Boiled Salted Peanuts
Violette Taps
An easy to follow recipe for this favorite Southern snack that will quickly walk you through the differences in green and raw peanuts, seasoning variations and tips for cooking the perfect pot of boiled peanuts!TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Do you know I spent the first half of my life thinking the entire world loved boiled peanuts? They are such a big part of our local cuisine and culture that I just assumed everyone else loved them too! And many of you reading this have never even laid eyes on them.
Then I thought boiled peanuts were a Southern thing. And to some extent they are. But not all of the South does boiled peanuts. From what I can piece together, boiled peanuts are enjoyed south of North Carolina, down into the panhandle of Florida then east through Mississippi.
Push everything you know about traditional roasted peanuts out your head because this is an entirely different experience. Boiled Peanuts are left in their shell to slowly simmer in salted or seasoned water until very tender which yields soft, briny, salty pearls of joy on the inside. Eating them is somewhat like eating raw oysters in that half of the enjoyment is in the salty brine inside. Boiled peanuts go perfectly with ice-cold beer or a coke!
What I love about boiled peanuts (in addition to how delicious they are!) is that cooking and eating them is very often a social thing. Kinda like pig pickins and fish fries, the cooking or eating of them takes time.
Green peanuts are freshly harvested, raw peanuts and therefor have a much higher moisture content (approximately 35-50%) which makes them highly perishable. True green peanuts must be refrigerated when they come out the field or they will spoil. Due to the higher moisture content, green peanuts require a shorter cooking time.
Raw peanuts are air-dried in their shells to make them less perishable and more practical to transport and make their way into markets without spoiling. Peanut farms air-dry the peanuts to maintain a moisture content of approximately 10%.
Green peanuts will need to be cooked with more salt whereas raw peanuts need less. Imagine two sponges. One is pretty saturated with water and one is almost dry. If we placed the two sponges in salt water, the first one (the saturated one) will not soak up as much of the salty water as the dry sponge. Since green peanuts will absorb less of the cooking liquid, the liquid will need to be more saturated with salt.
The longer the peanuts cook, or sit in the salty water, the saltier they will become. Also the longer the peanuts cook, the softer the shells will become. Some people prefer their peanut shells soft and almost chewy, some prefer a little firm so you can pry open the shells.
If you are making boiled peanuts for the first time, work with a small batch (like the one pound recipe that follows). If they end up too salty, use less salt the next time. If you like them softer, cook them longer. The inside nuts themselves should be completely soft. If crunchy or crisp, they need to cook longer.
Many Vietnamese people fled their home country after the Vietnam War and ended up in Louisiana. The Vietnamese were exposed to new, local foods resulting in some current mainstays of Vietnamese cuisine, such as Cajun crawfish boil, chicory in Vietnamese coffee and of course, boiled peanuts.
Hey Apoena, good to hear the recipe turned out well for you! I had no idea theres similarities between Brazilian and Vietnamese cuisine but will definitely have a look into that. Thanks again for commenting & sharing ?
I grew up in Louisiana eating boiled peanuts and love them. I now live in Seattle and can buy them at a local Japanese grocery chain. These are spiced with Asian spices, but I like them in any form or fashion. I was buying them 1 day, and the check out person was of European descent. She looked at my packages like I had snake or perhaps live crawling Klingon food. She asked what you do with them. I pointed out that this was a grocery store, so you might assume that they are food to be eaten and that they are delicious. The Asian woman behind me cracked up and agreed. Thanks for your blog Huy. We really love your food having learned Vietnamese food in Houston in the 80s.
Boiled peanuts are a classic Southern snack made simply by boiling raw unshelled peanuts in salted water for several hours until they are soft and tender and infused with the salty brine. Traditionally only salt is used for flavoring but today you can find vendors selling a variety of flavors such as Cajun, garlic, and dill pickle, to name a few. It is a unique and delicious way to enjoy peanuts.
By the time the Civil War rolled around peanuts were being enjoyed by the white population as well, including by Confederate soldiers who were given them as part of their rations. The first peanuts to be grown commercially were grown in Virginia and soon peanuts were being shipped north. Peanuts continued increasing in their popularity as people reached for them as a tasty snack food (roasted), sandwich spread (peanut butter) and cooking oil. But boiling them was a method largely unknown except to black families who continued the tradition of preparing large pots of them, recognizing that the practice of sitting, shelling and eating boiled peanuts lended itself perfectly to social communion with family and friends.
