Cooking For Engineers

[Lintballoon]

I love chestnuts, and wonder if anyone has good tips for peeling them. I have abandoned roasting them, because even in you cut an X in them, they still frequently explode all over the place, scattering the meat everywhere.
At the moment, my best method is to boil them in their shells for 20 minutes. Then I cut them in half and squeeze the meats out, sometimes using a spoon to scoop. I loose a good portion of meat, but don't go crazy trying to pick out the fuzzy inner skin.

[GaryProtein]

I've tried a number of ways, and I think you have to burn your fingers to do it properly!!

I have made the X, then boiled then baked, boiled then broiled, microwaved, steamed, baked and broiled, possibly other combinations, too. One thing I noticed is that the meat seems to come out most easily if the meat of the nut is cooked medium, not mushy soft, and the shell is crisp, so it cracks cleanly. When the shell cracks cleanly, the meat comes out almost whole all the time and the brown fuzz inside also comes right off. I said you have to burn your fingers because you can cook them any of the above ways, finishing them in the oven--dry heat (fireplace, grill, etc.) but if you let the nuts cool down, the moisture from the nut re-softens the shell and then it doesn't cleanly crack off and separate from the nut, at least in my experience.

I'd love to know a method that does not involve burning your fingers.