Feature article
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Stantons bond over boiled peanuts
By Fred Sauceman
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It was only natural for Paul and Nancy Stanton to settle in the mountains of East Tennessee back in 1985. They had been lured by the highlands practically all their lives.
From what Paul describes as “the flatlands of Atlanta,” the couple first felt the call of the Appalachian foothills of north Georgia, and when breaks from his practice as a vascular surgeon in the state’s capital city allowed it, they’d head to Lake Lanier, the mountains clearly visible from the waterside.
They felt the tug of towns like Duluth, Dahlonega, Clayton and Ellijay. It was the mountain air. The scent of pine forests. The clear views on cool days. But something else kept them coming to the uplands of the Peach State. They had fallen for boiled peanuts, sold on street corners.
“There’s hardly any gray area with boiled peanuts,” says Paul, president of East Tennessee State University since 1997. “Usually on first tasting, people make up their minds whether they like them or not.”
The Stantons’ daughter Shelley, now a physical therapist in Suffolk, Virginia, grew up eating boiled peanuts, but her husband Mo Canada, a Tidewater native, remains devoted to the standard salted Virginia variety.
Two of the Stantons’ three children became boiled peanut converts early on. Son Ryan, now a medical doctor in Lexington, Kentucky, has the peanut passion, but brother Eric never got past the earthy flavor.
University presidents seek relief and recreation from relentless professional pressures in a number of ways. Some golf. Some sail. Paul cultivates roses in the warm months and boils peanuts for the family in the colder ones.
“It’s a fall and winter tradition in our family,” he says. “We boil peanuts just about every weekend. By February, we’ve pretty much had our fill until cool weather arrives again in the fall.”
On Saturday mornings, Paul heads to the north Johnson City Kroger to buy the raw peanuts. He notes that not all grocery stores sell them. For peanut boiling, Nancy bought him a special reinforced pot, a tall one with a glass lid. It’s a pot manufactured for pasta but one the Stantons devote solely to peanuts. The briny boiling water had leeched out the insides of several weaker vessels.
If you’re really serious, Paul adds, invest in an iron kettle and do the boiling outside.
“I fill the pot with water right out of the spigot and really salt it at the beginning. I buy a Morton’s salt container and probably use a quarter of it, maybe more, with each preparation.
“You bring the water as immediately as you can to a full boil and let the peanuts boil for two or three minutes, then turn them down to about three-fourths (medium high). Add more salt then. Turn the temperature down to medium about 30 minutes into the process. Leave it at that for three or four hours, then down to low. Add more salt at that point and leave the pot on low, for a total cooking time of from 12 to 18 hours.”
Sometimes the boiling can take up to 24 hours. Paul’s favorite part is the periodic taste-testing.
“I do it hourly until I see that the peanuts are really good and soft and very salty. Which is not good for you,” he laughs, as his physician side briefly emerges.
Despite the heavy saline content of the water, Paul says consuming peanuts is healthy, because of the protein concentration in the groundnut and the essential vitamins it contains.
“I can’t say I’d recommend boiled peanuts to somebody with hypertension or heart disease because of the salt content,” he interjects. “It’ll kick into your system, I’m sure. I’ve never gone to the doctor and had my blood drawn any time right around eating them. I think it would adverse if you had a daily habit of it. But for a few weekends out of a year, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
I ask the president what he tells people who contend that boiled peanuts have the flavor of topsoil.
“Some of us like to eat topsoil,” he responds.
“How would you describe the taste?” I ask.
“It’s like good sea water,” he answers. “That taste of the ocean on your tongue. They have a natural type of taste that goes down very well. My grandsons, Matthew especially, could stand and eat them all day.”
For the Stanton family, the daylong peanut boil is a way of extending time together on shared weekends that are coming farther apart now, with marriages, doctoral degrees and the demands of new jobs. When Paul Stanton says, “I prefer to make it a lengthy process,” he’s speaking of peanut boiling on one level, but in another, deeper sense, it’s clear that what he really wishes to prolong is the bond of family.
--------GoTriCities--------
Food writer Fred Sauceman, author of the book “The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South — from Bright Hope to Frog Level,” is senior writer and executive assistant to the president for public affairs at East Tennessee State University. E-mail him at sauceman@etsu.edu.
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