Boiled Peanuts

[therese]

Sorry to rain on this commercial parade, but $37 bucks for a 5 lb bag of peanuts? And delivery's another $10 (at least)?

[tryska]

[southernpeanut]

Sorry to rain on this commercial parade, but $37 bucks for a 5 lb bag of peanuts? And delivery's another $10 (at least)?

I am not trying to use this site for free advertising. I was only making fellow peanut buyers aware of my site and thought it would be a good jesture to offer a special here.

Before you post any remarks, you may want to double check your info. The site was going through an update on shipping prices to reflect the ups change and the most any shipping is for the United States is $10 and yes that does include orders for the fresh jumbo boiled peanuts which must be shipped 2-3 day select to maintain freshness.

How much do you pay for that ziploc bag or 12oz cup of boiled peanuts at a roadside stand? How many of these do you think they can get out of a 5# bag?

How much is quality worth to you?

HMMMM just wondering.

[Dignan]

Sorry to rain on this commercial parade, but $37 bucks for a 5 lb bag of peanuts? And delivery's another $10 (at least)?

I am not trying to use this site for free advertising. I was only making fellow peanut buyers aware of my site and thought it would be a good jesture to offer a special here.

Before you post any remarks, you may want to double check your info. The site was going through an update on shipping prices to reflect the ups change and the most any shipping is for the United States is $10 and yes that does include orders for the fresh jumbo boiled peanuts which must be shipped 2-3 day select to maintain freshness.

How much do you pay for that ziploc bag or 12oz cup of boiled peanuts at a roadside stand? How many of these do you think they can get out of a 5# bag?

How much is quality worth to you?

HMMMM just wondering.

Of course you are trying to use the site for free advertising. Your posts are replete with the effort. Your "fellow peanut buyers" are well aware of how to get boiled peanuts. It's the others you're after. And, if I'm reading this right, $7+ a lb seems to me like too much, absent a peanut famine, for boiled peanuts, and then on top add shipping. I can't say exactly what I paid for my last bag of peanuts from a roadside stand, but it sure as hell wasn't $7+ and $10 shipping for a lb of 3 day old peanuts. It was maybe $5 for a 1/2lb of, and please pardon me, hot wet fresh nuts.

[PopsicleToze]

I buy green peanuts at a little farmers market in Hammond called Cream of the Crop for $0.99/pound and boil them myself -- for about 4 hours

Does anyone know the season to find them? I found some earlier this year, but the market has recently began boiling them and selling them boiled -- fresh by the cupful or frozen in 5# bags (for $10.99). Since they started this, they no longer sell the green peanuts to take home and boil yourself.

Is this just a marketing strategy to make more profit, or is the season already gone & there are no more fresh green peanuts?

Thanks for any information...

Rhonda

[therese]

Green peanuts are late summer/fall (varies with where you live), but you don't have to use green peanuts, just raw peanuts (that aren't fresh out of the ground, but also haven't been roasted or otherwise processed yet). I can get them easily (pretty much any grocery store) but then I live in Atlanta. If you live in an area that doesn't routinely use raw peanuts you should still be able to find them in asian markets.

NolaFoodie's 5 lb bag of frozen boiled peanuts for $10.99 sounds like reasonable retail mark-up. Do note that 5 lb of boiled peanuts is fewer peanuts than 5 lb of non-boiled peanuts, as the boiled peanuts are considerably heavier (because of the water they've absorbed).

Dignan's half pound of "hot, wet, fresh nuts" for $5 doesn't sound too bad, given the convenience factor.

The prices at southernpeanut.com are high, and the statement that "Any one can throw salt into a large pot and boil peanuts, but the peanut preparation and selection makes them 2nd to none" leads me to think that southernpeanut may have mistaken readers at eGullet for eGullible. Yes, anyone can throw salt in a large pot and boil peanuts. It's that simple.

