Good to see this thread revived! Here are some more learnin's on the subject:
For those who don't know, there's "green" peanuts and then there's "raw" peanuts. Green peanuts are fresh from the field and raw peanuts are dried. Green peanuts don't last long unless you refrigerate them or dry them. And they can only be refrigerated for so long, too. If you want green peanuts to last more than a few days, they need to be frozen.
You can thank my wife for explaining that to me. You're all probably thinking "WOW! Chief's got a really cool wife!", and you'd be right. But she's also downright annoying when she goes on to complain when I bring ten pounds of raw peanuts home "Why didn't you get green peanuts?" "Really?!? Maybe because it's January and peanuts are half a year out of season?"
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Green peanuts are the bestest peanuts to make boiled peanuts from. Mostly, in my opinion, because it takes far less time to make boiled peanuts from green peanuts. Because raw peanuts start dry, it literally takes up to 10 times longer to make because they need to be rehydrated.
Let's cover the process, mostly for those who haven't made their own.
The only thing I hate about making my own boiled peanuts is the time it takes to make them from raw. And the worst part is starting out, because every frickin' peanut hull is full of air and wants to bob like a cork on the water. It takes FOREVER to get those buggers soaked properly. People say "over night", but I've found that to be naive. Sometimes you need a full 24 to 48 hours of soaking. And even then, cooking on the stove requires frequent attention over several hours to be sure you keep the water level up.
Since my original posting nearly 3 years ago, I've long since moved on to using my wife's InstaPot. This takes ALL the annoying work out of it! To be sure, raw peanuts still take longer than green peanuts, but the InstaPot makes it effortless. Set the time and pressure and leave it alone.
For straight up salted peanuts, I prefer about 1 cup of kosher salt per gallon of water. My wife likes less salt, so I use 3/4 cup occasionally, because I need to keep my wife happy, too. My youngest daughter and I enjoy them spicy, so I use a mix of kosher salt and Tony Cachere's Original Creole Seasoning, then add Worchestershire Sauce, liquid smoke, and hot peppers. I don't recall the exact portions, as we kinds just add what looks good and go with it.
The gallon of salted water goes into the InstaPot. Raw peanuts go into that. (About half a bag, the size I get. I forget how many pounds in the bag.) It's enough peanuts to completely submerge in the water when pressed down, without overflowing the pot. I have a cheap plate I bought at Walmart to lay on top of the peanuts to help hold them under the water. It's sized perfectly to fit the InstaPot for this purpose.
Set the InstaPot for an hour at high. Then walk away and forget about it. As the temperature increases, the air inside the peanut hulls is driven out. When the InstaPot cools down after the pressure cooking cycle is done, the water is sucked back into the hulls where it needs to be.
Take the lid off and remove the plate...you won't need it anymore because the peanuts are all sitting below the surface of the water.
At this point, the peanuts are soaking in ernest. In fact, you can start cooking them at this point, which is what I do. Or you can let them sit over night before you start. If you want to leave them overnight, you can set the InstaPot on a warming cycle for 10-12 hours...LO, MED, or HIGH. It's kinda like a crock pot at this point, slow cooking them as they soak. Then start cooking them afterwards. They will be well hydrated by then, and have had a lot of time to absorb the salt/seasonings in the process. But honestly, the real absorbtion of flavors from the salt and seasonings doesn't happen until the peanuts are actually softened from the cooking process. So the sooner you start cooking them, the better.
Raw peanuts will still require more actual cooking time than green peanuts, even so. I generally set the InstaPot for about 3 or 4 hours on HIGH. My wife likes them a little bit "crunchy". I prefer them completely soft. At 3-4 hours, they're well cooked, but not quite completely soft all the way through. A fair compromise in our house. To make them the way I'd prefer them, I usually double the cooking time from the point where my wife likes them.
I like to eat my peanuts while they're hot/warm, fresh from the pot. I will typically just keep them in the InstaPot after they're cooked and put them on a warming cycle, set for 10-12 hours. Whenever I want peanuts, I'll scoop a bowl out and eat them, then reset the InstaPot to keep the rest warm. My wife rolls her eyes at this, complaining that I should just put them in the fridge and reheat what I want from there. But unless she needs her InstaPot back for something else, she loses that battle! She's also crazy, as she insists they get drained before putting into the fridge. Sometimes I wonder if she's REALLY Southern when she says something like that.
The InstaPot still takes time. It DOES speed the actual process up quite a bit, but the real savings lies in the completely effortless amount of work required on your part. Get 'em in the pot, set the pot, then walk away and ignore it. No further tending required.
Oh...and cleaning is a breeze. When making on the stove, I'll have to clean the entire stove top and adjacent countertop because the boiling/simmering causes tiny spatters in the process. Not difficult, to be sure, but this is totally absent when using the InstaPot.
I cannot recommend the InstaPot highly enough for making boiled peanuts from raw peanuts. Green peanuts should be much faster, but I haven't tried them in the InstaPot yet.
CLEANING THE PEANUTS:
Since I typically use raw peanuts, they're pretty clean to start with. Some sites I've read on the subject say to rinse them once as part of the soaking process. I usually don't, because where I buy them at the roadside stores along highway 58 between Suffolk and Emporia, VA they're already clean. When I do, however, I simply pour the brine out of the InstaPot, maybe flush with some fresh water, then add more brine before starting the cooking.
When soaking green peanuts, many sites say to rinse them three times as part of the process. I haven't used green peanuts as yet in the InstaPot: even when they're in season, I typically get raw peanuts because we don't cook large enough batches and would end up wasting some of the geen ones. Maybe I'll see if I can get a smaller amount of green ones some day.