Getting Nutty Today
We all do it. Every once in a while, we get a craving for peanut butter. On toast or in a sandwich, there’s something in our brains that says – yep, now’s a good time for a PB & J. I was poking around the internet, and found out today is National Peanut Butter Day, recognizing the American staple we all have in our pantries. Variations are very personal – spread it with grape or strawberry jam. On white bread with bananas. In cookies of course. How about in a morning smoothie? Or just on a spoon. To celebrate today, I brought my lunch to the office and enjoyed a toasted crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich (with chips of course). Here’s to the inventors, farmers and processors (lots of fun heat treating going on in the process – read below and be sure to watch the video – I LOVE harvesting machines!). If you have an awesome family recipe with peanut butter, please send it my way to share: skowalski@khtheat.com). Enjoy!
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Every Friday, scroll to the bottom of the post to review last week’s guide and see if we managed to stump you.
Peanut butter is a nutrient-rich food containing high levels of protein, several vitamins, and dietary minerals.
Peanut butter is a viscoelastic food that exhibits both solid and fluid behaviors. It consists of ground-up peanuts and may contain additional additives. Its characteristic soft, spreadable texture can be further defined through rheology – the study of the flow and deformation of matter, affecting texture, consistency, and mouthfeel.
The earliest references to peanut butter can be traced to Aztec and Inca civilizations, who ground roasted peanuts into a paste. However, the U.S. National Peanut Board credits three modern inventors with the earliest patents related to the production of modern peanut butter. Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, obtained the first patent for a method of producing peanut butter from roasted peanuts using heated surfaces in 1884.
A businessman from St. Louis named George Bayle produced and sold peanut butter in the form of a snack food in 1894. By 1917, American consumers used peanut products during periods of meat rationing, with government promotions of “meatless Mondays” when peanut butter was a favored choice.
John Harvey Kellogg, known for his line of prepared breakfast cereals, was an advocate of using plant foods as a healthier dietary choice than meat. He was issued a patent for a “Process of Producing Alimentary Products” on May 24, 1898, and used peanuts, although he boiled the peanuts rather than roasting them. Kellogg’s Western Health Reform Institute served peanut butter to patients because they needed food that contained a large amount of protein that could be eaten without chewing.
Although often credited with its invention, George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter. By the time Carver published his document about peanuts, entitled “How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it For Human Consumption” in 1916
Early peanut-butter-making machines were developed by Joseph Lambert, who had worked at Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium, and Dr. Ambrose Straub who obtained a patent for a peanut-butter-making machine in 1903.
In 1922, chemist Joseph L. Rosefield invented a process for making smooth peanut butter that kept the oil from separating by using partially hydrogenated oil and later licensed his invention to the company that created Peter Pan peanut butter in 1928. In 1932 he began producing his own peanut butter under the name Skippy. Under the Skippy brand, Rosefield developed a new method of churning creamy peanut butter, giving it a smoother consistency. He also mixed fragments of peanuts into peanut butter, creating the first “chunky”-style peanut butter. In 1955, Procter & Gamble launched a peanut butter named Jif, which was sweeter than other brands due to the use of sugar and molasses in its recipe.
Planting – most often a tractor is used to complete the first stage of the peanut harvesting process. Due to weather conditions, peanuts are usually planted in spring. The peanut comes from a yellow flower that bends over and penetrates the soil after blooming and wilting, and the peanut starts to grow in the soil. Peanuts are harvested from late August to October, while the weather is clear.
Shelling– Shelling must be conducted carefully lest the seeds be damaged during the shell removal. The moisture of the unshelled peanuts is controlled to avoid excessive frangibility of the shells and kernels, reducing the dust in the plant. Afterward, the peanuts are sent to a series of rollers set specifically for the batch of peanuts, where they are cracked.
Roasting – The dry roasting process employs either the batch or continuous method. In the batch method, peanuts are heated in large quantities in a revolving oven at about 800 °F (430 °C). Next, the peanuts in each batch are uniformly held and roasted in the oven at 320 °F (160 °C) for about 40 to 60 minutes. This method is good to use when the peanuts differ in moisture content. A hot air roaster is employed in the continuous method.
Cooling – After dry roasting, peanuts are removed from the oven as quickly as possible and directly placed in a blower-cooler cylinder. The peanuts will not be dried out because cooling retains some oil and moisture. The cooling process is completed when the temperature in the cylinder reaches 86 °F (30 °C).
Blanching – After the kernels have been cooled down, the peanuts will undergo either heat blanching or water blanching to remove the remaining seed coats. Compared to heat blanching, water blanching is a new process. Water blanching first appeared in 1949.
- Heat Blanching – Peanuts are heated by hot air at 280 °F (138 °C) for not more than 20 minutes in order to soften and split the skins. After that, the peanuts are exposed to continuous steam in a blanching machine. The skins are then removed using either bristles or soft rubber belts. After that, these skins are separated and blown into waste bags.
- Water blanching – After the kernels are arranged in troughs, the skin of the kernel is cracked on opposite sides by rolling it through sharp, stationary blades. While the skins are removed, the kernels are brought through a one-minute hot water bath and placed on a swinging pad with canvas on top. The swinging action of the pad rubs off the skins. Afterward, the blanched kernels are dried for at least six hours by hot air at 120 °F (49 °C).
Grinding – After blanching the peanuts are sent to grinding to be manufactured into peanut butter. The peanuts are then sent through two sizes of grinders. The first grinder produces a medium grind, and the second produces a fine grind. At this point, salt, sugar, and vegetable oil stabilizers may be added to the fine grind; this adds flavor and allows the peanut butter to stay as a homogeneous mixture. Chopped peanuts may also be added at this stage to produce “chunky” peanut butter.
Packaging – Before packaging, the peanut butter must be cooled to be sealed in jars. The mixture is pumped into a heat exchanger to cool it to about 120 °F (49 °C). Once cool, the peanut butter is pumped into jars and vacuum-sealed, a process that removes the air and deoxygenates the peanut butter to inhibit its oxidation.
A 2012 article stated that China and India are the first and second-largest producers of peanuts. The United States is the third-largest producer of peanuts. Georgia and Texas are the two major peanut-producing states, and more than half of the American peanut crop is used to make peanut butter.
Peanut butter is in many recipes: The creamy or crunchy, fatty, salty taste pairs very well with complementary soft and sweet ingredients like fruit preserves, bananas, apples, and honey. The taste can also be enhanced by similarly salty things like bacon (OMG with bacon – that sounds great!).
One snack for children is called “ants on a log,” with a celery stick acting as the “log.” The groove in the celery stick is filled with peanut butter and raisins arranged in a row along the top are “ants.”
Post Consumer Brands ships about 60 million pounds of peanut butter each year. And, NFL teams eat between 3,600 and 4,300 Uncrustables per week, which amounts to at least 80,000 per year.
Steve’s Recipe: Fresh white bread, Jiff crunchy peanut butter, Smucker’s strawberry jam, Fritos corn chips. Remove two slices of bread from the bag. Spread a generous amount of peanut butter and jam on bread, and strategically add chips throughout to ensure at least one in every bite. Enjoy. Repeat as needed. YUM!!
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