Yes, today's protagonist is chestnut. Photo: unisci24.com.
Castanea mollissima, a deciduous tree of Castanea mollissima [qio], has a huge crown and is tall and beautiful. Chestnut is a native chestnut tree in China, which is distributed in the north and south, and has been cultivated for thousands of years. There are many cultivated varieties, which are generally divided into two categories: southern chestnut and northern chestnut. According to the difference of starch types and contents, the taste of chestnuts in the north and south is not the same. Long-term artificial selection makes chestnut trees shorter, with fewer thorns and thinner shells, which is more convenient for picking and threshing.
Chestnut tree. Photo: phytoimages.siu.edu.
In addition to chestnut, there are other kinds of chestnuts in the market, such as Castanea henryi, which has a round bottom and a top cone. Like a drop of water, it is several times smaller than chestnut and about the size of a dime coin, so it is also called Pearl Chestnut, which has a large output in the mountainous areas of northern Fujian. In addition, there are chestnut varieties such as C. seguinii of Maoli and C. C. crenata of Japanese chestnut. Although these chestnuts are not bad in taste, they have not formed a planting scale in China, so they are relatively rare. Generally, there are more rootstocks for grafting.
Chestnut. Photo: zhuilipifa.com.
The true face of chestnut
Everyone has eaten chestnuts. Have you ever seen chestnuts? After reading it, you may feel tired and don't like it. One by one, the hedgehog-like balls prick people, and you feel numb at the sight. This prickly coat is actually their shell bucket, which is generally called "chestnut blossom" vividly, which is developed from the involucre, that is, a special kind of leaves. Usually, there are three chestnuts in a chestnut canopy. When it is ripe, the chestnut canopy will cross and open, and the brown-red chestnuts will show their true colors.
Chestnut is true. Photo: aichi520.com.
Note that every chestnut is a fruit, and chestnut kernel is their seed. The hard shell with a little fluff is their pericarp, and the bitter film is covered with the outer bread of chestnut kernel, which is their seed coat, and the outer surface is covered with a layer of silky wool, so the combination between pericarp and seed coat is not tight, leaving a gap. Therefore, black sand should be added when frying chestnuts, in order to make them evenly heated, so as to avoid cracking caused by excessive closed heating pressure (() ~ can not be recalled).
Three fruits are wrapped in a chestnut. Image: img 01.toopen.com.
Therefore, the edible chestnut has a round side and a flat side, indicating that it is sitting at both ends. Both sides are flat, then it is the center of the universe (fog)! !
Chestnut flower: the most evil taste in the world
Every summer, chestnut trees bloom, and the flowers are monoecious. What are the male flowers? The catkin hangs on the treetops like a caterpillar, and one or several female flowers grow in the involucre at the base of the male inflorescence.
The inflorescence of chestnut tree, with female flowers at the base. See the watermark for the source of the picture.
Chestnut flowers are small but have huge energy. At this time, the whole valley or plantation will be filled with a strong fragrance of chestnut flowers, and some people will be drunk and dizzy. It's not your fault, because the taste of chestnut flowers is very similar to that of semen.
The smell of human semen comes from spermine, but the smell of chestnut flower is a complex interaction of volatile compounds, including esters and alkenes, which is completely different from spermine. It can only be said that they are not intentional evil, which is purely coincidental. By the way, you can also smell the heather. It's delicious and highly recommended.
Male inflorescence of chestnut, the source of evil. Image: wiki
Why do you add sugar to fried chestnuts?
Speaking of eating chestnuts, the word "sugar-fried chestnuts" immediately popped up in my mind. The golden chestnut meat was full, shiny, dense and sweet, which made people want to stop. It's also a pleasure to watch people stir-fry chestnuts. Set up a stove, set up an iron pot, catch up with the fire, stir-fry chestnuts and black sand back and forth with a long shovel, and sprinkle a spoonful of sugar evenly on chestnuts from time to time.
In fact, adding sugar will not make chestnut kernels sweeter. Just look at the thick chestnut shells. It is difficult for sugar to penetrate into chestnut kernels. In this case, why bother to add this program? The reason is that the sugar sand will melt at high temperature and become sticky, which can adhere to the fluff and some impurities on chestnuts, and at the same time make the shell brighter and more evenly heated, and also produce an attractive burnt fragrance.
Stir-fried chestnuts Photo: iphoto.ipeen.com.tw.
