Peanut Butter- #9 American Food Icon

If we want to get really technical, the invention on peanut butter can be attributed to the Incas. The first evidence of transforming peanuts is from the 1st century BC in South America. The Incas pasted the underground legumes to make a pasta-like food. There is also evidence of the Aztecs making a peanut butter-like substance. But peanut butter was truly invented in America.

In 1890 an unknown food scientist, invented peanut butter.  That Kellogg guy (Dr. John Harvey Kellogg) invented a hand crank nut grinder in 1895 and is credited with the invention of the nut-meal making process.  Finally, in 1903 the first patent concerning peanut butter was issued to Dr. Ambrose Struass of St. Louis who invented an automated machine for making peanut butter.

The turn of the last century seem to have been an arms race centering around peanuts.  We all know about the agricultural chemist, George Washington Carver who invented over 300 uses for peanuts and is responsible for making peanuts a main-stay Southern crop.  But what about all the people, like the unknown scientist, who are at least partially responsible for the peanut butter boom?

Because of the advances in peanut usage in the late 1800s, housewife Almeeta Lambert (whose husband worked for Kellogg) was inspired to write The Complete Guide to Nut Cookery.  In 1899 peanut butter began to appear in vegetarian cookbooks as the first meat-subsitute.  Mainstream culinary usage documents peanut butter applied to sweet and savory dishes including salads, breads, and cookies.  Early peanut butter sandwiches combined the sugar-less paste with savory ingredients including mayonnaise, cayenne pepper, and cheese.  Chefs in NYC tea rooms scrambled to create hundreds of recipes involving peanut butter.   In 1901, the first known PB&J was referenced.  (I would venture to say that whoever created this simple masterpiece is the original sandwich artist.)

Who cares if peanut butter was originally marketed as a health food?  Americans quickly adopted it across all socio-economic planes and were consuming by the ton.  It was cheaply and easily manufactured.  And because peanuts are a low maintenance, high-yield crop, America used its agricultural and manufacturing sources to supplement the nutrion of food rations during the Depression, feed soldiers during war times, and provide overseas aid.

It is crazy to think how much innovation and creativity are behind that lunch box staple.  Creamy or chunky, there are nearly infinite possibilities for this truly American product.

Peanut Dipping Sauce- my recipe for the “Asian Classic”

Peanut Butter Lovers- a site about anything and everything peanut related with some fabulous recipes