Hope boiled peanuts are good for me??

[Dirt Grinder]

Originally Posted by Labonte18

I tried your recipe this weekend.. Got good reviews.

I made some mistakes, and now that I have the basics.. Am going to try to refine it a little bit. I made the mistake of having too many peanuts in the cooker so I didn't get things cooked well (evenly.. those at the top were a tad underdone).. Plus, I added the salt at the end, and it didn't mix in well.. So.. Lessons learned, will do better next time.

But.. I have a few ideas I want to try.. The first of which will be using Old Bay in place of the salt.

That could be the most amazing thing ever, or an epic fail.. but.. Won't know until I try.

You know how those "first attempts" can go.

A few tips...

1. Make sure you don't use iodized salt, as it will make the peanuts bitter (I use Kosher salt)
2. Add the salt/seasonings up front
3. Salt the water until it tastes like seawater (some say 1 cup salt per gal water)
4. Make sure the peanuts boil on "High" for at least an hour before reducing to "Low"
5. Make sure the peanuts will have room to submerge when they are cooked
6. Make sure the water level doesn't get low

There really aren't many places to go wrong. After all, we're just cooking peanuts. For me, the peanuts are "done" when they have the consistency of a canned pinto bean. If, after cooking on "Low" overnight, the peanuts still aren't done, just return to "High" and continue until they are cooked to your preference.

Use fresh "green" peanuts, if available. They cook in about four hours. However, they can get too soft and mushy if you aren't careful.

[Labonte18]

Yeah.. What I meant by adding salt at the end was that I put the peanuts in, put the water in, then poured in the salt, mixing as best I could.. With the overload of peanuts.. That didn't work well. I wasn't QUITE so dumb to try to salt them after they were done cooking..

I'm really excited to try the Old Bay.. Like I said.. I think that will either be the best or worst thing ever.

[Dirt Grinder]

Originally Posted by Labonte18

...What I meant by adding salt at the end was that I put the peanuts in, put the water in, then poured in the salt, mixing as best I could...

That's how I do it. The heat and boiling dissolves and mixes the salt throughout the pot.