Nuts

Purée

Chestnut puree is cooked chestnut flesh beaten or sieved until smooth—sometimes plain, often sweetened as the French crème de marrons style. The path to puree runs through peeled cooked kernels, never through raw flour: nuts are scored, heated, peeled, then steamed or simmered soft before sieving. The result is spoonable, glossy when sugar is added, and dense enough to pipe for Mont Blanc or fold into mousses. Unsweetened puree enriches soups, stuffings, and savoury sauces; sweetened puree is dessert shorthand for chestnut flavour without peeling a single nut at service. A good puree is silky, evenly beige, and tastes cleanly of cooked chestnut without metal or fermentation notes. A bad puree is grainy with skin flecks, watery with separation, or dull and sour from age. Refrigerate after opening and press film on the surface so it does not dry into a crust. Loosen stiff puree with a spoon of milk, stock, or syrup rather than over-beating air into it.