does peanuit butter need to be kept in the fridge? iam asking about regular peanut butter (extra crunchy.)
nadahappycamper
" freedom is an illusion."Nope – room temperature is fine.
From here:
I’ve never kept peanut butter in the fridge.
According the the FAQ at jif.com,
Oxidation of the fats will occur at a pretty slow rate. This can be slowed further by putting it in the fridge. Microbial spoilage is essentially a nonissue due to peanut butter’s extremely low water activity.
If your family doesn’t gobble Jif up by then, they’re obviously alien freaks who have no taste buds.
Just another person who’s never kept peanut butter in the fridge. Never understood people who did. Or people who keep bread in the fridge, either, for that matter.
I once had a roommate who put the p.b. in the fridge, I’d put it back in the cabinet everytime I found it. Keeping it in the fridge makes it really stiff and hard to spread.
Exactly. I have been known (occasionally) to put the sandwich in the fridge AFTER I make it just because I sometimes like to eat it cold (don’t ask me why, I don’t know). But to keep it in the fridge is unnecessary and makes it difficult to use.
My SO was shocked to find I never put PB in the fridge. This was the cause of some contention in the early days of our relationship until I put my foot down and said since I was the only one eating the damn stuff, it was my lookout whether I wanted it in the fridge or not.
Bread…well, he would no sooner put bread in the fridge than he would, say, the phone. I had to convince him that sometimes you HAVE to put bread in the freezer if you’re not going to eat it right away.
The oil in natural peanut butter will separate out if you don’t keep it in the fridge.
As post 3 makes clear.
Actually, I didn’t get that from post 3. I just assumed it had something to do with lack of preservatives in natural peanut butter or something like that, but I guess the oil reason makes sense (even though my refrigerated peanut butter does separate out anyway.)
Well, not really. It says for homemade peanut butter to keep it in the fridge and turn the jar upside down to redistribute the oil. For natural peanut butter it just says to keep it in the fridge, but does not say why. As a consumer of natural peanut butter I’ve found that keeping it in the fridge keeps the oil from separating out, no need to turn the jar over as with homemade peanut butter. Just trying to clarify things for those who “never understood people who did” keep it in the fridge.
I keep bread in the fridge because I live in an area that frequently has 80% humidity or higher. You can find a brand new loaf of bread has gone completely moldy if you leave it on the counter for about three days. Also, I’m single and do not eat enough bread to use it all before it goes moldy. So it keeps longer in the fridge. (Bread also freezes well, but I don’t want to have to toast every single slice every time I pull one out of the freezer.)
All that said, my peanut butter lives on the kitchen counter. I use it twice daily to hide my dogs’ pills in their treats.
Growing up we use to always have Jif, now it’s all Adam’s, all the time.
The oil separation definitely makes you double take if you aren’t used to it. The best part about it though, is it enables you to choose creamy, chunky, or some where in between; all in the same jar. Just depends how much you stir it and where you scoop it. Stir it up just a little and it’s perfect for drizzling over ice cream.
Be it Jif or Adam’s, I can’t stand cold peanut butter. All it is good for is ripping a hole in the bread.
It’s because most peanut butter hydrogenates their oils, changing them from unsaturated, which are liquid at room temperature, to saturated, which are solid. They do this so that they don’t separate out.
I keep it in the fridge because I mostly just spoon it straight out and I like it chilled like a dessert.
I don’t even keep the natural kind in the fridge, usually.
I tried, to keep the oils from separating, but the still sort of do, and then it’s too hard to stir them back in when it’s cold. It usually takes me a month or more to go through a jar of natural peanut butter (well, at the moment cashew butter), and I’ve never had it go rancid on me.
thank youfor the many answers
nadahappycamper