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 reduced to flour - naturally gluten-free -, is being revived. It is used by chefs such as Régis and Jacques Marcon in Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid, Charles Coulombeau (La Maison dans le Parc), in Nancy, Sophie Reignier(Iodé) in Vannes and Xavier Mathieu in Joucas, and pastry chefs like Cédric Grolet and Nina Métayer. Whatever its name, the fruit comes from Castanea sativa, a Fagaceae, a cousin of beech and oak, and like them, a forest tree in the wild. It is said to have been first cultivated in Asia Minor around the 6th century B.C., before returning to the Greek and Roman worlds, where it took its Latin name, Castanea. Legend has it that it comes from the "chaste Nea", a nymph who refused Jupiter's advances. Out of anger, the God transformed her into a chestnut tree and gave its fruits, housed in a thorny capsule, a repulsive appearance. But that doesn't stop us from enjoying the flesh, rich in complex carbohydrates, simply toasted or made into bread or polenta in Corsica.
A practice that has become rare: 100 g of fresh chestnuts are consumed per person per year. At 9,000 tonnes a year, 60% of which are organic, chestnut cultivation continues in the southern half of France and Corsica, albeit with some difficulties - a drop in the ocean in a world production dominated by China's 1.8 million tonnes. To meet French demand for confectionery products, chestnuts have to be imported, from Piedmont for the most demanding. Last February, chestnut growers were granted a 5 million euro support plan by the French Ministry of Agriculture to ensure the necessary replanting and meet the challenges of the climate. This should halt the decline of this production, whose quality is recognized by AOC and AOP labels in the Ardèche and Cévennes regions, and in Corsica (for flour).