[Varmint]

Driving through North Florida on my way to my parent's house in Central FL, I must have passed at least 10 trucks sitting beside the road, selling boiled peanuts. They had propane tanks, and a bit pot to boil the peanuts. If the L'il Varmints weren't in so much of a hurry to get to their grandparents, I would have stopped a number of times. Alas, I bought nary a boiled peanut.

[mnebergall]

Dignan's half pound of "hot, wet, fresh nuts" for $5 doesn't sound too bad, given the convenience factor.

"Nuts, hot nuts, ya get 'em from your peanut man." Or so sayeth Doug Clark.

[Mayhaw Man]

If the L'il Varmints weren't in so much of a hurry to get to their grandparents, I would have stopped a number of times.

You missed your big chance.

I can think of no better fare for car bound youngsters (some incarcerated in car seats, no doubt). The opportunities for throwing mooshy peanuts and their shells around your probably otherwise semi clean vehicle are the kind of moments that kids talk about for years.

"Hey - Remember the time going to Gramma's when we trashed Dad's Car? That was GREAT! He was really mad."

[Dignan]

I can't stop myself!

Lulu had a turkey, Lulu had a duck, Lulu put them in the tub just to see if they would...

Hot nuts! Hot nuts! Get 'em from the peanut man!

[tryska]

*lol* the kids in the car posts reminds me of the first time i ever ran across this boiled peanut roadside stand phenomena. My folks had taken us kids to Disneyworld for a vacation, and for some reason in a deluge we got lost on the backroads of kissimeee trying to find one attraction or the other. well i saw one of those badly scrawled prolly misspelled boiled peanut stands and i asked my dad to get us some. Sadly he said, "Hell no! You want to catch Hepatitis!?"

My mother thought it was hilarious at the time, but when we got back home to snowy upstate new york, my dad did try his hand at boiling peanuts for us. They were pretty good, but he used green. I didn't have a true southern boiled peanut til I moved here, overcame any possible hepatits fear and bought a bag from a roadside stand.

Edited April 6, 2004 by tryska (log)

[robyn]

*lol* the kids in the car posts reminds me of the first time i ever ran across this boiled peanut roadside stand phenomena. My folks had taken us kids to Disneyworld for a vacation, and for some reason in a deluge we got lost on the backroads of kissimeee trying to find one attraction or the other. well i saw one of those badly scrawled prolly misspelled boiled peanut stands and i asked my dad to get us some. Sadly he said, "Hell no! You want to catch Hepatitis!?"...

Can you really get hepatitis from boiled peanuts (I don't like boiled peanuts but I never heard you could get sick from them)? Robyn

[Dignan]

I'm not sure where the whole hepatitus thing is coming from .... I'd be more worried about ecoli and botulism than anything else, because of the storage factor once the nuts have been boiled.

[therese]

Tryska's mom thought her dad's concerns about hepatitis (or anything else, frankly) were hilarious because they were. They lived in upstate NY---what the hell would he know about boiled peanuts except that they were sold by people who couldn't spell worth a damn?

You can get Hepatitis A from anybody who happens to have an active infection who is involved in food preparation of any sort, but that's the extent of it. You can't get any other sort of hepatitis (Hepatitis B or C) from a vendor of boiled peanuts unless the two you become a great deal more intimate than the usual transaction of cash for peanuts requires. A disturbing image, frankly, particularly if you've met many boiled peanut vendors.

So...no, no, no, you cannot get hepatitis from boiled peanuts. And you're not very likely to get anything else, either, as roadside vendors of boiled peanuts keep their product very hot, at a low simmer, in a big barrel of salty water: both the heat and the salt will discourage bacterial growth of any sort. Peanuts sold already boiled are generally kept chilled.

