Salty Peanuts
How do peanut processors get salt into roasted, salted peanuts in the shell?
L.M.A.,
Sandia Park, NM
 Peanuts. Photo courtesy of Alice Welch and the US Department of
Agriculture.
"The answer to your reader's question is not
obvious, but simple," says Dr. Victor
Sobolev, US Department of Agriculture
Chemist, National Peanut Research
Laboratory.
Peanut processors cook the peanuts in a
briny solution under pressure for about 15
minutes. The pressure forces salt into the
peanut shell. That's how the salt gets inside.
Then they remove excess water by roasting
them either in a dry, hot (usually 800º F)
oven for 50 minutes or in oil for five.
"Roasting dramatically changes the peanut
composition," says Sobolev. "[Peanut]
sugars react with amino acids to form flavor
compounds."
How many compounds make up that
roasted flavor?
"Several hundred," says Sobolev.
(Answered October 2000; updated April 21, 2008) New
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