Brown or chestnut? We finally explain the difference
With its two-named autumn fruit, the chestnut tree has it all. Alongside confectionery and festive chestnut dishes, the ancestral chestnut is making a name for itself on the best tables, thanks to its sweet and original flavor. So much so, in fact, that the French crop, which has become marginalized, is the subject of plans to safeguard it by 2025.
The difference between chestnut and marron? They're the same thing! Well, almost. Both terms refer to the fruit of the wild or cultivated chestnut tree, but it was customary for the chestnut to become "marron" when prepared. Hence the marrons glacés, creams and chestnut pastes made by confectioners such as Sabaton or Imbert, and by houses such as Boissier, À la mère de famille, or even the festive garnish for capons...
Botanist Jacques Daléchamps summed it up in his Histoire générale des plantes in 1586: " The rich have large chestnuts (...) called marrons served as table dessert ", while " small chestnuts are used as meat by the poor ". The name marron was used to describe the best chestnuts as early as the 12th century in Italy, and a little later in Lyon. A cultivated variety of chestnut, with fruit of a fine size, is known as the Marron de Lyon.not to be confused with the poisonous horse chestnut, a large seed under a thick bogue that falls from the city's chestnut tree, causing an increase in calls to poison control centers.
The chaste Nea
The name chestnut, traditionally given to the raw fruit, dried or ground into flour - naturally gluten-free -, has been revived.
