In autumn and winter, the roasted chestnuts from roadside stalls become a common sight on the streets. In fact, just like all street food, roasted chestnuts have serious hygiene issues. Some vendors add industrial paraffin oil to the chestnuts to make them look shiny and tempting. Others add saccharin to make them taste sweet and refreshing. With these two "ingredients," industrial paraffin oil and saccharin, the chestnuts, once known for their health benefits, immediately become a health hazard.
Therefore, it's best to buy chestnuts from regular supermarkets and malls whenever possible. If you can only buy from a roadside stall, you can use the following methods to select them, which can greatly reduce the chance of buying poor-quality roasted chestnuts.
Oven-Roasted Chestnuts
First, taste them.
Before buying, you can ask the vendor for a chestnut to taste. People with a sensitive palate can easily distinguish between chestnuts made with saccharin and those without. Chestnuts fried with saccharin are very sweet at first but have no aftertaste, and a bitter taste can be detected upon closer inspection.
Second, wipe them with a paper towel.
Relying on sight and feel alone is not enough to identify chestnuts with harmful additives. When buying chestnuts, bring a few paper towels and wipe the shells first. If you find oil stains on them, it means the chestnuts may have been fried with paraffin oil (some people also add vegetable oil when frying chestnuts, but in much smaller amounts).
Third, look at the color of the nut meat.
When selecting chestnuts, don't just look for nut meat that is pure white or golden yellow. Nut meat that is too golden may have been chemically treated. Conversely, if you find the nut meat in the middle is slightly brown after roasting or boiling, there's no need to worry. This is caused by the "browning reaction" of the enzymes in the chestnuts. As long as the taste hasn't changed, it's harmless to the human body and can be eaten with confidence.
If you're not satisfied with the roasted chestnuts you buy outside, you can buy raw chestnuts and process them yourself. When buying raw chestnuts, look for those that are light in color, have a lot of fuzz, and their shells are not very shiny. Dark color, less fuzz, and a bright exterior are characteristics of old chestnuts, which are not tasty and are not recommended for purchase. Additionally, small chestnuts are often sweeter and more delicious than large ones. Another small trick is that for those who like sweet chestnuts, pay attention to the shape when selecting them. Chestnuts that are round on one side and flat on the other are sweeter than those that are flat on both sides.
Finally, it's important to remind everyone that although chestnuts are highly nutritious and have health benefits, you shouldn't eat too many at once. Eating 7-8 chestnuts a day can provide a great nourishing effect. It's best to eat chestnuts as a snack between meals or incorporate them into your meals, rather than eating a large amount after a meal. Because chestnuts are high in starch, eating them after a meal can easily lead to excessive energy intake, which is not conducive to maintaining your weight.