What makes deep fried peanuts a gourmet snack food? I am sure many people would say they do not cost enough, or what can be gourmet about a peanut. George Washington Carver developed many uses for the peanut that we never think about. It is a cool nut that is not a nut, it is a legume. A legume is a plant that encloses its seeds in a pod, so peanuts are like a bean that grows underground. It also is the crop of choice for one of our former presidents Jimmy Carter. If that does not make it gourmet I don't know what would. Because there are so many different food items made from peanuts, it can be used so many different ways, and it is the chosen crop of a former president deep fried peanuts have to be a gourmet snack food.
So what are the food items that we use from peanuts? There are so many this can not be an exhaustive list but will cover many of the main categories. We all know about peanut butter, and what a great choice to mix with jelly on a sandwich. It is also used in many Asian dishes as a thickener in soups and stews. Many times Chinese, dishes have peanuts sprinkled on top to give the dish some crunch. Of course you can eat them raw, or roasted with salt or honey glazed on the nuts. Here in the south, we have a couple of unusual traditions with peanuts. The first is boiled peanuts. You can be driving down the road and many road side produce stands will have signs advertising boiled peanuts. Some of you may ask, what is a boiled peanut? Raw peanuts with the shell are dumped into a pot of boiling water which can have different flavors like salted, garlic, or Cajun. Then the peanuts are removed. The shell is cracked and the juice is sucked out and the peanuts eaten. The most unusual is deep fried peanuts. In the south, you have to deep fry everything. So with the shells on, you drop the peanuts into hot grease and fry. Then as they come out of the oil sprinkle your favorite flavors on the shell. Then eat the peanuts shell and all. Good stuff.
What else can we use the peanut for besides eating? One application is the making of peanut oil. Everyone who loves deep frying knows that the longest lasting and safest oil to fry in is peanut oil. Most restaurants use peanut oil because it lasts so much longer than vegetable oil in their deep fryers. The second reason is peanut oil has a lot higher ignition temperature than other oils. So when making funnel cakes or deep fried turkeys, your risk of fire is reduced greatly. Peanuts can also be used to make cosmetics, fuel for biomass stoves, dyes, paints, stains, paper glue, gas and hundreds of other things according to the Tuskegee University web site. The last group and probably the most used but least thought about are medicines. Peanuts and peanut products can be used for rubbing oils, castor oil substitutes, laxatives, and even for venereal disease. That George Washington Carver was an amazing inventor. He came up with all of these uses and did and only sold three of them, the rest he gave to mankind.
The last reason deep fried peanuts can be a gourmet food snack is a former president grew up on a peanut farm. Every body knew the peanut farmer from Georgia in 1976. The campaign was as much about rural people and peanuts as it was about the candidates. Now, Plains Georgia has an annual celebration of the peanut and the former president. There are images of the peanut all over the town, a 5K race, beauty queens, and several other competitions during the festival. There are also several museums commemorating Mr. Carter and the influence the peanut and farming had on his life. If a president had a significant experience with a peanut, then I think you should also. Go find some deep fried peanuts, boiled peanuts, or some honey roasted. I am sure you will be glad you did.
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