Bob’s Peanuts is largely a wholesaler now, dealing with stores throughout the state.
LEWISTON – Kathy Gibson propped another 25-pound tin atop a box and began slicing through its cover with a knife.
She expertly peeled back the top and dumped the contents, labeled “a product of India,” into a metal basket. Then she picked up the basket, balancing it in her hands as she walked to the vat and eased it into the bubbly liquid.
“I ought to know how to do this,” said the 34-year-old. “I’ve been doing it for 18 years.”
Gibson makes nuts.
It’s the family business. Her dad, Normand Cusson, bought “Bob’s Peanuts” in 1964. It was a small operation that sold nuts to workers in Lewiston’s then-flourishing shoe industry.
Cusson built it up. For a time, he had a kitchen in downtown Auburn, but the company is now a wholesaler, mostly. The family sells nuts and candy to about 300 Maine stores from a shop on River Road in Lewiston.
That’s where Gibson does her work.
She doesn’t roast nuts. The roaster is in a back room and Gibson has never used it. She fries her nuts, like French fries, in a mixture of peanut and cottonseed oil.
“They go in a pale,” she said, standing over the bubbling oil. “When their color begins to change, they’re done.”
Cashews cook the fastest. They continue to darken into a golden brown for minutes after they’re removed from the oil.
Gibson cooks cashews and pistachios and peanuts in three varieties: blanched, Spanish and redskins. The cashews come from India in tins. The peanuts come from the U.S. South and Midwest. In the shop, they’re stored in wide barrels and scooped away as needed.
They cook only as many as they can sell right away, Gibson said, picking up the still-dripping nuts, draining the oil and dumping the basket into a stainless steel box.
“They’re the freshest peanuts in town,” said her dad.
They taste different that way. The warm cashews have a light flavor. Like the color, it will deepen with time.
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