Boiled P-nuts - a Southern thing

On any given weekend, drive along Rosebud Road towards Highway 78 and you will see a large yellow sign advertising boiled P-nuts. The husband and wife team of Bob and Alice Kelsey can be found sitting under a white tent at 3119 Rosebud Road (next to Action Awards) tending to their pots of boiled peanuts and offering up some good 'ole traditional southern snacks.

"Growing up in Helen during high school, I used to pass by a man selling peanuts every day and I remember him filling up the parking lot with customers clamoring for his peanuts. He was an icon in the area," said Bob Kelsey.

Now he and his wife are the ones selling the nuts from their front yard. For two years, he said they sold their peanuts at motorcycle shows, but found it to be more profitable to sit out in their yard and have the customers come to them.

"We boil up 50 pounds of peanuts each weekend" said Bob Kelsey. "We usually get 120, no, make that approximately 120 customers each weekend, because some people buy more than one cup. We'll get 120 32-ounce cups out of the 50 pounds of peanuts. We work Saturdays from around 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Sundays until we run out."

The Kelseys tweaked the original recipe that they found on the internet until they had their own recipe for the salty and spicy Cajun styles that they sell. Bob Kelsey said it took a lot of trial and error to get the recipe to their liking.

"If the first one doesn't bite you, the second one will," he warned when talking about the Cajun style peanuts. "Different weekends see a higher demand for a particular taste. Both flavors are crowd pleasers."

"We really have to watch the salt and spice content," said Alice Kelsey. "We also have to keep adding water to the pots due to evaporation during the process."

She recalls having an 80 pound pot ruined when it melted due to the long boiling process. Now they have two pots that can withstand the eight to nine-hour boiling time before the peanuts are ready to sell. They buy their peanuts at the Farmer's Market in Jonesboro.

It is believed that boiled peanuts have been a southern institution as far back as the Civil War as a nutritional source for the soldiers when they lacked other food staples and cooking facilities. They could prepare the peanuts over the campfire. The boiling killed the impurities and the salt acted as a preseverative so they could carry them for a few days without spoiling to use as a  high protein ration.

By all accounts, boiled peanuts can be pretty additive once you start eating them. They can also be quite messy as the water squirts out of them when they are opened. Research shows that the only drawback to boiled peanuts is that they have a short shelf life. If left unrefrigerated or frozen, they will turn slimy and smelly in 3-4 days.

Salty or spicy? What's your favorite?