My favorite trick was to use natural peanut butter and mix the honey in.
Natural honey, if left to sit, will form a centimeter or two of oil on top. Open the jar, pour the oil out. Warm honey (for about 20 seconds in microwave) ans pour in the jar. Mix with a knife (easier to cut and move around) until creamy. It doesn’t separate, and tastes, well, it tastes just about as good as anything can taste that is made up of fat, carbos and protein. It is a bit thick, so room temperature is preferably, if not warm.
Aha! That must be it! Here, we have no kid-culture of PB&J sandwiches, but of course I had heard about the concept when I was a kid, and so with gleeful anticipation I tried to compile one. With tastebuds all atremble with anticipation, I sank the fangs in and…
…meh. I really wanted to like it. Just… didn’t. Maybe that’s why - ratshit recipe. And I must add that my sense of taste has not been ravaged by childhood years of Vegemite consumption, so my gastronomic credibility is still intact (at least to that extent).
– all peanut butter should be crunchy, if not chunky.
– all bread should be whole-grain.
– all jams / jellies / preserves should be made by grandma (not necessarily my or your grandma, but at least, someone’s grandma.)
– jam (or jelly) is a most respectable addition to a pb sammich in any situation.
– substitution of jam / jelly with banana &/or honey as an addition to a pb sammich should only be made when one has been a really really good boy or girl of late, and is deserving of a treat.
– a peanut butter sammich with no additions should be eaten only when poverty or bad behaviour remove the option of tasty goodness.
Ooops, I completely missed it, but since I independently said almost exactly the same as you, that just proves you’re squarely in the right, doesn’t it?
I might check this out as I’m planning to visit Oxford to help with your crayfish problem at some time in the future.
But aha! Your brown sauce is a sweet syrup by any other name, and one based on tamarinds at that. Quod erat demonstrandum, you are wrong as a wrong thing.
Proper maple syrup, by the way, isn’t all that sweet. The best stuff you can get over here (outside of a deli) is the Canadian stuff available in M&S. Avoid all that imported Aunt Jemima artificial nonsense.
It is the best validation a man could want.
(And if you fancy a crayfishing partner, give us a shout.)
The best bread for a PB&J is challa - fresh challa, not the kind that comes in a bag. Although there’s also something to be said for fresh pita.
Incidentally, if your bread isn’t that fresh, you can use a sandwich maker - toasted sandwiches filled with hot peanut butter and jelly can be delicious, if a bit runny.
Peanut butter is available in smooth, crunchy and whole nut varieties here; the only ones labelled as ‘creamy’ are imported (and they’re more or less the same as our ‘smooth’.