[tryska]

Tryska's mom thought her dad's concerns about hepatitis (or anything else, frankly) were hilarious because they were. They lived in upstate NY---what the hell would he know about boiled peanuts except that they were sold by people who couldn't spell worth a damn?

exactly. actually my dad is a doctor so my entire life he's been scaring me with hepatitis, e coli, cancer from browned bits of meat, etc. And to be honest, he grew up extrmely poor in a third-world country, so i'm sure some past experience with roadside vendors food hygeine probably plays into it. But yeah - whilst perhaps i can understand hepatitis from a roadside salad vendor with dirt under their fingernails, i wouldn't worry about boiled peanuts simply because they are kept simmering the entire time.

[Ari]

It took me four months, but I finally got my boiled peanuts! I was in Savannah for the weekend visiting a college friend, and I had the full low country eating experience. The peanuts came from a roadside stand on Tybee Island that also sold fresh fruist, vegetables, and canned goods (okra, shelled peas, gorgeous tomatoes, green beans, bread and butter pickles, hot pepper jelly.... the list goes on). My friend, who grew up in Georgia, said the boiled peanuts weren't as good as others that she'd had. But I found them addictive.

She also took me to the Crab Shack, which I was afraid would be a Tequila Willies/Senor Frog's-style tourist trap. It was not at all. The shack sits right on the marsh, tables are outdoors under live oak trees, and they basically serve up huge platters of stuff that's just been pulled out of the water. It's the kind of basic, simple, intensely regional food that's hard to find in small town America today. We got a sampler plate with boiled mussels, crawfish, stone crabs, snow crabs, shrimp, sausage, corn, and potatoes. The table had a hole in it with a trash can underneath. We got a roll of paper towels, a paper plate and a fork and went to town. It was a fabulous delicious mess.

[tryska]

what an awesome experience.

it';s been a while since i've gone to savannah. i'm going to have to make it out there sometime this summer i think.

[phaelon56]

I'm not sure when Tryska's family left the Syracuse and central NY state area but her dad's fear of hepatitis A was well justified. At one point back in the 1980's Syracuse had a Hep A outbreak that was ferocious and difficult to eradicate. It was repeatedly traced to workers in a handful of fast food restaurants every time it happened. In one particular year that I recall, this small county (population about 500,000 at that time or possibly less) had 40% of all the Hep A cases in NY state for the entire year. That includes all of NY city and the entire rest of the state. It was pretty scary. The restaurant glove law ended up becoming a strictly enforced rule here long before it did elsewhere in the state or the country. I was tending bar part time back then. Out of towners who were attending events where I worked bar often gave us nervous and quizzical looks when they noticed that all the bar staff wore gloves on the hand that scooped the ice or touched the fruit that would enter their drink. Now no one asks why...

Back to our regularly schedule program. I'll have to try the fresh boiled peanuts sometime. I've had the canned ones served at room temp and they were oddly addictive. I could not say that I really liked them yet I couldn't stop eating them and consumed the entire can. There was a vendor selling them at the Charlotte farmers market last time I was there but both vendor and product looked so funky that I opted for a jar of hot chow-chow and some bread 'n butter pickles instead.

[Foodie_Penguin]

Since moving from the UK to North Carolina, I'd read about boiled peanuts but never found them in my area (Durham).

However, on my vacation to SC this past week I was thrilled to find roadside stands selling boiled peanuts.

I bought my first bag from a stand on the way back from Beaufort to Charleston, SC. The seller, I think, was the farmer himself and he offered to get me some fresh, still hot, peanuts that he'd boiled an hour earlier.

I don't think I've mastered how to get the nut out of the shell intact but they do taste good hot. Boiling the nut gives them a creamy taste, quite unlike roasted nuts.

The farmer told me a story about why his peanuts taste different to boiled peanuts found in NC. He says that that NC boiled peanuts are of the Valencia variety that is drier (than the variety he uses). So, they need pre-soaking before boiling. Is there any truth in what I was told?

The farmer says he knows the difference 'cos he went to school in NC (he mentioned Brevard).

I bought another bag from Lumberton Farmers Market on the way back to Durham yesterday. I haven't eaten any from that bag yet.

