Trish Eichleberger’s Dr. Pepper ribs at the Highball are one of my favorite items on the menu, sweet, salty, crunch and finger-licking good.  What you may not know about the tasty apptizer, however, is that the recipe is based on a very old-fashioned idea of pouring shelled peanuts into  your doctor pepper and enjoying the nuts as a snack after your drink.

We found a little backstory online at the Homesick Texan blog:

“Texans have a long tradition of putting peanuts in their Dr Pepper. This phenomena, however, is not exclusive to Texas as others in the South are known to put peanuts in their Cokes. To wit, Barbara Mandell sings in her early ’80’s hit When Country Wasn’t Cool:

‘I remember circlin’ the drive-in
pullin’ up and turnin’ down George Jones/
I remember when no one was lookin’/
I was puttin’ peanuts in my Coke/
I took a lot of kiddin’, ‘cause I never did fit in/
now look at everybody tryin’ to be what I was then/
I was country, when country wasn’t cool’

That said, Barbara Mandrell is a Texan, so while she used the word “Coke,” she could have very well been singing about putting peanuts in her Dr Pepper. No matter, placing peanuts in your Dr Pepper (or Coke) is done for two reasons. One, the peanuts make your Dr Pepper fizz. And two, it tastes good. The salt from the peanuts cuts the sweetness of the soda, plus it’s entertaining to have a bit of crunch in your mouth as you sip.”

And now you know… the rest of the story. (Tim League)