Boiled Peanuts appears as a signature dish in 2 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Lowcountry boiled peanuts · Charleston
Green-shell raw peanuts simmered for hours in heavily salted water, sometimes with Old Bay or cajun spice. Eaten warm from a paper bag, the shells discarded as you go.
Boiled peanuts (Pinda boiled the African way) entered Lowcountry cuisine through enslaved West Africans on Sea Island plantations from the 1700s. The roadside-stand canon, paper bags from a coal stove kept by the side of US-17, is a continuous Carolina coastal tradition. South Carolina declared boiled peanuts its official state snack in 2006; Charleston restaurants from Husk to Lewis Barbecue serve a refined house version.
Where to eat in Charleston:
- Husk
- Lewis Barbecue
Boiled peanuts · Greenville
Green peanuts boiled in salty brine, sometimes with Cajun spice or garlic. Sold by the bag at roadside stands all summer; an official state snack of South Carolina since 2006.
Boiled peanuts have been a Southern snack since the late 1800s, when farmers boiled green peanuts to use up excess crop on the farm. South Carolina formally adopted them as the official state snack in 2006. The Gaffney-to-Greenville drive in summer is dotted with roadside peanut shacks selling fresh bags hot from the boiler all day.
Where to eat in Greenville:
- TD Saturday Market
- Mac's Speed Shop
- Henry's Smokehouse