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Dried Fruits and Nuts: Peanuts
Salted Peanuts 1 cup raw peanuts 1/2 cup cooking oil Remove skins from peanuts and fry same as salted almonds. Salted Pecans 1 cup pecan nut meats 1/2 cup cooking oil Use whole nut meats and fry same as Salted Almonds. Be careful that they do not remain in the fat too long. As they are dark, the color does not show when they are sufficiently cooked.
Spiced Nuts Prepare salted nuts, and when sprinkling with salt sprinkle also with powdered clove, powdered cinnamon, or a mixture of spices. Popcorn may be prepared in the same way. Use instead of salted nuts.
How to Color Almonds Blanch and chop almonds, spread on white paper, and add a few drops of color. Rub together until pieces are all colored alike, then dry carefully, and keep in covered glass jar. Green chopped almonds may be used instead of pistachio nuts, if the latter are not obtainable.
A cluster of short variations that all lean on a recipe printed elsewhere in the book — "salted almonds," meaning nuts shallow-fried in oil, drained, and salted while hot. The method is sound; only the fat temperature and the timing need pinning down.
- The absent parent recipe"Fry same as salted almonds" points to a recipe printed elsewhere in the book; it means heating the half cup of oil in a small heavy skillet and cooking the nuts in it, stirring constantly, then lifting them out to drain on paper. The book gives no temperature; moderately hot fat, in the region of 350°F, is the modern equivalent. With this much oil to this many nuts it is shallow frying rather than deep frying, and the nuts should be moving the whole time.
- Timing by nutExpect raw peanuts to take several minutes to go from pale to light gold, and pecans a fraction of that; both are matters of watching rather than the clock. The book's warning about pecans is the hinge of the whole page: their brown colour hides the change, so judge by smell and by the sizzle slowing, and pull them a shade before they look done since they keep cooking in their own heat.
- Skinning peanutsRaw peanuts skin most easily after a minute in boiling water, drained and dried before frying. Blanched raw peanuts sold for boiling or roasting skip the step entirely.
- Salt while hotSalt only adheres to the film of oil still on the surface, so it must go on the moment the nuts come out of the pan. Fine salt clings better than coarse.
- Spiced nutsAbout 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon or a pinch of clove per cup of nuts is enough; clove is aggressive and will dominate anything else in the bowl. Mix the spice into the salt first so it distributes rather than clumping.
- Popcorn in oil"Prepared in the same way" most likely means seasoning already-popped corn rather than popping it in that half cup of fat, though the book does not spell it out. Popped corn absorbs oil fast and turns heavy, so keep any tossing brief.
- Colouring almondsModern liquid or gel food colouring works as written, but a few drops of gel go much further than the dyes of the period. Spread the almonds on parchment rather than plain paper and let them dry completely before jarring, or they will weep colour and clump.
- Green almonds for pistachiosTinted almonds substitute for pistachio in appearance only — they contribute no pistachio flavour. Real shelled pistachios are now easy to buy and are the better choice unless you specifically want the flat green of an old-fashioned decorated cake.
- Yield and keepingA cup of nuts makes a small bowlful for a few people to pick at. Cool completely, then store airtight; fried nuts hold their crispness for a week or so at room temperature and longer in the freezer.
Salted nuts are often said to have occupied a fixed place on the American dinner table in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: small dishes of them stood at intervals down the cloth, to be picked at between courses in the way olives and celery were. Like bonbons and glacé fruits, salted nuts belonged to the confectioner's end of the meal and to the same repertoire of things a hostess made ahead and set out in cut-glass dishes. Frying produces a distinctly different nut: glossier, saltier, and more evenly browned than an oven-roasted one. The final note on colouring almonds is a piece of frank economy. Pistachios are generally thought to have been expensive and irregularly available in American groceries before the mid-twentieth century, and tinting chopped almonds green was the accepted stand-in for the pistachio garnish on cakes, ice creams and nougat.