Boiling and Eating B.A.P.s

Sometime during the month of September a long anticipated, marvelous event occurs in the Tifton Wal-Mart. You walk in the door with the produce department almost immediately to your right and there "they" are. "They" are B.A.P.s!!! Your joy in life has jumped by a bajillion points and you almost feel as though you have died and gone to culinary heaven. Now that would be southern culinary heaven, of course. B.A.P.s are a sight to behold! They are only in season from about the end of August to the middle of September so you gotta get them then. The picture above shows a prime example of a B.A.P.

Now, you may be saying "what the heck is a B.A.P.? Do I really need to explain it? Can you not figure this one out for yourself? Come on people! You don't want me to say it, do you? Now, look what you've done. You're gonna make me tell you what a B.A.P. is...it's a Big Awesome Peanut. (Sure it is, winky, winky. For the sake of this blog and all the millions and millions of people who may read it, the "A" stands for Awesome - winky, winky). You gotta admit the name is appropriate. And no, the store does not market them as B.A.P.s, but rather "Peanuts". (I am now rolling my eyes - can you see them rolling? Can you seriously think of these as mere peanuts!!! Some of these are soooo big! How big are they??? Some of them are soooo big that you might get filled up just eating a small handful. These things are so big you could use these as your Sunday dinner plate. Some of these are so big that if you had them in your year's supply of food, a gallon bag could feed one person). This is what a good bunch of B.A.P.s look like prior to cooking. And, you either like boiled (pronounced like "bowled" peanuts) or you don't. There is no middle ground and please don't be polite and pretend you like them just to earn points or impress someone. Save them for someone who LOVES them!
This is the best way to boil peanuts in my opinion. Others may have different methods, but this is the one that works for me and no one's complaining about how mine taste. Fill a large pot with your peanuts. (Sometimes you need to clean them by washing them off if they are freshly dug and have dirt on them. I never have had to clean my B.A.P.s). Fill the pot all the way to the top with water and turn the burner on high so that the water can come to a boil.
Add salt. I don't know how much. Just add salt - probably at least one cup and let water come to a boil. (Mr. Hand adds the salt).
This is what the pot looks like after 30 minutes of boiling the B.A.P.s. You most likely will have to turn the burner down a little so that it doesn't boil over the top.
Periodically I dip a spoon into the water solution and taste it. If it's not too salty, you need to add more salt. You just season it to how salty you'd like your B.A.P.s to be. (Mr. Hand graciously offered to demonstrate).

Make sure that you always keep your water level up to the top also. The B.A.P.s have to have water to boil in and that's the reason you may need add more salt from time to time since the added water dilutes the salt. (Isn't Mr. Hand doing a wonderful job)?

After about two hours of boiling, it's time to lay out some "sample" peanuts. After all, you've got to see how they're coming along.
When cooled, you can pop open the peanut shell as demonstrated by Mr. Hand.

This is what the B.A.P.s look like when popped out of the shell and are ready to eat after about 2 - 2 1/2 hours of cooking. (Oh No!!! It looks like Mr. Hand is forcing Joe to sample some of the B.A.P.s. But, I'll bet Joe will manage to survive the experience and live to eat more another day). It should be noted that Joe did not eat boiled peanuts when he married me. To say that he has learned to enjoy them would be an understatement.

Also, every time someone has been heading out west to see Corey, there has always been boiled peanuts going with the lucky person. Last year when I somehow missed the B.A.P. season and didn't make fresh boiled ones, I had to resort to canned peanuts. I had 50 lbs. of boiled peanuts in their own separate suitcase.

In closing, if you don't eat boiled peanuts, you just don't know what you're missing! But that's okay - that just saves more for those of us who LOVE them!