CHESTNUT. 165 
Chestnut soup (according to an old Italian recipe), “ finely chop 
two small onions, one carrot, two leeks, and a quarter stick of 
celery ; fry with butter until browned ; add one quart of stock, 
three or four cloves, and salt to taste; stew over a slow fire for 
one hour. Take three or four dozen Chestnuts, according to 
size, and peel off the outside husk; then place them in an 
ordinary stewpan, stirring them about until they are sufficiently 
cooked for removal of the second envelope, or shell; stew them 
for half-an-hour in half the prepared liquor; put apart some 
whole Chestnuts to garnish the soup; chop the remainder, and 
strain them through a sieve with the liquor they have been 
boiled in ; add the remainder of the prepared stock ; stew over 
a slow fire for six or seven minutes ; place the whole Chestnuts 
in the tureen, and pour the soup over.” Steak and Chestnuts 
is a capital food combination for completing recovery after 
a long illness. Boil one pound of Chestnuts until they are soft ; 
remove the shells, and husks, and make the nuts smooth with a 
wooden spoon; add to them one pound of very finely minced 
juicy beef (rejecting all skin, gristle, etc.) ; season the mixture 
with salt, pepper (red and white), and mustard to taste; also 
add half-an-ounce of grated parsley, one shalot (finely minced), 
and about a dessertspoonful of finely-scraped horse-radish ; 
make it into a paste with four or five eggs ; press it rather firmly 
down in a deep dish, and make pretty devices on the top; lay 
little lumps of butter (about two ounces altogether) here and 
there, and either bake it in a good hot oven, or roast it before 
the fire; it should be of a warm, brown colour, and must be 
served very hot. 
Professor Andrew Smith, of New York, found that roasted 
Chestnuts, when eaten, signally lessen the quantity of albumin 
in the urine of patients suffering from what is known as Bright’s 
disease of the kidneys, this effect being largely due to the tannic» 
acid which the Chestnuts contain. ‘‘ Take some Chestnuts, 
and make a small incision in the skin of each one; throw them 
into boiling water, and let them remain until tender; remove 
the shells, and skins ; dry the Chestnuts in the oven, and after- 
wards reduce them to powder by pounding in a mortar; the 
powder may be made hot again, and then served as a vegetable.” 
Similarly at St. Petersburg it has been shown that roasted Italian 
Chestnuts have a marked effect in diminishing the albumin 
excreted in the urine of such patients. A good way to cook these 
