Boiled Peanuts

Boiled peanuts — raw, green (freshly harvested, undried) peanuts boiled in heavily salted water for 4-7 hours until the shells are soft and the peanuts inside are tender, creamy, and intensely salty — are the Southern roadside snack that divides the nation: Southerners love them; everyone else is confused. The tradition is African in origin — peanuts (*Arachis hypogaea*) arrived in the American South from West Africa through the slave trade (the same route that brought okra and black-eyed peas), and the West African tradition of boiling groundnuts is the direct ancestor of the Southern boiled peanut. Roadside stands selling boiled peanuts from large kettles are a fixture of every Southern highway from the Carolinas to Alabama.

Raw, green peanuts (in the shell) boiled in heavily salted water (1 cup salt per gallon of water) for 4-7 hours until the shells are soft enough to squeeze open and the peanuts inside are tender, creamy, and deeply salt-flavoured. The texture should be soft — not crunchy like a roasted peanut, not mushy like a paste. The salt should have penetrated through the shell into the peanut. The peanuts are eaten from the shell, which is squeezed open and the soft nuts sucked or picked out. The brine drips down your chin.

Not yet written for this entry.

Not yet written for this entry.