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America Loves Her Creamiest Crop

Peanut butter isn't just a dietary staple here; it's a cultural icon

By Clay Dillow,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 10, 2009 1:28 PM CST

(Newser) – “What’s more sacred than peanut butter?” Sen. Tom Harkin asked last week while scolding the company responsible for the recent peanut-butter-driven salmonella outbreak. Brian Palmer takes a look at American's PB love affair in Slate, and finds that while peanuts have been eaten in the US for more than 250 years, the creamy derivative didn’t become a kitchen staple until a meat shortage hit during World War II.

Cheap, protein-rich peanuts came to the Americas with African slaves during the 1700s and were roasted by street vendors as far back as 1787. But it was sanitarium overseer and breakfast cereal titan John Harvey Kellogg who first ground peanuts into a paste and served “nut butters” to his patients in the 1890s. Originally a niche food, demand soared during the lean war years, solidifying peanut butter’s role in Americana.

This is a Friday, Feb. 16, 2007 file picture of returned jars of Peter Pan Peanut Butter at a super market in Atlanta.
This is a Friday, Feb. 16, 2007 file picture of returned jars of Peter Pan Peanut Butter at a super market in Atlanta.   (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Shelves on the peanut butter aisle at an Atlanta supermarket are bare after jars of Peter Pan Peanut Butter were pulled from stores in Atlanta in this Feb. 16, 2007 file photo.
Shelves on the peanut butter aisle at an Atlanta supermarket are bare after jars of Peter Pan Peanut Butter were pulled from stores in Atlanta in this Feb. 16, 2007 file photo.   (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
This photograph shows a jar of Peter Pan peanut butter.
This photograph shows a jar of Peter Pan peanut butter.   (Getty Images)
Georgia State Senator John Bulloch, R-Ochlocknee, holds up a jar of peanut butter while proposing food processors be required to share internal reports with  state inspectors, Thursday Jan. 29, 2009.
Georgia State Senator John Bulloch, R-Ochlocknee, holds up a jar of peanut butter while proposing food processors be required to share internal reports with state inspectors, Thursday Jan. 29, 2009.   (AP Photo/John Amis)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
PosterNutbag
Feb 11, 2009 6:38 AM CST
For me, its always had the stigma of dog-sex attached to it.
Guest
Feb 10, 2009 9:00 PM CST
From Wikipedia: Evidence of modern peanut butter comes from US patent #306727 issued to Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Montreal, Quebec in 1884, for a process of milling roasted peanuts between heated surfaces until the peanuts reached "a fluid or semi-fluid state." As the product cooled, it set into what Edson described as "a consistency like that of butter, lard, or ointment."[PARAGRAPH] J.H. Kellogg, of cereal fame, secured US patent #580787 in 1897 for his "Process of Preparing Nutmeal," which produced a "pasty adhesive substance" that Kellogg called "nut-butter."
Guest
Feb 10, 2009 5:10 AM CST
Hey, I'm addicted... However, I'm going to stick with "it's a staple" and stop short of "cultural icon".

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