THE CHESTNUT. 



order to be prepared for food^ they are ground into 

 flour, and of this, mixed up with a Httle milk and 

 salt, and sometimes with the addition of eggs and 

 butter, is made a thick girdle-cake, called la ga- 

 lette. 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, or with leaves of celery, sage, or 

 any other herbs that may be preferred, to give 

 them a flavour ; and roasting them either in hot 

 ashes, or in a coffee-roaster. They are also occa- 

 sionally roasted before the fire, or on a shovel, as 

 in England; but, when thus prepared, they are 

 thought not so good. In whatever way they are 

 roasted, the French cooks always slit the skin of 

 all except one ; and when that cracks and flies off", 

 they know that the rest are done. Sugar is said 

 to have been obtained in France from chestnuts, 

 by the same process as is used for the extraction 

 of sugar from beetroot, and at the rate of 14 per 

 cent ; which is more than the average produce of 

 the beetroot. Chestnuts are sometimes used for 

 whitening linen, and for making starch ; and when 

 roasted they are a good substitute for malt in 

 making beer. 



^^In many countries," says Miller, "where 

 Chestnut-trees are cultivated, the people graft 

 the largest and fairest fruit upon stocks raised 

 from the nut. And these grafted trees are called 

 by the French marroniers, but they are unfit for 

 timber." In France great attention is still paid 



