Generality
What is chestnut honey?
Chestnut honey (in English "chestnut honey") is a type of monofloral honey produced by bees that live near chestnut trees and use their flowers in an almost exclusive manner.
The chestnut tree ( Castanea ) is a botanical genus belonging to the Fagaceae family; the only native European exponent of this group is precisely the species C. sativa (Miller classification).
Unlike chestnuts (typically autumnal), the typical season of chestnut honey is mainly summer, ie it corresponds to what is normally defined as the flowering period of the plant. The collection areas are hilly and mountainous.
Chestnut honey is undoubtedly one of the most consumed honeys in Italy and, due to its characteristic taste, it is also one of the best known and appreciated varieties also abroad. Although it is mainly harvested between June and September (sometimes until October), chestnut honey has organoleptic and taste characteristics that lend themselves to accompanying typically autumnal foods and recipes.
From a nutritional point of view, like other honeys, it is an excellent energy source of carbohydrates and contains various antioxidant molecules of vegetable origin. Normally, compared to the category, the concentration of vitamins and minerals. Unpasteurized, chestnut honey can retain some antibacterial properties.
Property
Chestnut honey and health
Chestnut honey is an extremely caloric product of animal origin. With its 300 kcal per 100 g of product, almost entirely derived from simple sugars, it is not a food to be underestimated.
Because of its sweetening power, many prefer to use honey compared to granular table sugar (sucrose or fructose) to sweeten recipes and drinks. Flavors aside, this choice can prove "advantageous" ONLY by maintaining the same portion, as honey contains 33% fewer calories than sucrose and granular fructose. On the other hand, having a lower sweetening power, almost all of them add more than necessary nullifying the meaning of substitution.
Chestnut honey has a load and a glycemic index slightly lower than table sugar, which is why it is not advisable to use it in abundance in the diet against overweight, type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertriglyceridemia. Although the fresh one is also endowed with antibacterial properties, it is nevertheless to be considered as a food favoring tooth decay.
As for minerals, there are no values worth mentioning; someone claims that the amount of iron is appreciable, but it certainly is not comparable to that of the most common nutritional sources (meat, fish, eggs). The concentration of some B vitamins and vitamin C is fair; it is however necessary to remember that thermolabile molecules, such as ascorbic acid (vit C), are negatively affected by pasteurization (indispensable for commercialization).
Chestnut honey is also rich in nutritional factors with an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory action, such as polyphenols; these, combined with the well-known emollient effect of food, make honey a good solution for treating pharyngitis.
Description
Description of chestnut honey
Chestnut honey is dark or brown amber in color, vaguely translucent and of a fluid but very viscous consistency.
Second only to acacia honey, chestnut honey has a low crystallization rate and can remain liquid for a long time. This characteristic is attributable to the higher concentration of fructose compared to glucose (41.9 g / 100 g compared to 26.5 g / 100 g) and to the fructose / glucose ratio greater than 1.3 (more precisely to 1.58). Honeys characterized by a lower fructose / glucose ratio tend to crystallize faster.
The taste of chestnut honey is sweet with a decidedly bitter aftertaste; aroma and flavor are firm, woody, leather and smoke, with typical scents left by the botanical species of origin. Some call it less sweetener than the others but it is only the organoleptic contrast of the aromatic molecules of chestnut flowers.
The color and organoleptic characteristics of honey diminish if the season is not favorable and increase with increasing temperatures and solar radiation (which have an influence on the metabolism of chestnut trees, which also become more attractive to bees). As it is logical to deduce, the chestnut honeys of beginning and end of season will have different characteristics.
use
Use of chestnut honey
Regarding its organoleptic and gustatory characteristics, chestnut honey is NOT considered a good substitute for common sweeteners for drinks (tea, herbal tea, milk, yogurt, coffee, barley, vegetable milk, etc.). Excessively alters the taste and aroma of the products, hiding their original properties. Logically, the beverages that lend themselves to being enriched with chestnut honey are the most intense, for example black tea (long fermented).
In Italy, chestnut honey is among the most used to accompany cheeses with an intense taste. It is particularly appreciated on some pecorino cheeses and, for connoisseurs, on some fossa cheeses. However, some consider it so intense and characteristic that it is not easily manageable. For the same reason, sometimes it makes even the wine pairing difficult. The presence of wood scents makes it a good bed companion for certain wines that are barricaded but not too dry; softness (especially from polyalcohols and volatile components) is in fact essential to avoid too much contrast.
With chestnut honey you can also produce unique recipes of their kind. A typical example is the chestnut cake (or any other sweet produced with the starchy fruit flour), which however is distinguished by a certain redundancy in taste (easily avoidable by inserting transverse flavors such as pumpkin, wild berries, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, myrtle and even laurel berries).
Excellent sweet potato gnocchi with gorgonzola, walnuts and chestnut honey; as well as the ricotta and chestnut pie with pecorino fondue, balsamic vinegar and chestnut honey.
It is a good ingredient for flavoring game recipes.
Like other types of fresh honey, chestnut (for its well-known antimicrobial properties) also does not lend itself to making leavened doughs like bread. The pasteurized type is less contraindicated.
