How Boiled Peanuts Became A Southern Staple

Peanuts are not only a versatile ingredient, but a popular snack as well, especially in peanut-growing regions like the American South. Peanuts show up all over the Southern culinary footprint, from the free, roasted peanuts at Virginia-born burger chain Five Guys to the simple local delicacy of the boiled peanut.

A boiled peanut — soft and pliable after hours of boiling in salty water, almost like edamame — has been a Southern staple for generations, but how did that come to be? Despite growing well in Southern states like Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas, the peanut is not native to North America.

Like many fixtures of Southern food, the history of the boiled peanut involves people who were enslaved in various regions of Africa, bringing versions of their culinary traditions across the Atlantic Ocean. Yet the legume is not native to that continent, either. The boiled peanut's journey to becoming a Southern staple actually begins in South America.

Based on archaeological evidence, peanuts as a food likely first emerged in modern-day Brazil or Peru, where Portuguese explorers found that they enjoyed peanuts enough to take the plant with them to Africa. There, it quickly became a staple ingredient in a number of cuisines due to its similarity to an indigenous ingredient, the Bambara groundnut.

Many African culinary traditions arrived in North America by way of the transatlantic slave trade, and the peanut is no exception. Peanuts were among the foods that enslaved people could grow for their own sustenance. Records are scant, but at some point they began to boil unripened peanuts into a soft, salty source of protein. 

While white society eventually began eating and experimenting with peanuts as well, boiled peanuts remained closely associated with African-Americans until after the American Civil War. By the early 1900s, after peanuts in general had exploded in popularity, boiled peanuts became a fashionable snack in Southern high society. Peanut boils became community events, filling a similar social role as another Southern tradition, the crawfish boil. Although the rich nuttiness from roasting is a more common way to enjoy a peanut, boiled peanuts remain a distinctly Southern treat enjoyed fresh during the peanut harvest season or canned for year-round consumption.