We were given store-brand PB and store-brand grape jelly on day-old bread every day of our elementary, and even some of our high school, lives, except for that one glorious day when we had baloney sandwiches*. I lusted after Smuckers Goober and Grape:
I wasn’t socialized very well, and especially around food. I remember the one glorious day when I had Fritos included in my lunch (I don’t know why but I didn’t question this miracle). Another kid said, “Can I have one of your chips?” “No!” I’m sure I alienated him that day but all I could see was the wonder of the chips and every one needed to be for me.
As much as I like peanut butter, I’ve never cared much for PB sandwiches, and I don’t care much for jam/jelly either. But I’m OK with PB in most other uses, so the cookies are fine for me.
Isn’t buttering your bread the default, regardless of what you’re going to put on it? I always butter both slices, even if it’s peanut butter going on there.
I love PB&J sandwiches - they are a lazy day comfort food for me - but I do not actually care for most PB-based desserts. PB cookies? No thank you. PB fudge? Blech. PB pie? I’ll pass.
The only real exception is thr occasional PB & chocolate combo - like a Nutter Bar. Otherwise leave it out of my desserts.
I was surprised when I found out it wasn’t everyone’s default. Yes, I butter the bread before I spread peanut butter on, just as my mother used to butter (or, rather, margarine) the bread.
The sole exception to this rule: avocado. If the sandwich is going to contain avocado, I spread it on the bread instead of butter/marg.
But I’m guessing that these taste receptors in the lower gut aren’t detecting the subtle notes of black cherry in a decent left bank Bordeaux rather more the bucket chemistry approach of “Shit, SWEET! … quick turn on the insulin tap”!
I used to live down the street from a small independent pizza place, before the chains became so popular, before sweet BBQ sauce became so popular on cheap pizzas from chains.
This guy used to make aussie/italian style pizzas, but used a cheap peanut oil instead of olive oil. It gave everything a faint “satay” flavour that was just… very very attractive. I recommend it.
*Satay is a word that means something like BBQ. Hence “satay sauce”, a Malay BBQ sauce based on peanuts. Hence “satay”, an Australian word meaning “with peanut flavour”
In the shop today and saw something labled “American Style” PB. Had a look at the contents, and it contained a small abount of mollasses. Interesting… what is in your PB now?
Aus PB normally contains Peanuts, vegetable oils, suger, salt, anti-oxidents, emulsifier. Order of contents after “peanuts” varies, the mouth feel is proably a bit different from USA PB, and the suger is cane suger.
I’ve also seen something else labled “American Style”, and it included msg (monosodium glutimate), also known as yeast extract, vegetable extract, seaweed extract, chicken extract, or “flavours”. Never seen “bacon bits”, is that still an American thing?
Traditional Aus PB was a low-roast PB with salt and nothing else. Haven’t seen anything like that for years. It is sometimes possible to get “peanuts only”, or “no salt and suger”, but “unsweeted” has been off the shelf for 5-10 years, and low roast hasn’t been available for decades.
When I was a kid (in the 60s and early 70s) everyone had heard about PB and J from US TV shows, and we also realised that Jelly = Jam. We got mum to make some (with variants like added lettuce, or serving them on Weetbix split in two instead of bread). The novelty factor was a driver of interest, but it didn’t last.
Remembering my young self as best I can, I think there was just too much of a contrast in texture and flavour for mine. I get sweet/sour combinations and the like, but I think I thought PB and J was a bridge too far, like fried eggs and lemons, or apples and Vegemite, would be.
I must confess, though, that we didn’t realise grape jelly was canonical - I don’t think I’ve ever tried it or seen it in shops (although I’ve never looked). Mum used strawberry or raspberry.
Typically, it’s peanuts, sugar, salt, oil (often, if not usually, hydrogenated) and sometimes some preservatives and vitamins/minerals. Here’s one of the most common US brands, Skippy. “Ingredients: Roasted Peanuts, Sugar, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Cottonseed, Soybean and Rapeseed Oil) To Prevent Separation, Salt.” Jif, though, does contain some molasses. Peter Pan (I’m guessing the third most popular brand), does not have molasses. Planters is the same. If there’s anything “American Style” about our peanut butter other than general sweetness, it’s the hydrogenated oil and the texture it gives the peanut butter, not molasses.
If you go for the “natural creamy” branded versions of the products, you’ll get something like this usually, with palm oil (or similar) instead of hydrogenated oil. Or you might just get simply peanuts + salt (as in the case of Smucker’s). You have to read the labels.
Turning peanut butter into something spicier and more satay-like is definitely the way to make it more palatable.
Don’t understand the PB+J combination, especially compared to, say, Vegemite on fruit toast, which hits both the salty and sweet taste buds, leaving more of your tongue happy.
Maybe Australian aversion to peanut butter with sweet stuff also related to our confusion when presented with pumpkin as a dessert cake filling. We treat ours like orangey potato and bake / roast at every opportunity.
I’m pretty much as American as they come and I don’t eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth so I don’t eat jelly at all. I do enjoy peanut butter on saltines with a tall glass of milk at least once a week.
Once again I don’t have much of a sweet tooth so I don’t eat peanut butter cookies either. I do remember liking Nutter Butter cookies when I was a kid, but I haven’t had one in years. I doubt I’d enjoy them with my adult palate.
