I’m here to plead for help -
I love Jif Creamy peanut butter.
But I also am interested in consuming fewer trans fats. And Jif is chock full of partially & fully hydrogenated oils.
My only experience with natuarl peanut butter was back in the 70s - grainy, not sweet enough, kinda icky.
Is there a brand of natural peanut butter out there that is smooth & sweet & salty & yummy like Jif?
Interesting link about peanut butter and trans fats. Here’s a snippet…
I have not found a natural peanut butter I find palatable.
Oh Happy Day!
I guess I’ll just keep eating Jif and then when the new labelling kicks in I’ll find out for sure.
Mmmm Jif.
I think I’ll have PB&J for dinner.
Well, try Laura Scudder’s if you want. “Just peanuts and salt, that’s all.”
Stir in the oil. It comes crunchy or smooth, or low-salt (salted is better IMHO).
No sugar in there. It tastes like peanuts. You can add your own jelly. I love it.
Make your own. Beg, borrow or drag out a food processor. Dump in two cups of roasted peanuts and buzz away, make it as chunky or smooth as you like. A quarter teaspoon of salt is just about right for the quantity of peanuts. If you buy a natural peanut butter and there’s a deep oil slick on top, it’s been on the shelf too long. The peanut butter I make about every 2-3 nweeks gets only the barest shimmer of oil on top. Good eats, as they say.
I’m a Laura Scudder’s fan too. Yum. You can buy it in pretty small jars, so why not give it a test run?
I get it fresh from the store–there’s a grinder, and you flip a switch and it makes brand new peanutbutter right there. It’s quite good. I imagine you could make your own pretty easily, as quiltguy says. I never have oilslick problems with the stuff I buy fresh ground.
I can’t stomach normal peanut butter; I go through a jar of the natural stuff once a week, all by my onesy.
I expect it’s an either/or sort of thing. If you didn’t like it then, you probably won’t like it now.
You could also add a little sugar to your homemade peanut butter, which will make it closer to Jiff. I’d use confectioner’s sugar or powdered sugar, as it will disperse better through the butter. If it’s too thick for you, add a little canola or grapeseed oil to make it smoother.
I haven’t found a natural peanut butter off the shelf that I can stand. glances guiltily at the jar of Skippy in the cabinet and resolves to buy peanuts and drag out the Vita-mix today
Get a normal jar of natural PB, pour off most of the oil sitting on the top, nuke it for 30 seconds, add clover honey (runny-honey), mix. Best damned PB I ever had. Jif is good because it is sweet. Just add your own sweet and life will achieve a karmic balance…
-Tcat
If you have a Whole Foods Market nearby, try their “store brand”, 365.
It’s not as grainy as Adams or other larger brands that I have tried. But you’ll never get anything as creamy as Jif without all that “yucky stuff”.
Parkers Farm peanut butter is peanuts, salt and honey. It’s better than any shelf brand I’ve ever tried. I found it at CostCo, and it’s kept refrigerated.
I love natural peanut butter, but only if somebody else stirs it in the jar first and gets the oil all over their hands.
Can I make it in a Cuisinart?
I also love almond butter.
The best penut butter I’ve evr had is “Teddie” brand. I love it, but I don’t think it fits the OP’s criteria, especially since it says on the front lable: “SUPER CHUNKY.” I love it because it has nice, large chunks of penuts in it. Also, I just checked the back of the jar, and it contains: “Trans fat 0g”
I actually live just a couple of miles from the Teddie Peanut Butter factory.
They do have a “smooth” variety.
Maybe I’ll give it a try. It’s both natural & local.
It’s seriously just a matter of what you choose to get used to. I ‘switched’ to natural several months ago and at first the grainy quality and oil separation was a pain, but now I’m so used to it I enjoy it in the same fashion I did “regular” PB (maybe more???)…
I heard quite a while ago that Adams had been bought out by Smuckers, so I went to their site to see if it’s available in Texas. (They have an online store, but Adams isn’t up yet.) They have a contact form, so I asked, and much to my surprise got a PHONE CALL back! The woman was very pleasant, but not helpful. “It should be in the online store in a few months.” MONTHS?! Oh, well. Then she horrified me: “They’re CLOSING THE PLANT where it’s made.” I certainly hope they’re not going to screw up the PB or cancel the brand entirely.
Take a look at their main page or their contact page if you want to save it.
(Damn heartless monopolistic corporations!)
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=953074&lastnode_id=558943
Best link I have off the top of my head.
I’d be cautious about natural peanut butter - as the link points out, organic peanut butter can have many times more aflatoxin in it, a toxin generated by a fungus that grows on peanuts (though it’s present in small quantities in regular peanut butter as well.) Aflatoxin is one of the most potent carcinogens known.
I no longer eat organic peanut butter.