Friday, June 25, 2010

Peanuts Galore

I love peanuts (or any other nut for that matter), but am much more appreciative of its overall value, having read the words of one of its great champions -George Washington Carver (1864-1943), who we met in a previous story.

From How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption (Seventh Edition, January 194, here are some of his words, and a couple of very interesting recipes.

Of all the money crops grown by Macon County farmers, perhaps there are none more promising than the peanut in its several varieties and their almost limitless possibilities.
Of the many good things in their favor, the following stand out as most prominent:

1. Like all other members of the pod-bearing family, they enrich the soil.
2. They are easily and cheaply grown.
3. For man the nuts possess a wider range of food values than any other legume.
4. The nutritive value of the hay as a stock food compares favorably with that of the cowpea.
5. They are easy to plant, easy to grow, and easy to harvest.
6. The great food-and-forage value of the peanut will increase in proportion to the rapidity with which we make it a real study. This will increase consumption, and, therefore, must increase production.
7. In Macon County, two crops per year of the Spanish variety can be raised.
8. The peanut exerts a dietetic or a medicinal effect upon the human system that is very desirable.
9. I doubt if there is another foodstuff that can be so universally eaten, in some form, by every individual.
10. Pork fattened from peanuts and hardened off with a little corn just before killing, is almost if not quite equal to the famous red-gravy hams, or the world renowned Beechnut breakfast bacon.
11. The nuts yield a high percentage of oil of superior quality.
12. The clean cake, after the oil has been removed, is very high in muscle-building properties (protein), and the ease with which the meal blends in with flour, meal, etc., makes it of especial value to bakers, confectioners, candy-makers, and ice cream factories.
13. Peanut oil is one of the best known vegetable oils.
14. A pound of peanuts contain a little more of the body-building nutrients than a pound of sirloin steak, while of the heat and energy producing nutrients it has more than twice as much.

Carver gives recipes for soups, breads, cakes, cookies, ice-cream,and candy - plus a few others that definitely enlarged my peanut-cooking repertoire.

NO. 37, LIVER WITH PEANUTS

Boil the liver from two fowls or a turkey; when tender mash them fine; boil one pint of blanched peanuts until soft; mash them to a smooth paste; mix and rub through a puree-strainer; season to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice; moisten with melted butter; spread the paste on bread like sandwiches, or add enough hot chicken stock to make a puree; heat again and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

NO. 44, PEANUT OMELET

Cream a slice of bread in half a cup of rich milk; beat the whites and yolks of two eggs separately; add the yolks to the bread crumbs and milk; to half a cup of finely ground peanuts add a dash of pepper and salt; mix thoroughly; fold in the whites, and cook as usual in a buttered pan.


Quotation for the Day.

I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.
Orson Welles.

1 comment:

  1. Hmmm love me some peanuts... especially with yogurt. I like cashews too like LOTS

    ReplyDelete