What Do Boiled Peanuts Taste Like?
Boiled peanuts have been a popular snack for a while now, both in the United States and elsewhere. You won’t get bored eating boiled peanuts because of the flavor and texture.
So, what do boiled peanuts taste like? Let’s find out in my post below!
What Are Boiled Peanuts?
If you haven’t ever tasted boiled peanuts, you are missing out.
Overall, the peanuts are harvested from the peanut plant and packed in hulls in the market. Then it is boiled with a wide range of spices: from salt to Zatarain, Old Bay to influence the flavor of peanuts.
What Do Boiled Peanuts Taste Like?
Boiled peanuts are a super tasty snack that many people love to have at home. So, what do peanuts taste like? Whole roasted peanuts, when being put in fresh water for hours with a cup of salt, the peanuts become softer and absorb the taste of the salty water.
When they are cooked, the boiled peanuts can have the texture of beans or peas with the flavor of dried peanuts. Depending on the spice mixes, the soft peanuts might have certain undertones, making it a flavorful snack for the day.
If you use salt water, the boiled peanut will have a distinct salty taste with nutty and earthy notes.
When they are soaked inside the fresh water long enough, the undried peanuts become soft and tender to the taste that you can find in cooked beans or chickpeas. But their softness is not mushy. In fact, they still have certain firmness and crunchiness that you can chew on throughout the day.
If you make Cajun boiled peanuts and add spice mixes like Zatarain and Old Bay, the tender peanuts would have a beany flavor combination of the salty and pungent taste of pepper and jalapenos with the earthy and nutty taste of natural peanuts.
What Do Canned Boiled Peanuts Taste Like?
In the market, there are many boiled peanut recipes that you can find. Canned peanuts are also a popular product that lets you eat them right away instead of a long cooking time. But do canned boiled peanuts taste as good as regular boiled peanuts?
When opening the can, you can find the nutty fragrance you can find in peanut products. The peanuts, which are soaked and brined inside, become mushy like most canned food.
However, once you drain the cooking liquid and heat them for roasting or steaming, the flavor of the peanut is as intense that you can find in regular boiled peanuts. Still, their mushy state is unsalvageable.
How To Tell If Boiled Peanuts Are Bad
Boiled peanuts are a delicious Southern treat, but they won’t last long like most vegetables and legumes. Therefore, it is best to know if your boiled peanuts are bad before giving them a boiled one. So, how do boiled peanuts go bad? How do you know if boiled peanuts are bad?
One way to tell if boiled peanuts are bad is by looking at the outer peanut shells. The normal peanut hull will be rough with all-brown skin. The kernel inside should be smooth and solid, wrapped by a papery skin. So, if you spot any white, gray, or green spots on the peanut hulls, that’s the sign of mold, and you should discard the bad peanut.
You can also check the peanuts by their smell. Regular peanuts have a nutty and strong smell. If there is a sour or chemical smell, it is likely to have spoiled and gone rancid.
If there is no clear sign of spoilage, you can take a peanut for a taste. When nuts have gone bad, they can have a bitter and sour taste instead of regular peanuts’ earthy and nutty taste. In this case, you should remove them from your kitchen counter.
To prevent boiled peanuts from becoming worse, you should always store them in a dry and cool place to avoid mold and insects. Storing peanuts in the refrigerator can prolong the peanut shelf life up to a year if they stay in an airtight container.
How To Boil Peanut Like A Pro
Now that you know how boiled peanuts taste. Let’s make for yourself a good batch of delicious peanut treats! Boiling peanuts seem like a simple thing to do, but it won’t be as flavorful if you don’t check out my tips below:
Using raw or green peanuts can both do the job well. Green peanuts are fresh nuts with high moisture content. So, the taste of green peanuts is more similar to the boiled fresh beans. Raw peanuts have a great taste, but they can take a longer time to cook.
When boiling peanuts, salt is your best friend. If you cook pasta without a cup of salt inside the cold water, the pasta tastes bland. Similar to peanuts, a gallon of water used to help peanuts absorb and intensify their legume flavor. As a result, you will have a tasty and strong-flavored batch of peanuts.
You can also add seasoning to gallons of water to create layers of flavors. Cajun is the traditional seasoning pack in South Carolina. However, feel free to put spices, aromatic ingredients like garlic, jalapenos, and paprika to spice up your unsalted peanuts.
One thing you should consider is the boiling time of peanuts. You need to boil them in three hours with one hour on low heat to get the tender and soft texture for unsalted peanuts.
It can be slightly trickier for the seasoning peanuts, as you need to boil an hour before seasoning. After putting spices inside, you need to cook for two hours and one additional hour at low heat.
How Do You Eat Boiled Peanuts?
Making peanuts for boiling is one thing; enjoying them properly is another business. Like opening a soft boiled egg, you must know how to eat boiled peanuts properly.
- Prepare some napkins on your table as there will be peanut liquid coming out of the shells due to the long soaking time.
- Never eat the peanut shells whole. There are no real health benefits of peanuts’ shells, and they can taste more bitter than the nut inside.
- As the peanut shells are super soft, you can crack them with your fingers. Press your fingers and split them gently along the body, and you will have 2-3 peanuts inside.