Such steps should be repeated repeatedly, which is time-consuming and laborious until the attractive chestnut flavor floats out. Chestnuts don't need to be cut with a knife in advance, and the water in chestnuts can be steamed by the hot air of black sand, so as to create the best taste of "crisp as noodles". If you fry them again, it is easy to fry them into dried chestnuts. The biting wind, rubbing your hands and breathing straight, stamping your feet and waiting for the hot fried chestnuts, is definitely a delicious memory that will never be forgotten. Now there are more and more shops fried by machines, chestnuts taste almost the same, and people don't have to endure the cold, but they lose a childhood aftertaste.
The frying of the machine, please make up the animation with your brain. Image: wiki
Tianjin Ganli: From Japan?
There is a classic line in "Silver Soul": You are too naive, and it is sweeter than Tianjin Ganli. There is also an episode of "White Bear Cafe", in which Pang Dajun said that Tianjin chestnut was a gift brought by him when he returned to his hometown in China, and "Chaos Horse 1/2" also had a stunt "Tianjin Ganli Boxing in Fire". So, what is the relationship between Tianjin Ganli and Tianjin?
"Tianjin Ganli Boxing in the Fire". Photo: Takahashi Rumiko/Kitty firm
In fact, it is the Japanese version of sugar-fried chestnuts. Because Hebei is the producing area of chestnuts, buyers export chestnuts from Tianjin Port to Japan. Over time, the Japanese think that these high-quality chestnuts are produced in Tianjin, so they call sugar-fried chestnuts "Tianjin Ganli"; Later, regardless of the place of origin and species, as long as it is sugar-fried chestnuts, they are all called Tianjin Ganli. Now, a bag of hot Tianjin Ganli can be bought around many major stations in Japan.
Japanese-style sugar fried chestnuts-Tianjin Ganli. Image: wiki
Don't eat chestnuts on the ground, it's killing you.
In many European cities, it is common to see chestnuts all over the sidewalk in the seasonal season. Students studying in China or tourists will think: Are crooked nuts really indifferent to delicious food? Many Chinese people think it's a waste, so they pick up a bag and carry it back to make a "chestnut roast chicken" with vegetables. I didn't expect this "chestnut" to taste bitter and astringent, and finally they can only pour it into the trash can. If you have done such a thing, be glad you didn't eat more, or you won't know how you died.
This is the "chestnut". See the watermark for the source of the picture.
I'm not scaring you. What you picked was not edible chestnuts, but poisonous Aesculus hippocastanum seeds, commonly known as Horse Chestnuts. It is said that leaves were first used to feed horses, which can relieve their cough symptoms. Now it has been proved that there is no such effect. On the contrary, horse chestnut contains a large amount of aescin and some alkaloids. Eating more than a certain dose will stimulate the intestine and damage the central nervous system, leading to vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, paralysis, coma and even death.
It's not that Europeans don't eat chestnuts. There are European chestnuts distributed here, and Chinese people call them sweet chestnuts or western chestnuts. The appearance of this kind of chestnut is similar to that of domestic chestnut, but it is a little smaller and not as sweet as chestnut. If you eat it, it can be cooked or fried. The French meal has chestnut soup, which tastes great! It is also good to make desserts, such as dense and delicious chocolate chestnut cake.
Chestnut cake. Image source see watermark
Every harvest season, crooked nuts will also pick chestnuts, and many children's shoes will wonder: Ma Li looks like chestnuts, and when peeled off, it looks like chestnuts. How can it be different? Don't worry, I'll teach you step by step.
First of all, look up at the leaves, chestnut trees are simple leaves with serrated edges; European aesculus is a palmately compound leaf with seven leaflets (otherwise, people call it aesculus);
Secondly, look around the ground and observe those "shells". The shell bucket of chestnuts is covered with sharp thorns, which is very pricking, while the seeds of aesculus are wrapped in a smooth peel with only a few small thorns;
European chestnut. Photo: ascotheathcejuniorschool.co.uk.
Finally, if you play with your hands, you will find that chestnuts are flat at one end and round at the other, and the whole chestnut is round, and the chestnut is fluffy, while the chestnut is bare.
Ma Li. Image: ecomaster74.ru
So don't pick wild flowers by the roadside and eat chestnuts on the ground. The old driver's words still have some truth.
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Calendar Niang's portrait today
European beech of FAGACEAE