Are horse chestnuts and conkers the same and can you eat both if they are different?

Answer 1

HORSE CHESTNUTS:
The nuts are poisonous, containing the alkaloid saponin, but some mammals, notably deer, are able to break down the toxins and eat them safely. They are reputed to be good for horses with wind, but this is unproven and feeding them to horses is not advisable. The saponin aescin, however, has been used for health purposes (such as varicose veins, edema, sprains) and is available in food supplements.
In Britain, the nuts are used for the popular children's game Conkers. During the two world wars, horse-chestnuts were used as a source of starch which in turn could be used via the Clostridium acetobutylicum fermentation method devised by Chaim Weizmann to produce acetone. This acetone was then used as a solvent which aided in the process of ballistite extrusion into cordite, which was then used in military armaments.


CHESTNUTS:
Chestnuts should not be confused with Horse-chestnuts, which are used in the United Kingdom to play a game called conkers. Conkers, or Horse-chestnuts, are poisonous and are obtained from the tree of the same name.
Neither the horse chestnut (family Sapindaceae) nor the water chestnut (family Cyperaceae) is closely related to the chestnut, though both are so named for producing similar nuts. The name Castanea comes from an old Latin name for the sweet chestnut.
The nuts are an important food crop in southern Europe, southwestern and eastern Asia, and also in eastern North America before the chestnut blight. In southern Europe in the Middle Ages, whole forest-dwelling communities which had scarce access to wheat flour relied on chestnuts as their main source of carbohydrates.
The nuts can be eaten candied, boiled or roasted; the former are often sold under the French name marrons glacés. One easy method for roasting is to cut a slit in the top of each nut and heat in a shallow container, tossing occasionally, at 200-220 °C for 10-15 minutes. Another important use of chestnuts is to be ground into flour, which can then be used to prepare bread, cakes and pasta. Chestnut-based recipes and preparations are making a comeback in Italian cuisine, as part of the trend toward rediscovery of traditional dishes.
To preserve chestnuts to eat through the winter, they must be made perfectly dry after they come out of their green husk; then put into a box or a barrel mixed with, and covered over by, fine and dry sand, three parts of sand to one part of chestnuts. Any maggots in any of the chestnuts will emerge and work up through the sand to get to the air without damaging other chestnuts. Chestnuts to be grown in the spring need to be kept in moist sand and chilled over the winter.

Answer 2

Can You Eat Horse Chestnuts

Answer 3

Horse chestnuts are the spiky, sharp shelled conker. The sort that you dry out, stick a string through and beat four bells out of an opponent's conker.

Sweet chestnuts are in an almost fluffy, soft spiked shell. These are the ones that you can roast on an open fire and eat. And they are yummy!

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Are horse chestnuts and conkers the same and can you eat both if they are different?

Answer 5

Conkers are the seeds of the horse chestnut tree, which are not edidle. Edible chestnuts come from the sweet chestnut tree.

Answer 6

Horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) nuts are inedible conkers & are not the same as the Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) which you can eat.

PS If you eat conkers it could make you ill!

Answer 7

Horse chestnuts and conkers are the same things and you can't eat them i don't think! however it is sweet chestnuts you can eat.

Answer 8

i asked this recently. it took four questions before i got the answer.

Horse chestnuts = conkers, they come in a spiky but not hairy-spiky shell, and you play conkers with them. Horses can eat them, we can't.

Sweet chestnuts = "hot chestnuts! get 'em here!" etc, they come in a hairier, spikier shell, and you CAN eat them.

Answer 9

Horse chestnuts are whoel when you pslit open the spiky shell. Don't eat them.

Sweet chestnuts are segments when you split open the hairy shell
You can eat/roast them

Answer 10

Yes, they are the same thing.
Unfortunately, theyre inedible. You need to eat sweet chestnuts.