I was raised on Skippy peanut butter. Smooth. I was at Costco a couple of weeks ago, and saw Adams [Smuckers] 100% Natural Peanut Butter. Crunchy. (Ingredients: Peanuts.) I’ve had natural peanut butter before so it was no surprise that it had to be stirred before using. The thing is, it’s not peanut ‘butter’. It’s peanut ‘soup’. You can pour it more easily than spread it. I can’t remember that being an issue with other brands I’ve had. Is this normal?
In some circles, it’s called Reality is Unrealistic.
(website is down atm, but it’s at tvtropes.org.)
I bought the Adams brand once. It was less soupy after refrigeration, but who likes cold peanut butter? Jif makes a natural peanut butter that doesn’t have this problem, although you do have to stir it a bit. It’s pretty good.
We use Smucker’s and it is not soupy (although we keep it in the fridge).
One thing I noticed (and you might too) is that the top portion tends to be more soupy than the bottom. This, of course, simply means it needs to be mixed much more than one would expect.
My solution to the mixing problem is simple. When I near the end of a jar and the remnants are too solid, I open a new jar. I pour some of the new jar into the old jar and then mix each jar separately. This has the added benefit that you can really stir vigorously without overflowing and making a mess.
When I had kids, in a fit of health consciousness, I went to a health shop and bought some !00% peanuts peanut butter. It was of course 100% peanuts, ground up. The stuff was OK but unsalted was ordinary and it was very hard to spread. So I added some salt and a little more oil and a bit of honey, mixed it up and had perfect peanut butter.
After that I just bought roasted peanuts and made a small batch each week or so. Different oils and sweeteners make for a nice touch of individuality. I liked coconut oil (most liked peanut) and treacle and dried fruit make good sweeteners.
I’d forgotten all about it as the kids only ate it up to their teens I guess.
Jif for life.
I need it hydrogenated, buttery, and sweet. Best PB and J, hands down.
I love natural peanut butter, the other kind has a very waxy texture to me now.
I bought a special stirrer for it.
Works like a charm! I haven’t had any problems using it with any size jar, I just press down on the top if the opening is too small. I haven’t found a jar with a mouth too large, yet.
I really prefer the softer consistency. I had some natural peanut butter on toast with sliced bananas the other day, tasted wonderful!
mmmmm nothing like real peanut butter.
to help stir it (if the costco peeps didnt already point this out) zap it in the microwave for 2 min or so to soften it up.
personally I LOVE that taste.
I LOOVE plain peanut butter (ingreadeants: peanuts, salt). Yes the oil starts out on top but some stirring fixs that. Intersting device, Glory, if oit was generally available in stores I might ask for it for Christmas (I could certianly afford buying it myself, but it fits great in the “things I would like but probably woldn’t buy for myself” category)
Brian
We eat a lot of almond butter and it has the same problem. I think I need one of those stirrers. And everything else they sell on that site.
I’ve found that, after stirring, it helps to store the jar upside down in the fridge. This helps prevent the peanut butter towards the top of the jar from becoming dried and dessicated.
I buy the store brand of natural peanut butter because it’s the only one that comes in a glass jar. I use a table knife to stir it, and don’t like the idea of plastic shavings in my peanut butter. I haven’t noticed any brand tasting better than the rest, although there was one a few ears ago that I didn’t like. I’ll ask my wife what she thinks about Glory’s stirrer.
Anyway, I just remove a couple of spoonfuls of peanut oil when I open a new jar before stirring. You can experiment with ho much you need to remove to get the consistency you want. If find you’ve removed too much, just use the top portion until it’s harder than you want, then put a spoonful of oil from the next jar into the hard remnants, and stir. I use the peanut butter on toast for breakfast, so don’t want it cold.
I used to have to remove three spoons, but it seems to be getting less oily. I wonder if they’re removing some oil themselves, although I’d think that would have to be noted on the label somehow.
If you like natural peanut butter, I’d suggest trying some natural sunflower butter. Very nice!
Word. Every other peanut butter I’ve ever had has been a pale imitation.
I’ve not had Adams natural peanut butter, but many natural peanut butters are runny today. This is because manufacturers typically use the same high speed cutting mills to make natural pb that they use to make homogenized pb. (Homogenized needs to be ground extremely fine to create that super-smooth texture.) Using these mills frees up more of the oil in the peanuts, and makes pb runny.
There are some pb makers (my company is one) that use older slow-speed grinding mills to make peanut butter. Cream-Nut Natural PB and Sweet Ella’s Organic are both made this way. I’m sure there are others.
There is another difference, which is that the grind of the pb made on the slow mills is coarser. This means they are less runny, and don’t separate as fast or as much, but they aren’t super smooth.
Be well.
Trader Joe’s has natural peanut butter in all four combinations of crunchy, creamy, salted, and unsalted. I’m a creamy unsalted guy, myself.
Some of the oil usually separates while sitting on the shelf at the grocery store, which is fine: I like mine at the thick end of the spectrum, because I tend to snack a lot on PB straight from the jar, and I love the texture of the stuff on the bottom that you can practically slice. So I pour as much oil off the top as has separated out, then stir the rest.
That’s probably not most people’s taste, but like ZenBeam said, if you find natural PB to be too soupy for you, experiment with pouring off varying amounts of oil before stirring, and see what consistency you like.
And then use the poured-off oil for cooking?
I never pour off the oil. I also don’t turn it upside down or refrigerate. I do periodically re-stir with the knife while I’m scooping some out. The bottom of the jar does get a little thick, I would be afraid the last bit would be absolutely dry and inedible if I poured off the oil to start.
I love natural PB.
The Skippy/Jif types are like lardbutter to me now. I can’t taste the peanuts at all in those types - the poster who described it as waxy is right on.
I mix well and refrigerate (no preservatives and I’m afraid it will go rancid if I don’t).
Yep - pour off 2/3 into another jar, use it in stir-fry dishes. Literally cut the remaining oil into the pb with a table knife, store on a shelf (not the fridge)and remix at each use.
Love Adams no-salt crunchy pb on toasted sourdough and a shmear of creamed honey - mmmmmmmm, tasty comfort food.
Skippy/Jif tastes like shortning - blargh.