"Harmoniously paired with chocolate, as American as baseball games and after-school snacks, and, when ground into a creamy paste, quite possibly the best thing to happen to sliced bread - the peanut is one of the most versatile and beloved of American food icons. In this first culinary history of the protein-laden legume, Andrew F. Smith follows the peanut's rise from a lowly, messy snack food to its place in haute cuisine and on candy racks across the country.". "Shunned by southern aristocrats and the northern elite in antebellum America, peanuts were originally considered ungenteel and only fit for slaves and the poor to eat. But as Americans grew more keen on the portable, filling and inexpensive snack, peanuts became available at fairs, circuses, and theaters, whereupon street vendors first enticed consumers with offers for "Fresh, roasted peanuts!" Unlike other food fads, peanuts thrived, and by the turn of the century they were big business."--BOOK JACKET.