Peanut OIL is one of the most interesting things you can imagine in a kitchen.
We had a highway restaurant when I was in high-school and we had a policy for the truckers: they could get a real MEAL 24/7.... and that included mashed spuds instead of fries, real gravy, roast pork or beef, 2 veggies, the works. Or they could get a 15-ounce (or bigger) steak for $2.25 with ALL the trimmings.
Sometimes when things got crazy, there would be fish, fries and a steak in the deepfryer at the same time. The secret? Peanut oil. There is NO transference of flavours at ALL when you are using peanut oil..... and it outlasts lard about 3 to 1 and you have to REALLY overheat it to get it to begin burning. It was very expensive but it beat out anything else you could think of. Serving a steak dinner at 3AM, unwrap the frozen steak, pop it into the deepfryer for 2 minutes, put it on the grill in a patch of Butter, drop on a handful of mushrooms and, when the mushrooms are done, it goes on the plate. Deepfreeze to customer, 5 minutes flat!
And there is something else about peanuts: the ABSORB certain flavours. Couple months ago I was writing a political article in the middle of the night, forgot about the fresh-made STEW I had left on the stove. Sure enough, the kitchen started to fill up with evil-smelling smoke: I had just burnt 4 bucks worth of expensive stewing beef. The stores were closed and I had my heart set on a small dish of Beef Stew..... and almost all of the beef had charcoal along the bottom!
So I did exactly what my Mom had done in the restaurant when she burned 6 pounds of beef: went to the kitchen cupboard, got out the big jar of Peanut Butter, scooped out a BIG spoonful and stirred it into my smouldering stew. It made almost no difference to the Gravy but, inside 5 minutes, the awful taste of burnt stew was GONE COMPLETELY. You literally COULD NOT TELL there was anything wrong.... unless you accidentally chewed on a chunk of charcoal!
Peanuts are wonderful critters to have on your side!
And, in my 70 years to date, I have met exactly ONE person who is genuinely allergic to the things, yet every kid in the country must be "protected" against these terrifying little nodules of food.
"Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad." As true today as it was 2,000 years ago.
We had a highway restaurant when I was in high-school and we had a policy for the truckers: they could get a real MEAL 24/7.... and that included mashed spuds instead of fries, real gravy, roast pork or beef, 2 veggies, the works. Or they could get a 15-ounce (or bigger) steak for $2.25 with ALL the trimmings.
Sometimes when things got crazy, there would be fish, fries and a steak in the deepfryer at the same time. The secret? Peanut oil. There is NO transference of flavours at ALL when you are using peanut oil..... and it outlasts lard about 3 to 1 and you have to REALLY overheat it to get it to begin burning. It was very expensive but it beat out anything else you could think of. Serving a steak dinner at 3AM, unwrap the frozen steak, pop it into the deepfryer for 2 minutes, put it on the grill in a patch of Butter, drop on a handful of mushrooms and, when the mushrooms are done, it goes on the plate. Deepfreeze to customer, 5 minutes flat!
And there is something else about peanuts: the ABSORB certain flavours. Couple months ago I was writing a political article in the middle of the night, forgot about the fresh-made STEW I had left on the stove. Sure enough, the kitchen started to fill up with evil-smelling smoke: I had just burnt 4 bucks worth of expensive stewing beef. The stores were closed and I had my heart set on a small dish of Beef Stew..... and almost all of the beef had charcoal along the bottom!
So I did exactly what my Mom had done in the restaurant when she burned 6 pounds of beef: went to the kitchen cupboard, got out the big jar of Peanut Butter, scooped out a BIG spoonful and stirred it into my smouldering stew. It made almost no difference to the Gravy but, inside 5 minutes, the awful taste of burnt stew was GONE COMPLETELY. You literally COULD NOT TELL there was anything wrong.... unless you accidentally chewed on a chunk of charcoal!
Peanuts are wonderful critters to have on your side!
And, in my 70 years to date, I have met exactly ONE person who is genuinely allergic to the things, yet every kid in the country must be "protected" against these terrifying little nodules of food.
"Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad." As true today as it was 2,000 years ago.
