# Which came first, Peanut Butter or Jelly?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-peanut-butter-or-jelly/417717>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 1, 2007, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-peanut-butter-or-jelly/417717 "2007-09-01T11:43:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-peanut-butter-or-jelly/417717/1 "2007-09-01T11:43:33Z")

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I was thinking the other day about a PB and J sandwhich. I was thinking that the first person to put those two together really, really, really had something.

That got me thinking how old PB and J was.

THAT got me thinking, “Well one would have to be older than the other”.

Which came first, Peanut butter or Jelly? How have they both evolved?

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**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-peanut-butter-or-jelly/417717/2 "2007-09-01T11:52:09Z")

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According to variety of sources, Peanut Butter as a modern commercial product was invented near the end of the nineteenth century.

A varitey of sources confirm the date- here is one:

[Skippy Peanut Butter](http://www.peanutbutter.com/history.asp)

Jam was invented much earlier, although I can’t pin down a specific date, there are many references to jellies and jams in literature written earlier than 1890.

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-peanut-butter-or-jelly/417717/3 "2007-09-01T15:05:26Z")

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Are you talking about “peanut butter” and “Jelly” as modern, commercialized, factory-produced products? Or merely about the substances themselves?

Because if you’re just talking about pureed or mashed-up peanuts, almost certainly at some point since their domestication in prehistoric South America, it occurred to someone to mash them up and either eat them that way or utilize them as a spread on tortillas.

Jelly (and jam), as a substance composed of gelled, cooked fruit and/or fruit juice, relies on an abundant supply of refined cane sugar, which is what gives it its preservative properties. Abundant supplies of cane sugar first appeared in the Middle Ages, in the Middle Eastern countries, from whence it then spread to Europe via returning Crusaders.

So assuming that some Native American smooshed his peanuts before eating them, it would appear that peanut butter came first.

But if you’re talking about the modern industrialized products, there’s a discussion of it [here.](http://ask.yahoo.com/20020524.html) There’s a discussion of the history of jam and jelly [here.](http://www.jelly.org/lore.html)

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**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-peanut-butter-or-jelly/417717/4 "2007-09-01T15:50:16Z")

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So… are you guys saying George Washington Carver didn’t invent the peanut?

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**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-peanut-butter-or-jelly/417717/5 "2007-09-01T16:58:14Z")

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[QUOTE=Zsofia]  
So… are you guys saying George Washington Carver didn’t invent the peanut?  
[/QUOTE]  
No, but he did make it great. Showed any man with a mind could create.

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-peanut-butter-or-jelly/417717/6 "2007-09-01T17:01:29Z")

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[QUOTE=anson2995]  
No, but he did make it great. Showed any man with a mind could create.  
[/QUOTE]

But he didn’t invent peanut butter.