Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)

smithsonianmag.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 37 posts

Re: A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)

#11

Post by samatman »

Naga wrote: post #7

My parents are from Canada, and when my dad was in the Navy in the 1980s, he was deployed to the UK. His biggest story is that they couldn’t buy peanut butter and Kraft Dinner except at the Base, which was obviously a problem. I travelled to the UK recently and asked someone there about those two items. Peanut butter is available now, but not that popular, but Kraft Dinner was unknown and frankly seemed disgusting to…

I wonder what confusion led to this, macaroni cheese (no `and`) has been a British staple for centuries.

Boxed macaroni cheese can be purchased at every Tesco as "cheesy pasta".

Judging it to be disgusting I would agree with, but 'unknown'? By no means.

Re: A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)

#12

Post by whylo »

Naga wrote: post #7

My parents are from Canada, and when my dad was in the Navy in the 1980s, he was deployed to the UK. His biggest story is that they couldn’t buy peanut butter and Kraft Dinner except at the Base, which was obviously a problem. I travelled to the UK recently and asked someone there about those two items. Peanut butter is available now, but not that popular, but Kraft Dinner was unknown and frankly seemed disgusting to…

> Peanut butter is available now, but not that popular

I might be an outlier but my family eats peanut butter all the time, and you wouldn't have any trouble finding it even in small local shops. Peanut butter and j(elly|am) sandwiches are less popular but I maintain that they're America's greatest export.

Re: A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)

#13

Post by treeman79 »

Anyone else find that Covid had a strong affect on the taste of peanut butter?

Right after Covid in Nov of 2020 it started tasting like raw sewage for me. I used to love it.

It’s only somewhat improved since. Met a few people that won’t eat it anymore.

https://www.news24.com/amp/health24/medical/infectious-disea...

Re: A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)

#14

Post by Finnucane »

abusque wrote: post #5

I'm surprised there is no mention of Marcellus Gilmore Edson [0]. He was a pharmacist from Montréal who patented a method to make an early version of peanut butter, more than a decade before the Kellogg's patent mentioned in the Smithsonian article. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcellus_Gilmore_Edson

What's described in the patent sounds like the filling of a Reese's peanut butter cup.

Re: A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)

#15

Post by obloid »

PopAlongKid wrote: post #10

>Kellogg’s “food compound” involved boiling nuts and grinding them into an easily digestible paste for patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, a spa for all kinds of ailments. That sounds similar to boiled peanuts (except without the grinding), a favorite in the U.S. southern region. I've never had them but would like to. According to Wikipedia, there are even some claims that eating boiled peanuts not only circumve…

A tip to keep the oil from separating: I add about 5ml of water to a jar of peanut butter and stir in well. This creates an emulsion that thickens the peanut butter and prevents the oil from separating out. It improves the spreadability as well.

Re: A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)

#17

Post by sweetheart »

treeman79 wrote: post #13

Anyone else find that Covid had a strong affect on the taste of peanut butter? Right after Covid in Nov of 2020 it started tasting like raw sewage for me. I used to love it. It’s only somewhat improved since. Met a few people that won’t eat it anymore. https://www.news24.com/amp/health24/medical/infectious-disea...

My coworker experienced that. They stopped eating peanut butter entirely and they were bummed about it because they loved it prior to having Covid.

Re: A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)

#18

Post by thebeardisred »

I'm not sure how an American institution can talk about the history of peanut butter in the US without mentioning Ruth Desmond:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/food/1988/1...

She was the underdog who took on agro-industrial companies to ensure peanut butter contained peanuts and not sawdust.

Re: A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)

#19

Post by HelloMcFly »

obloid wrote: post #15
PopAlongKid wrote: post #10

>Kellogg’s “food compound” involved boiling nuts and grinding them into an easily digestible paste for patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, a spa for all kinds of ailments. That sounds similar to boiled peanuts (except without the grinding), a favorite in the U.S. southern region. I've never had them but would like to. According to Wikipedia, there are even some claims that eating boiled peanuts not only circumve…

A tip to keep the oil from separating: I add about 5ml of water to a jar of peanut butter and stir in well. This creates an emulsion that thickens the peanut butter and prevents the oil from separating out. It improves the spreadability as well.

Another tip: store your unopened jar upside down.

Re: A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)

#20

Post by jklinger410 »

samatman wrote: post #9
jklinger410 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A quick Google indicates there is some confusion about whether Edson was a black or white man?

He's clearly white. The other face you're seeing is George Washington Carver, not surprising given that fin de siècle peanut science is a small field.

Reddit and Google Images seem to be teaming up to mix these two up

- https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/f4op87/this_is_marcel...

- https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/89suoe/til_c...

- https://www.google.com/search?q=Marcellus+Gilmore+Edson&sxsr...

Post reply on HN