A brief history of the PBJ

[Delmonico]

Peanut butter was invented in the 1880's, it was touted as food for invalids and those lacking teeth, we all know peanut butter has plenty of fats and protein and even today is the first food often given to starving famine victims  Peanut butter  was popularized at the 1893 World's Fair: Columbian Exposition in Chicago.    So later in the era this would be a nice item in a picnic basket, but unlike today, peanut butter was considered high end food, gourmet, kind of like caviar and foie de gras rather than something cheap to eat on bread, using peanut butter as a filling in celery dates from this time as well as on crackers.   

The first recorded mention of peanut butter and jelly was in 1901 in the Boston Cooking-School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics in an article written by Julia Davis Chandler.

"For variety, some day try making little sandwiches, or bread fingers, of three very thin layers of bread and two of filling, one of peanut paste, whatever brand you prefer, and currant or crab-apple jelly for the other."

Although beyond the time period, the cost of peanut butter went down through improved methods in the 20's making it a cheap source of protein and fat during the depression, and with the marketing of ready sliced bread, the PBJ became something kids could make at home with out having to use a stove or sharp knife.   The PBJ sandwich really gained its popularity during WWII because the US Military bought lots of peanut butter and Welch's grape jelly.  Add these to bread and the returning soldiers helped make this popular in kids' lunches during the baby boom.   

[Major 2]

If you ask the man on the street, who invented Peanut Butter
90% may give you the deer in the head light stare , the other 10% may say George Washington Carver ?

and they'd be wrong... never mind what you might have learned in grade school
or that the NAAPC & Black History Week will mention & tout Carver.

Peanut Butter is credited to Canadian Marcellus Gilmore Edson, who patent peanut butter in 1884.

[Delmonico]

Ol John G Kellogg jumped on the bandwagon pretty quick as food to feed folks at his Battle Creek Sanitarium.

The Incas did grind peanuts into a similar substance. 

And of course despite what they teach, John Montigue the 4th Earl of Sanwich was not the first to put meat between slices of bread.  Most likely it got the name from people making fun of his addition to cards. 

However the scientists at The Ford Motor Company invented charcoal briquettes to use up waste wood from making Model T bodies,  Henry gave a bag away with each Model T for years and put his brother-in-lw with a last name of Kingsford in charge of the charcoal plant.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

When I was in the Canadian Army, 1959 - 1974, peanut butter was known as "body builder". These were the same folks who renamed cheese as "ring binder"!

P.S: Some more;   Barley Sandwich = beer.
                             "TID" = thousand Island Dressing

[Major 2]

John G Kellogg was a medical doctor , he practiced holistic health & a vegetarian life style...
he headed the Battle Creek Sanitarium , Del mentions.

Course we mostly know the name from Kellogg Cereals , Corn Flakes being among his first .

He introduced Peanut butter for patients with poor teeth.

[mehavey]

"...NAAPC & Black History Week will mention & tout Carver...."

Carver was a self-made success bordering on genius under unbelievably difficult conditions.
Wish we had more him today... both in fact and as example.
This country would be far better for it.

[Professor Marvel]

I Too am a great Lover of this Ground Legume. I marvel at it's delicacy and usefulness, and lamented at the fact that
real Peanut Butter (without sugar and additives) would alwyas separate. It became a cumbersome chore to try to stir it back together
leading to bent knives, forks, and spoons, and at least one burned up blender!

However I only recently discovered an old-timey peanut butter stirrer and am now in peanut butter heaven!

http://witmerproducts.com/pbutter.html

John G Kellogg was a medical doctor , he practiced holistic health & a vegetarian life style...
he headed the Battle Creek Sanitarium , Del mentions.

Course we mostly know the name from Kellogg Cereals , Corn Flakes being among his first .

He introduced Peanut butter for patients with poor teeth.

My Dear Major2 - you are quite correct! and No Offense to you, but I must offer this bit of a rant about Kellog:

Medicine at the time was not much better than witchcraft and magic. It is important to remember, for example, that at this time the accepted "cure" for Tuberculosis was a stay in one of the numerous "clinics" in the Rocky Mountains, where patients were forced to sleep on open-air porches no matter how cold because it was felt that the particularly "clean and cold mountian air" cured them.

In Fact, it was the tail wagging the dog. The physiology of M. tuberculosis requires high levels of oxygen, thus it generally lives in the lungs . But Merely living for an extended period at any altitude above 7,000 feet meant that the oxygen levels were so reduced that the Tuberulosis bacterium would go dormant, and thus the patient was apparently "cured". In some cases  the dormancy would last, in others the disease would re-ocurr, but sleeping out-of-doors in the cold made no difference except to cause many patients to die of exposure or pneumonia.

