestnuts
[Ph. Desjobert]
As to the most true flavors lovers, they are just simply delighted, like a
child, to crunch these dried chestnuts with an incomparable sweetness...
The chestnut flour at the root of the most poor ancestral cookery is today,
again very appreciated.
Return to the summary of this heading Pleasure of
Food
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