Customer Reviews

Peanuts: The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea (The Food Series)

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If you ever thought peanuts went out in style when Jimmy and Roslyn left the little ol' White House, think again. Peanuts are big. Real big. And here's the book to prove it. Andrew Smith's "Peanuts: The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea" is an unexpected delight. It's part history, part cookbook, and totally digestible. One nibble and you cannot put it down. (Sort of like those teeny treats themselves.) In this, the first-ever culinary history of the protein-riddled legume, Smith offers much food for thought ... in antebellum America, the peanuts was considered unfit for consumption except by slaves and the poor. But as Americans grew more sophisticated, as Americans realized the power and punch that's packed within those figure-eight shells, the peanut became a star at circuses, fairs and theaters. Street vendors hawked them; people gobbled them up. Warm. Cold. In a buttery paste. On bread. By the handfuls. Then there are the people beyond the nut: nutty expert George Washington Carver, John Harvey Kellogg (an early advocate of vegetarianism who extolled the virtues of peanut butter) and a couple of Italian immigrants peanut vendors who created an empire with the name of Planters. Eat this one up!