Growing up in the late 70’s early 80’s, what most of you call Peanut Butter, in our household was called Peanut Paste. In fact I still call it Peanut Paste.
I get ridiculed by my wife when I say it, and pretty much everyone says Peanut Butter. I was beginning to doubt my sanity, was this yet another example of American cultural imperialism taking over? Or I began to wonder if perhaps I had made this ‘paste’ name up myself or something. So today of all days it sparked in my mind (maybe it had to do with peanut paste on my toast this morning ) and to the internet I went for research.
Turns out I’m not crazy!! Yay me!
Peanut Paste is (was) a real term, but is a regional expression limited primarily to the Australian states of Queensland and Western Australia. And there is actually a reason for it. Up until ~1970’s, there were laws in place that prevented it being called Peanut Butter. In fact preventing a few different products being called ‘butter’ if they did not contain actual, ‘derived from milk’ butter.
With those laws removed sometime in the 70’s, the march towards Peanut Butter began. Apparently the dairy farmers in the state fought quite loudly for the laws to remain in place to no avail.
But I am now at least secure in my stubborn application to a dying word, and will continue to have Peanut Paste toast for breakfast!
My grandmother always said, “You either call your Jiffy ‘peanut paste,’ or you call your tahini ‘sesame butter’–but as the Lord is my Witness, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too–not with margarine on both sides.” She continued saying it, all the way to Bellevue.
Peanut paste is still used for the stuff they put in those crackers and other snacks. In 2009 there was one major supplier that had a contaminated plant.
From 2009, peanut butter crackers were recalled. But the filling was called peanut paste.
I grew up in Queensland, and while I was in a “Peanut Butter” family, I can recall classmates and teachers referring to “Peanut Paste”. They were usually the same sort of lowies who pronounced ‘castle’ to rhyme with ‘hassle’.
The term always gave me a slightly uneasy feeling, probably because the word ‘paste’ is quite unattractive.
A deeper analysis when I was older lead me to the conclusion that transcribing the word “penis” for “peanut”, as boys of a certain age do, gives two diametric results. “Penis Butter” sounds quite reasonable, almost appealing - like some sort of product that could be liberally applied to the region offering skincare advantages. “Penis Paste”, however, evokes unpleasant images of smegma.
Something like “Kahrsill” (which is how I pronounce it, FWIW).
And “Peanut Paste” sounds to me like something from WWII which technically contained peanuts (in barely measurable quantities) but was mostly Other Stuff and peanut flavouring - Because eating too many actual peanuts would deliver victory straight into the ravenous claws of The Hun and/or The Japanese somehow. Or something.
It was always referred to as “Peanut Butter” when I was growing up in New Zealand, which is also known for having a strong rural element.
I used to work for a major peanut butter producer. The general nomenclature that we used was that the finished product, with ground up peanuts, sugar, salt, and stabilizer was peanut butter. When we dealt with only the ground up peanuts, it was referred to as peanut paste or ground roasted nuts (GRN).
) and to the internet I went for research.