Boiled Peanuts

Every Winter on our family vacation to florida, my dad would stop on the side of the road and buy some boiled peanuts.  I fell in love with them, especially the spicy ones. 

Now, the thing with boiled peanuts is...The first time you try them you'll be all "ewww gross".  The second time you try them, they won't be so bad.  And the third time you try them, you'll be hooked.

I've been craving peanuts for MONTHS now.  Around here, the best you can get is ones that came out of a can at a gas station.  They aren't terrible, but they aren't the boiled peanuts I grew up with.

So I got the brilliant idea to order them online!  I got my google on and found a place out of Macon Georgia that ships from fairly reasonable.  Score!  I ordered 1/2 bushel. (then I found out that there is a peanut field about 5 minutes from my house...not cool.)  My peanuts arrived on Friday Afternoon...

 

 

I like raw cashews, so I figured I would like raw peanuts....Not so much.  They tasted like a raw pea, just bitter.

 

 

I got all the spices I needed when I went grocery shopping on Friday night.  When we got home from work on Saturday I got started.  I borrowed a Turkey boiler from my Favorite Father in Law so that I could cook more peanuts than would fit on my stove.

I dumped 2/3 of the peanuts into the pot, then I added in the water 1 gallon at a time so I would know how much spice and salt I needed to add to it! 

 

 

Then I measured out my spices, threw in a bunch of jalapeños, and had the MR carry it out to the garage for me. 

 

And I waited....

 

And waited...

 

And waited...

 

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3 hours later they were still crunchy.

 

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Around 6:00 I figured that they were almost ready, but not quite, so I went ahead and added in some potatoes, boiling onions, and garlic....

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40 minutes later and the potatoes were done, but the peanuts weren't.  So we shut it off and the MR. took me to the local diner for dinner.

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We came back and turned it back on and let them cook until bed.  Then I shut it off and let all the spices soak up into the peanuts.

 

Apparently when you boil peanuts, you cook them to get them soft, and then let them soak in the brine to infuse the flavor into them. 

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure the next day I ate my weight in boiled peanuts.  Sunday afternoon I also started a new batch of peanuts.  I didn't have enough Crab & Shrimp Boil to start a completely new batch of brine, so I just used the left over brine, added some more water and guessed on how much more salt and spices to add.  For some reason, the second batch didn't take near as long as the first batch, and in my opinion they turned out with a better flavor.

 

 

 

We ate to our hearts content, and then a little more...and I packaged up the rest and froze them!  We'll be eating boiled peanuts for a LOOOOONG time :) 

 

If you're interested in boiling your own peanuts, I used this website!