Fast forward the years and by the turn of the 20th century Southern whites had caught on to the tradition and soon boiled peanuts became a craze throughout many areas of the South: they were served at ball games, county fairs, church picnics, barber shops, roadside stands, by city street vendors, and even at weddings.
And so, along with fried green tomatoes, watermelon, okra, black-eyed peas, yams, pimento cheese and other beloved Southern staples, boiled peanuts have remained a cherished Southern tradition and can still be found in Georgia, the Carolinas, and the southernmost part of Virginia.
Green peanuts are raw peanuts that have been freshly dug from the soil and have had no moisture removed. With their high moisture content they are highly perishable and must be refrigerated or frozen as soon as they leave the field. For this reason, green peanuts are only available during harvest season.
Allow the peanuts to simmer for about 2 to 4 hours for green peanuts or 5-8 hours for raw peanuts, depending on the desired tenderness. Check the peanuts occasionally for desired doneness. Some people prefer them very soft, almost mushy, while others like them firmer. Check the water level periodically and add more water as needed.
Boiled peanuts can be enjoyed hot, at room temperature, or cold. You can reheat them in the microwave if you prefer them warm. To eat, crack open the shells, eat the nuts inside, and discard the shells.
Many believe that peanut boiling started during the Civil War when Confederate soldiers would roast or boil and salt peanuts to preserve the high-protein snack. We know that Black folks were boiling peanuts long before the Civil War. Like many Southern plants, peanuts were carried to the United States via the Transatlantic Slave Trade by enslaved West Africans along with the practice of boiling them in stews and alone in salty water. Today, boiled peanuts are the official snack of South Carolina and enjoyed by many across the South.
Eating boiled peanuts is a succulent and decadent affair, much like oysters on the half-shell. Good green peanuts (like these) are much larger than the nasty, dry, disgustingly crunchy things that grocery stores call peanuts up here. You crack the shells gently along their seam, and slurp the oily, salty brine out before it drips on your lap, then use your prehensile lips to pull the nut meat itself out of the shells. Discarded shells are communally collected in a shell bowl at the middle of the table, and a contented silence fits the room as everyone slurps their way through the pile of boiled peanuts, pound by pound, no one talking, because if they did, someone else would get ahead of them and eat more peanuts.
When stored in their shells in an airtight container in the fridge, boiled peanuts will last up to 10 days. You can store them in the cooking liquid or drain them dry. You can also store them in the freezer for several months. Thaw at room temperature before serving.
If they are not salty enough (you go, you), add a bit more salt and give it 30 minutes as well to get good and incorporated. The amount of salt I am listing here is what I have found perfect to replicate the roadside peanuts I love so much.
In the past we have had to use raw, dried peanuts when we have made boiled peanuts. We soak them overnight in their shells, the same as with dried beans. The next day, Honey Buns pressure cooks them in salted water. Some people like their peanuts quite salty, but I prefer mine to be a little lower on the salt-o-meter. If you are lucky enough to have green peanuts, then skip the overnight soaking.
Fran, peanuts MUST be pressure canned. They are a low acid food and all low acid foods must be pressure canned in order to preserve them against botulism. Here is a trusted link from the National Center for Home Food Preservation which will give you instructions for the proper canning of peanuts. Alternatively, boiled peanuts can also be frozen. Cook them as you normally would, allow them to cool, then place in freezer bags, press out as much air as possible and seal bag tightly.
I am using a Power Pressure Cooker XL which is great for making RAW JUMBO VIRGINIA PEANUTS. I bought some OLD BAY and SMOKED PAPRIKA
Seasonings because I had read that there are people who use these seasonings with very good flavor results. But I have still never found out if you use these together, separately and how much to use per pound.
They turn out good using salt, but I want to expand in flavoring them.
I have modified my seasonings over the years. I have found salt is the best. Salts chemical make up allows it to absorb into the food much better than other seasonings. You could add the seasonings after the final cook and then just let them soak as then the peanuts and their shells would be much more pliable to soak in the seasoning.
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