I just had my first ever peanut butter epiphany!

Peanut butter. My early experience surely runs counter to the all-pervasive stereotype in popular North American culture that all kids by default love to eat peanut butter 'n jelly sandwiches. Ever since I was a kid, I coudn't stand them, and peanut butter was a taste and texture that I literally detested.

Enter the all-organic, no-additive "President's Choice" peanut butter that I recently bought as I needed some for a recipe. I opened the jar and right away saw a difference: this peanut butter was viscous and runny in texture - not solid like most of the commercial offerings. Also, amazingly, the list of ingredients was short: 100% organic peanuts. What?! No salt? No sugar? No hydrogenated cottonseed/palm oil? I couldn't believe what I was reading. And the taste? Amazingly fantastic!!! Absent was the nasty saltiness and rough, additive-laced taste ('scuse the unintentional rhyme) of the mass-produced stuff. This is really the first peanut butter that I've had that spoke of the raw ingredient and nothing else.

I am now a dedicated convert. Took me almost 30 years, but it has finally happened.

Peanut butter. My early experience surely runs counter to the all-pervasive stereotype in popular North American culture that all kids by default love to eat peanut butter 'n jelly sandwiches. Ever since I was a kid, I coudn't stand them, and peanut butter was a taste and texture that I literally detested.

Enter the all-organic, no-additive "President's Choice" peanut butter that I recently bought as I needed some for a recipe. I opened the jar and right away saw a difference: this peanut butter was viscous and runny in texture - not solid like most of the commercial offerings. Also, amazingly, the list of ingredients was short: 100% organic peanuts. What?! No salt? No sugar? No hydrogenated cottonseed/palm oil? I couldn't believe what I was reading. And the taste? Amazingly fantastic!!! Absent was the nasty saltiness and rough, additive-laced taste ('scuse the unintentional rhyme) of the mass-produced stuff. This is really the first peanut butter that I've had that spoke of the raw ingredient and nothing else.

I am now a dedicated convert. Took me almost 30 years, but it has finally happened.

These have been around forever. Guess you weren't around during the hippie era. Or paying attention to organic foods back then. I was cooking at Mudd's with both organic cashew and peanut butters in the early 80's. No emulsifiers. One has to stir the product to mix the oil back in with the solids.

...and make sure to refrigerate what you don't eat.

Paul, for a fun meal, peanut butter omelet topped with alfalfa sprouts. Got the recipe from John Lennon.

3 eggs at room temp.
add a dash of TABASCO and crushed garlic
dash of seltzer too
lightly beat (with a fork) to a brisk count of 40

warm up 1/4 to 1/2 cup peanut butter

warm a pat of regular butter in an omelet pan to just short of brown

pour in the egg mixture and work it around the edges until they begin to harden
add the warmed peanut butter to one side of the omelet, fold over and let cook for about 30 seconds, flip in pan, turn off heat, flip onto a plate.

top with the sprouts

Perhaps you can take hydrogenated palm oil capsules as a supplement so your trans-fat level doesn't fall too far.

Got the recipe from John Lennon.

Agggh. Proof again- never take culinary, dental, or automotive engineering advice from Brits.

Got the recipe from John Lennon.

Agggh. Proof again- never take culinary, dental, or automotive engineering advice from Brits.

He had been completely Americanized by then, what with all those dollars and living at the Dakota...the teeth, however!!!

Paul -

Don't know if they have it up where you are, but keep an eye out for Maranatha peanut butter. They seem to get more of a roasted peanut character into theirs that I really like. Only downside is that it's a bit pricey compared with other brands of organic peanut butter.

Mike

Got the recipe from John Lennon.

Agggh. Proof again- never take culinary, dental, or automotive engineering advice from Brits.

You may remember the old saw about why the British drink warm beer.

It's because they have Lucas refrigerators.


(Okay, you have to be of a certain age and familiar with cars to understand this.)

Raw peanut butter makes the BEST cookies. You can also grind your own. Just put some peanuts and a little peanut oil in a blender and there you have it (after you turn the blender on, of course).

You may remember the old saw about why the British drink warm beer.

It's because they have Lucas refrigerators.


(Okay, you have to be of a certain age and familiar with cars to understand this.)

So I would imagine the lights in the fridges never turned on as well?


Mike

You may remember the old saw about why the British drink warm beer.

It's because they have Lucas refrigerators.


(Okay, you have to be of a certain age and familiar with cars to understand this.)

So I would imagine the lights in the fridges never turned on as well?

No, but any radio plugged into the same circuit turned on whenever you opened the fridge door.

For those not familiar with British cars, Lucas, supplier of electrics to much of the British automotive industry, is nicknamed by auto mechanics "the Prince of Darkness". Two friends of mine owned a Range Rover, and it eventually developed a problem where the radio wouldn't work unless the heat was also on. The mechanic took a look under the hood, traced some wires, probed a few places with a voltmeter, then threw up his hands in exasperation and exclaimed, "Lucas!".

-Paul W.

I'm fond of the Teddie brand of peanut butter. But I think they still add some salt, although it's unhomogenized.

-Paul W.

Raw peanut butter makes the BEST cookies. You can also grind your own. Just put some peanuts and a little peanut oil in a blender and there you have it (after you turn the blender on, of course).

A nut and candy store we frequented years ago had grinders. Just buy your peanuts and feed them through the grinder. No oil necessary. Yum!!! Best peanut butter I have ever had.

Whole Foods here in ATX has grinders, too. They are certainly handy.