Peanuts, anyone?

[phylm]

Does anyone in here have any experience with growing and preparing peanuts? We planted an experimental one pound of seed this year, and had four 70-foot rows. Just pulled them and pulled the peanuts off the roots and stems. Got nearly TWO bushels. We have put them into the solar dehydrator to dry, and will roast them in a couple of weeks. (On cookie sheets, 25-30 minutes @ 325 degrees, I'm told.) I'd like to know if anyone makes their own peanut butter, and how.

[waif69]

I have made peanut better with my kids in a very small batch, but our method should scale fine if you have the equipment. We simply took roasted peanuts, shelled them and ground them up with a mortar and pestle. If you have a "will it blend" type blender you should be able to do it that way.

[phylm]

Waif--thanks so much. I'll give it a try in a couple of weeks.

[plantkiller]

blenders work great.. just make sure you add a bit of oil (I usually use canola) because if not the peanut butter is quite dry and crumbly.

[waif69]

I would use peanut oil if it were me.

[SuperMom]

I use canola oil as well. Peanut Oil is just too expensive and unnecessary.

[waif69]

Wouldn't that affect the taste?

[thor610]

I grew peanuts one year in this zone 5 area. I didn't do too well with them, but I know Ontario, Canada grows peanuts.
Making peanut butter is simple. Simply mix them in your blender. You can add oil if you want to smooth it out and make it easier to blend. Salt makes it taste better.

[sparrow]

Food processor works. It's basically add a tablespoon of oil to about one and three quarter cups (varying on whether you want it crunchy or smooth). You could probably store some of it as peanut flour.
Roast your peanuts
Studies have shown that the most heat resistant strain (Salmonella seftenberg) is inactivated by peanut roasting
Contamination of peanut butter with Salmonella spp. occurs via post-roasting recontamination
Prevention of recontamination depends largely upon effective separation of raw peanuts (and associated dust/fines) and the post-roast processing areas
From http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:PBuBdhlzx2EJ:www.foodprotection.org/meetingsEducation/Latin%2520America/Hall.pdf+raw+peanuts+storeage+and+avoiding+salmone lla&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=au

Things I didn't need to know:
Mostly made up of ground, blanched and roasted peanuts (skins removed) though peanut skins are being included *ewww*.
Made up with stabilisers or oils which could be soy, rapeseed, cottonseed, linseed, whale, palm or other marine oils..from the sounds of it the only peanut oil that is used is whatever you get from grinding or crushing supplemented by whatever is used from the above.
emulsifiers, sweeteners...http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3619207.html compares methods.
From what I understand heating to 100 degrees happens along the way.

Just curious about what you would have to do for longterm storeage as home made peanut butter is usually refridgerated and safe for a couple of weeks and I know salmonella often is a problem with peanut butter and that stored peanuts in their shell in silos have had their contamination issues.

Here's to homemade peanut butter without the extras.