With that in mind, For all the "good" he did, Kellog was also a megalomaniac who stole ideas and complete intellectual properties from his slaves employees and subjects partners. There is a great deal of reading available on the topic.

Whilst he claimed his methods and practices were "Facts" based on "Science" they were actaully unproven hypotheses  and Kellog was far too impatient to actually employ the Scientific Method. Instead he, along with a few others , cobbled together quite a number
of quack medical gadgets that actually killed many of his patients. Kellog also killed more patients with bogus "dietary cures" instead of treating the actual disease.

All patients and staff, no matter what their condition or predisposition, were require to eat his mandated vegetarian diet in the Kellog Dining Hall, and after each meal, all attending (whether fit and able or not) were required to "take the air" for an hour or so in a mandatory promenade around the open air plaza on the roof of the dining hall - no matter what the weather. There are numerous photos of this available on the web.

Anyone who disagreed with his unproven concepts or even attempted to engage him in a scientific debate or who proposed an actual experiment with "controls" and documentation of results was dismissed by Kellog as a "raving lunatic and unbeliever" who was unworthy of his time.

sorry for the rant. ( BTW I also rant about Edison :-(  )

I now return you to the fascinating discussion of "Peanut Butter, It's Life And Times In The Old West"

to be followed by monographs yet to come on such  topics as "Peanut Butter - Kill or Cure" ;
"Favorite Peanut Butters Of The Gunfighters" ; "Peanut Butter Vs The Cattlemen";  and
" Did Peanut Butter Kill Billy The Kid?"

yhs
prof marvel

[Major 2]

no offence taken

[Delmonico]

I didn't even want to get into Dr Kellog, but it's partly OK, some guy named  C. W. Post stole some of his idea too.

A seller of burnt cereal to make fake coffee he stole the idea for flakes made from corn.   Although not a fan of yogurt, if I have to take it in, I would prefer the entrance for that, not the exit.    A recent study of mine shows sharp Cheddar is all you need for a pro-biotic and much more enjoyable.   I got the levels right back up where they needed to be after the anti-biotics lowered them.


Of course the whole Battle Creek Battle of the Cereals involved a lot of flakes, not all made of corn or wheat bran.

[pony express]

I Too am a great Lover of this Ground Legume. I marvel at it's delicacy and usefulness, and lamented at the fact that
real Peanut Butter (without sugar and additives) would alwyas separate. It became a cumbersome chore to try to stir it back together
leading to bent knives, forks, and spoons, and at least one burned up blender!

I too prefer the real peanut butter, rather than the kind most buy, mostly made of hydrogenated oil from various seeds that are not peanuts. I always get the Smuckers natural, just has peanuts and salt on the ingredient list. I've found it doesn't separate as much when you keep in in the fridge. When you get near the bottom, and it does get a little solid, just add a bit of oil(I use extra light olive oil) and it's STILL got more peanuts than Jiff or Peter Pan.

When I was a kid, there was an old man, a friend of my Grandpa, that got the government "commodities" back in the pre-food stamp days, he always gave the peanut butter to my Grandparents. It, too, was real peanut better, came in a metal can, had to be stirred up before use. Always had to have a pbj with that when I went to visit.

[Scattered Thumbs]

Ah! The marvels of being a furriner. I've always heard about peanut butter, but never tasted it. Not common on my neck of the woods.

[St. George]

Don't just 'hear' about it - experience it!

The Army of the '30's used it as the noon meal - packing two PBJ sandwiches into those old WWI messkits and handing them out to the men after breakfast and before the hike.

The jelly was Grape or Strawberry - the bread White (but fresh-baked, on-post) and the peanut butter came from 'Skippy' and 'Peter Pan'.

We still provide it at the Mess Hall - in these nifty two-packs that are opened and squeezed onto bread or crackers.

Bite into History!

Scouts Out!

[Scattered Thumbs]

Don't just 'hear' about it - experience it!

The Army of the '30's used it as the noon meal - packing two PBJ sandwiches into those old WWI messkits and handing them out to the men after breakfast and before the hike.

The jelly was Grape or Strawberry - the bread White (but fresh-baked, on-post) and the peanut butter came 'Skippy' and 'Peter Pan'.

We still provide it at the Mess Hall - in these nifty two-packs that are opened and squeezed onto bread or crackers.

Bite into History!

AH! Brave new world! What a few years ago was almost unobtainable around here, is now common in the supermarket. So, I followed your advice and tasted it. Not with grape jelly, but with raspberry jam, which I happen to have at home. And you're right, it does taste great.

[St. George]

I'm glad you got to give it a try...

Scouts Out!

[Scattered Thumbs]

I'm kind of afraid this stuff is addictive.  

I'm 6 foot (and shrinking) and 190 pounds. I don't need no increment at my age.