THE CHESTNUT. 183 



part is carried to the local markets or sent to Paris. The 

 husks of the chestnuts beaten off the trees being generally 

 attached to the nuts, they are trodden off by peasants 

 furnished with heavy sabots, or wooden shoes, when the 

 nuts are wanted for present use ; but when they are to be 

 preserved for a few months, they are generally kept in 

 their husks in heaps in the open air, or in barrels of sand, 

 which are sometimes actually sprinkled with water in 

 very dry seasons, in order to preserve the full and plump 

 character of the nuts. 



In the Cevennes, where chestnuts are an article of food, 

 the inhabitants have a process of kiln-drying them, so 

 that they will keep good for two or three years. The 

 process consists in exposing them on the floor of a kiln to 

 the smoke of a smothered wood-fire. The heat is applied 

 gently, so as to make the internal moisture transpire 

 through the husk of the chestnut. The tire is kept gentle 

 for two or three days, and then is gradually increased 

 during nine or ten days. The chestnuts are then turned 

 with a shovel, and the fire is continued until they are 

 ready. This is known by taking out a few of them and 

 threshing them ; if they quit their inner skin, they are 

 done. They are then put into a bag, and threshed with 

 sticks to separate the external and internal husks. If the 

 husks are left on, the chestnuts become black, by imbibing 

 from the husk the empyreumatic oil of the wood-smoke, 

 and do not keep so well. In order to be prepared for 

 food, they are ground into flour; and of this, mixed up 

 with a little milk and salt, and sometimes with the addi- 

 tion of eggs and butter, is made a thick girdle-cake, called 

 la galette. La polenta is another preparation, made by 

 boiling the chestnut-flour in milk till it becomes quite 

 thick ; when made with water, it is eaten with milk in 

 the same manner as oatmeal porridge in the north of 

 England and Scotland. 



The most usual modes of cooking chestnuts in France 

 are, boiling them in water, either simply, with a little salt, 



