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[Ralphie]

Wow, that video posted above looks like the best food I've ever seen.

[pmillen]

I used the chestnuts mainly because I had them. A friend of mine has a chestnut tree and gave me a big bag.

I’m interested in what variety of chestnut tree your friend has.  At one time there were huge forests of American Chestnuts (25% of the trees in the Appalachian Mountains) but they were wiped out by the early 1940s by a blight that came to the US on Japanese Chestnut trees.  Very few isolated American Chestnuts survived because the fungus can be wind borne.

Many of the trees that people refer to as Chestnuts are actually Buckeye Trees, sometimes referred to a “Horse Chestnuts.”  I don’t think that its nuts are edible.

The American Chestnut Foundation is attempting to develop a resistant strain, but their efforts have been hampered by climate change that has stressed their young trees.

[jdmessner]

I’m interested in what variety of chestnut tree your friend has.  At one time there were huge forests of American Chestnuts (25% of the trees in the Appalachian Mountains) but they were wiped out by the early 1940s by a blight that came to the US on Japanese Chestnut trees.  Very few isolated American Chestnuts survived because the fungus can be wind borne.

The American Chestnut Foundation is attempting to develop a resistant strain, but their efforts have been hampered by climate change that has stressed their young trees.

My friend purchased the property a couple of years ago. He doesn't know all the details, but the person he bought it from had lived there for several decades. The original family planted several chestnut and walnut trees and were able to sell the nuts. There are still about 11 chestnut trees today, but they are dying. PM me and I can send you some samples.

As a Michigan guy I do agree with you that there is nothing palatable about a buckeye nut. I find they can make one sick to their stomach!!!

[Kristin Meredith]

They have planted a couple of the resistant Chestnuts at a park here in Culpeper and are studying how they are developing.  I hope they are successful.

[ZCZ]

Check out the You Tube video in this thread. How they make it in Italy

https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=3468.0

Z

[jdmessner]

It is crunch time. Party is tonight. Cooked the porchetta last night along with 3 stuffed pork loins.

I had a hard time finding pork belly and nobody had it with the skin on. My original source was very disappointing so I did end up going elsewhere.

I brined the PB and the loins in salt, brown sugar and some rub. The porchetta seasoning was salt, pepper, garlic, parsley, basil, ground chestnuts, and a pork rub. The loins were stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, onion, and smoked gouda and another soft Italian cheese I cannot spell without looking it up!

Here are some photos. My wife came up with the place settings.  [ Invalid Attachment ]  [ Invalid Attachment ]  [ Invalid Attachment ]
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[pmillen]

Best ever place setting!

[Kristin Meredith]

Best ever place setting!

I agree -- how creative!

[Peterwoody]

Chris Kimball on his Milk Street Show recently did a porchetta. He used a boned butt which was spatchcocked and had inch long slits cut evey inch or so. A paste (very heavy on fennel) was rubbed into the slits and the butt was then rolled and tied. The outside of the roll (fat side) was also rubbed with fennel and other spices. The meat was cooked for 6 or 7 hours and rested for an hour before slicing. It looked rather good.

[jdmessner]

I tried a couple of times to post pictures from my phone, but didn't have much luck. There were several others that should have shown up with the place setting picture. The internet is spotty at best sometimes in this area. Have not upgraded in a long time. I'll see if I can get them posted tomorrow. Overall everything turned out great, about 80 people showed up.

[jdmessner]

OK, I think I am good to go now. Here are some pictures of the porchetta. It was fun to do. If I ever do it again, I would like to try it with the skin on. Ended up using both a 4 and 5 pound pork belly since I could not locate a 10 pounder.

The stuffed loins also turned out good. I figured not everyone would like the pork belly, so it was good to have options. I ended up smoking them the night before the party and cooling them down so I could slice them cold. They re-heated OK. Probably would have been a bit better off just resting, slicing and serving hot. However, time wise it was nice not needing to fuss with it the day of.


Mixture of parsley, basil, garlic, salt, pepper, pork rub and ground chestnuts.
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Prochetta and stuffed pork loins ready for the grill
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Probably about 3 hours in.
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Slicing it after it cooled
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