Some like their peanuts ‘hot boiled’

Boiling peanuts is “almost exclusively a Southern treat,” one that has been popularized by various tales about The War Between the States.

 

From the Columbia, S.C., Visitors Bureau: Civil War soldiers “who were in need of nutrition with high protein and without cooking facilities, boiled peanuts over campfires. They discovered that these peanuts would not spoil for several days.”

From the “What’s Cooking America” website page on the history of boiled peanuts: When Union Gen. William Sherman led his troops on their march through Georgia, “they cut off Confederate supply lines, so Rebel soldiers turned to peanuts, an important nutritional source. Soldiers roasted the peanuts over campfires or boiled them.”

 

Confederate soldiers from Mississippi were termed as “goober-grabbers,” and they fought their hardest after harvesting peanuts from the goober patch, according to Brenda Lewis of the Our Mississippi Home tourism website.

“Goober Peas” is a traditional folk song that was popular with Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.

The earliest sheet music for the song was published in 1866 by Armand Edward Blackmar in New Orleans. He humorously listed A. Pindar as the lyricist and P. Nutt as the composer. It has been recorded and sung by scores of artists, including Burl Ives, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Rusty Draper and The Kingston Trio.

 From the fourth and final verse:

I think my song has lasted almost long enough.

The subject’s interesting, but the rhymes are mighty tough.

I wish the war was over, so free from rags and fleas

We’d kiss our wives and sweethearts, and gobble goober peas.

 

Chorus:

Peas, peas, peas, peas

Eating goober peas

Goodness, how delicious,

Eating goober peas.

 

There is a season for boiling fresh green peanuts. They are available only during the peanut harvest, which usually runs for about six weeks between August and October.

As food historian and author Robert Moss says: “Boiled peanuts have long been one of those iconic foods that Southerners revere and Yankees find baffling. To a palate raised to expect a hard, crunchy nut, the soft, pea-like texture can be a shock.”

 

“Boiling peanuts requires a large pot and lots of fingers for shelling, so it lends itself naturally to social gatherings. Master boilers say ‘the art of boiling requires just enough salt in the water to add that unexplainable twang that makes every peanut something to linger over and enjoy.’”

 Moss noted: “The hulls are damp and the nuts inside are soft and pulpy, perhaps even downright mushy. The saltiness is not just on the outside like roasted peanuts. Rather, they are steeped in salinity all the way through.”

Brothers Ted and Matt Lee of Charleston, S.C., have an official recipe for boiling peanuts. They suggest a half cup of salt to each gallon of water to produce “the salinity of ocean water.”

 

Moss said: “The best approach is to let your taste buds, not the clock, be your guide. Sample a peanut or two periodically, letting it cool enough so you can hold it, crack the shell between your thumb and first finger, and slurp out the peas inside. When they’re salty and tender enough for your taste, they’re done.”

Or…just look for roadside stands and convenience stores that sell hot boiled peanuts. They are plentiful throughout the South.

A trusted brand of boiled peanuts is “Peanut Patch,” which was introduced in 1960 by Roddenbery Foods of Cairo, Ga., a company with deep roots, founded in 1862 by Dr. Seaborn Anderson Roddenbery.

 

He was a medical doctor who ran a general store on the side. But “because most of his patients and customers didn’t pay,” Dr. Roddenbery acquired a 1,000-acre sugar cane farm and began producing sugar cane syrup and pickles as well as growing peanuts. 

The company ventured into the production of peanut butter in 1937, before canning boiled peanuts in 1960.

Roddenbery remained a family-owned business until it was purchased in 1993 by Dean Foods of Dallas, Texas. The Peanut Patch brand of boiled peanuts was acquired by McCall Farms of Effingham, S.C., in 2002.

 

McCall Farms specializes in Southern-style canned vegetables, which are marketed nationwide. Other popular brands include Glory Foods, Margaret Holmes, Bruce’s Yams, Allens, Allens Popeye Spinach and Veg-All.

One major innovation has been the installation of large Peanut Patch warming kettles in convenience stores. Customers can scoop out a serving of the “original” recipe or the “Cajun” variety.