Texture. Mouth feel. You need some kind of lubricant in a sandwich, else it’s too dry. But mayonnaise is too watery, by itself. It tends to seep into the bread. Butter, or other fat-based equivalent, doesn’t do that. It provides a pleasant lubricating sensation, without making everything soggy.
I don’t like lettuce on my sandwiches anyway, but butter and tomato is a fantastic combination. Slice of bread, spread of butter, topped with tomato, a little salt and/or pepper, thinly sliced chives if you’re feeling a little fancy. Lovely.
No, it really is different. To someone used to European pb, the American stuff is sickly-sweet and has a different (‘fluffier’) texture.
Here’s a comparison of Jif Crunchy and Sun-Pat crunchy (Sun-Pat is the leading British pb brand, which makes peanut butter to an ‘original American recipe’ from the 1930s):
Jif: MADE FROM ROASTED PEANUTS AND SUGAR, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: MOLASSES, FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (RAPESEED AND SOYBEAN), MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SALT. (21.8% carbohydrate)
Sun-Pat: Roasted Peanuts, Vegetable Oil, Sugar, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Salt (7.6% carbohydrate)
Many Middle Eastern cuisnes use this spic. What is it?
Yes, this. I also explained it in an earlier post, though I guess it’s not the kind of thread where you’re expected to read every post carefully. The butter also just helps everything stay in the sandwich.
I think our breads are slightly different; perhaps that would make butter taste stronger.
The spice sumac is the dried and ground fruits of the plant sumac.
ralph124c, would it kill you to look something up in Wikipedia before you post? Would it kill you to proofread your posts before you submit them?
nm - double post.
No it’s not! Everyone I know has butter in their home, even people (like my parents) who also keep some other spread for one or more members (I can’t remember why my dad has that rank greasy muck in a tub, but he does). The amount of butter sold in this country would be inexplicable if it was “vanishingly rare” to use it as a bread-spread.
You also said that butter isn’t put in for flavour. If you can’t taste the flavour in butter, you’re using the wrong kind. Good butter is one of my very favourite things, and has a very definite taste.
I don’t know. I’ve had both and it really isn’t that much different. They both have peanuts, they both have salt, they both have sugar. The European PBs I’ve used go just as well with PB&J as American style ones. They’re a good bit less sweet, but the sugar in the jelly or jam makes up for it. And, yes, the texture is not as creamy or “emulsified” as the American style, but the differences aren’t enough to make PB&J comprehensible on one side of the pond and not on the other.
Here is the ingredient list for Adams creamy peanut butter (a fairly common American brand):
The ingredients for their crunchy peanut butter are the same. Their unsalted peanut butter has an even shorter list of ingredients:
Adams no-stir peanut butter also contains:
It is also common to find peanut butter machines in American grocery stores: you put peanuts in the top, and peanut butter comes out the bottom. That’s it - no sugar, no hydrogenated oils, nothing but peanuts (and maybe a little salt).
So some American peanut butter is made with no sugar at all. I really prefer this type - the taste and texture are better, in my opinion. Unfortunately, people have been conditioned to expect their food to be sweet. For example, a lot of sandwich bread in the U.S. has quite a bit of sugar and/or corn syrup. Most BBQ sauces are terribly sweet. Many breakfast cereals are loaded with sugar.
Exactly my experience. PB in the US has a wider range of sweetness, whereas in the UK it tends to be on the less sweet end, but that has nothing to do with the dislike of the PBJ in the UK. It has everything to do with culture.
I’m from Minnesota so it’s not like we grew up next door. I’m sorry you think it sounds disgusting, you don’t have to try it if you don’t want to. I’ll absolutely put lettuce and tomato on a butter sandwich. The butter is cool and smooth keeping the sandwich wet without being goopy the way mayo can be. I dunno about these other people but I definitely taste the butter, since butter is a mild taste, it complements the rest of the sandwich rather than overpowering everything. Crisp lettuce, fresh tomatos, deli sliced beef, a slice of pepperjack or cheddar cheese on buttered bread, ooh, it’s heavenly.
Really? Admittedly, I don’t make a habit of inspecting my friends’ fridges for butter, but I had the impression that most people used butter substitutes like I can’t believe it’s not butter. There are certainly far more of them in the supermarket than any butters. Having it in your fridge would be common, I’d have thought, but not using on every sandwich.
Ah, turns out a lot more people use butter than I thought, but still less than use other butt-substitute spreads. Though butter is actually more popular now than it used to be, I suspect due to spreadable butters becoming more widely available as well changing views about the different kinds of fats involved.
I can taste the flavour if it’s spread thickly and it’s the only spread. Though even buttered toast is more about the texture than the flavour. In a proper sandwich it’s spread thinly and the flavour disappears under the other flavours; there’s certainly not enough of a flavour for it to be disgusting unless you put loads in, which obviously you wouldn’t do if you found the flavour too strong.
I would guess that the vast majority of people I know have butter in their fridge. They may have, in addition, a spread, but butter is still, in my experience, every bit the staple that flour, eggs, and sugar is. Put it this way, every time I’ve cooked at a friend or family member’s house, I’ve never had problems finding butter.
ETA: Oh, wait, you guys are talking about the UK, aren’t you. Which surprises me even more, then. I don’t think I’ve ever even noticed people using butter substitutes there.
See my link above, in the post you quoted. I was wrong about butter on sandwiches (as opposed butter-like spreads) being vanishingly rare, but butter is still less popular than other spreads taken as a whole. And I was talking about sandwiches, not cooking; butter is certainly commonly used in cooking, especially baking.
It’s a bit of a class thing, too, with working-class people somewhat more likely to use butter-a-likes. At least, that was the way it was presented in the eighties and nineties; I think it’s evened out a bit since then. (Obviously there will be exceptions, in case anyone wants to rush in and say that they’re working-class and use butter.)
Tomatoes have to go between a leaf of lettuce and a thick slice of tasty cheese when on a sarny - or the bread goes all soggy (at least, when brown bagging it)
Sorry, but that’s really kind of a misleading post for anyone not familiar with American shopping and eating habits.
Jif is the best-selling American brand of peanut butter. (I am unfamiliar with Adams and it doesn’t make any list of top sellers I have seen.)
Here is the ingredient list for Jif:
So yeah, it’s pretty sweet.
The ingredient labels of the next two sellers, Skippy and Peter Pan, likewise list peanuts and sugar as the first two ingredients.
And I would also disagree with your characterization that it is “common” to find peanut butter machines in American grocery stores. Perhaps in organic stores or high-end stores it is something you see, but the typical American grocery store only offers pre-packaged peanut butters.
Although, looking at the top-selling British peanut butter Sun Pat, it also lists peanuts and sugar:
Hmm. 95% peanuts. According to Skippy, American peanut butter must contain at least 90% peanuts. So I suspect that in American peanut butter that extra 5% deficit is devoted to sugar.
Here goes: I’m middle class and we grew up with Oooooh ooooooh Vitalite! 
I’m not saying there isn’t sugar in market leading British (and other Euro) pb, just that there’s a lot more of it in American stuff. See above - 21.8% total carbs in Jif vs 7.6% total carbs in Sun-Pat.
ETA: but a lot of Euros do consider pb to be a savory, which in fact could explain a resistance to pb&j.