However, I do think that the SC peanuts I bought from him looked like Valencia peanuts...

[Foodie_Penguin]

Update on the NC and SC boiled peanuts.

In my opinion, the SC boiled peanuts are much tastier than the NC ones (bought in Lumberton Farmers Market).

The shells of the nuts were still pretty hard and once I got to the nut, it was way too salty for me.

It may be verging on sacriligous (sp?) to do so but I boiled some water and poured the whol bag of NC boiled peanuts into a pan to cook them further as well as remove the excess salt.

I simmered them for about 30 mins, drained them and let them cool a bit. I haven't tried any yet but I think the taste and texture will be closer to the SC boiled peanuts now.

[Dignan]

Update on the NC and SC boiled peanuts.

In my opinion, the SC boiled peanuts are much tastier than the NC ones (bought in Lumberton Farmers Market).

The shells of the nuts were still pretty hard and once I got to the nut, it was way too salty for me.

It may be verging on sacriligous (sp?) to do so but I boiled some water and poured the whol bag of NC boiled peanuts into a pan to cook them further as well as remove the excess salt.

I simmered them for about 30 mins, drained them and let them cool a bit. I haven't tried any yet but I think the taste and texture will be closer to the SC boiled peanuts now.

I think perhaps what you are experiencing is a difference in preparation rather than the base peanuts themselves. The saltiness comes from how much salt is put in the boiling water, and the firmness is a matter of how fresh the raw peanut was and/or how long it was boiled. I'm no peanutologist, mind you, and they certainly come in different varieties (size of pea, number of peas, etc.), but the variations you describe are cook influenced, I think, and not botanic or geographic.

[therese]

The farmer told me a story about why his peanuts taste different to boiled peanuts found in NC. He says that that NC boiled peanuts are of the Valencia variety that is drier (than the variety he uses). So, they need pre-soaking before boiling. Is there any truth in what I was told?

No. You cook boiled peanuts until they're as done you'd like them, and you salt them as much as you'd like them to be salty. They are the easiest thing in the world to make. Drier peanuts (whether because of variety, how long it's been since they've been harvested, how they've been stored) will need longer cook time (pre-soaking might work, but why not just turn on the heat?) and more water, but there's no secret involved.

It may be verging on sacriligous (sp?) to do so but I boiled some water and poured the whol bag of NC boiled peanuts into a pan to cook them further as well as remove the excess salt.

Not a problem. You may have leached out too much salt, in which case you add some back and cook them longer. I doubt that 30 minutes would have made much difference in the texture---boiled peanuts are typically simmered for hours (I use a crock pot so that I don't have to worry about boiling them dry).

[bloviatrix]

I've wanted to try boiled peanuts for several years now, so when I saw this item in Wed's NY Times (you'll need to scroll down a bit) I knew I would finally get my chance.

I picked up a bag today at the market. So here are my questions: Just how long do I boil them for? If I need to add more water to the pot, should it be cold or boiling (and should the addtional water have salt in it?) What indicators are there that they're ready to eat? Do I eat right away or wait a bit (are they eaten hot or warm?)

Remember, I'm a northeasterner. I need coaching in the ways of the South.

[Squeat Mungry]

bloviatrix,

This page has some pretty good information on boiling peanuts (at the bottom), including instructions for freezing and canning them.

Boil them for between 35 and 45 minutes, then test to see if they're tender. I like to put a plate on top of them and weight it with a can or something to hold the peanuts under the water. Basically, the amount of salt just depends on your taste. I like mine pretty salty, and use about 1-1/2 tablespoons per cup of unshelled peanuts, but it is better to err on the side of less salt. If they're not as salty as you like when they're done, you can just let them soak in the brine and they'll get saltier.

Have fun, and be sure to give us a report!

Cheers,

Squeat

[bloviatrix]

Thanks for the link Squeat, but now I'm totally confused. I thought you're supposed to boil them with the shells on.

BTW, I don't think these are green peanuts.