Before Peanut Butter, there were Peanut Adventures
The peanut was found in South America, as far back as 950 BC, almost certainly in Brazil. The Incas were considered to have made peanuts into a paste during this period, as well as growing peanut crops. Peanuts were in fact believed to have been discovered inside the tombs of mummies in Peru!
So how did the peanut get to the United States from Peru?
It’s thought the peanut made it to Africa from Peru by early explorers of South America. Later, the peanut was traded to Spain, and from Spain to the American colonies. But history is not so clear.
Once in the Americas, peanuts were grown commercially in North Carolina since around 1818 and in Virginia perhaps since the 1840′s. Around the 1890′s, George Washington Carver, who worked in the Alabama Tuskegee Institute, began to make use of the peanut as an alternative crop for the worn out cotton crops ruined by weevils.
Still no peanut butter
In the 1400′s, peanut crops were growing on the continent of Africa. It was said that Africans put peanuts into stew once they were ground up. In China, peanuts were made into creamy sauces. Throughout the civil war, history shows that peanuts were used as a peanut porridge. In the early 1900′s, an Italian immigrant named Amedo Obici started roasting peanuts in oil. He and Mario Peruzzi began selling these peanuts and that was the start of “Planters” peanuts!
George Washington Carver in 1903 proceeded to discover about 300 ways to use the peanut with his studies at Alabama Tuskegee Institute, for example in soups and desserts. He’s considered to be the father of the peanut industry, for his work with peanuts along with their horticulture.
The Start of Peanut Butter
John H. Kellogg and his brother have the patent for the process to make peanut butter. But it starts even before that. The beginnings of peanut butter really started with a doctor in the St. Louis area in the 1890′s. It’s believed that this doctor was trying to find a protein solution for the poor who had bad teeth and couldn’t chew meat. This doctor actually used his personal meat grinder to grind the peanuts right into peanut paste. The doctor took his concept to George Bayle, Jr., who owned a food products business. The peanut paste started to be packaged and sold in barrels for around six pennies per pound!
Peanut Butter or Cereal?
During this time period, Dr. John Kellogg, the staff physician at a Sanitarium in Michigan, also started out producing peanut paste for his patients. He attempted to get his patients to be vegetarian, so this would be an option for them to get protein and avoid eating meat. He and his brother, W.K. Kellogg, actually patented the peanut butter procedure. The patent was granted in 1895, stating peanut butter to be “a pasty adhesive substance that is for convenience of distinction termed nut butter.” The peanut butter by the Kellogg brothers steamed the peanuts before grinding them (which gave it a completely different taste from today’s roasted peanuts used for peanut butter.) The Kellogg brothers then concentrated on their cereal, which was sold as the Kellogg brand worldwide. And we know how that turned out.
One of the employees at Kellogg’s, Joseph Lambert, built hand-operated peanut grinders to produce peanut butter in 1896. He invented the idea and started the Lambert Food Company. His wife, in fact, created a recipe book about nuts and ways to cook them (including peanut butter recipes.)
How Peanut Butter Became As You Know It Today
In Australia peanut butter became accessible to the general public in 1899. This was made by Edward Halsey from the Sanitarium Health Food Company there. The US got its public release of peanut butter into popular society a little later in 1904, at the St. Louis World Fair. A CH Sumner sold the peanut butter with a concession stand setup in the fair, making over $700 in sales!
In 1908, Krema Products Company, found in Columbus, Ohio, began to market peanut butter. This business may be the oldest of the peanut butter makers still operating today. Back then, their peanut butter was only available in Ohio, because the company’s founder Benton Black wanted it that way. Having said that, it didn’t matter, because barrels of peanut butter didn’t keep too well in any case. So I guess it didn’t matter what he thought, they had to keep it close.
California: Peanut Butter or Bust
The following state to produce peanut butter was California. Joseph Rosefield was selling different brands of peanut butter here, with a smooth variety which was churned similar to butter and not like the earlier gritty types which had bben made earlier. He also got a new patent for the procedure that stored peanut butter fresh for as much as a year, by stopping the oil from separating from the peanut butter.
Peter Pan AND Skippy Peanut Butter
In 1928, Rosefield had licensed his smooth peanut butter formula to the Pond Company. They marketed the peanut butter as Peter Pan brand! Then, in 1932, Joseph had issues with the Pond Company and vice versa, and so he proceeded to form his own enterprise called Rosefield Packing Company. It began marketing peanut butter using the brand name of Skippy in 1933. A couple of years later, Rosefield made a crunchy version of peanut butter that added in chopped peanuts right after the peanut butter was processed.
In 1958, Proctor&Gamble started making the most well-known brand of peanut butter these days, Jif. P & G were able to do this by purchasing WT Young Foods in Kentucky. A little known factoid: Jif has got the largest plant for producing peanut butter anywhere! The most popular brand of peanut butter in Canada is Kraft, who also sells its peanut butter to Australia.
Peanut Butter Manufacturing Nowadays
These days, many kinds of nuts are manufactured into some kind of butter. Nut butters, as you may name them, are produced from various kinds of nuts such as almond, pistachio and hazelnut. Nutella sells a delicious hazelnut spread made out of hazelnuts and cocoa, which has always been popular around our house (even if it is filled with sugar.)
Peanut Butter isn’t made with Nuts
However, you may find out that peanuts aren’t really nuts, they’re beans or legumes. A legume is really a dry fruit that features a seam on two sides. Legumes also are referred to as pods. With many legumes, the seam opens on two sides. The peanut’s pod, on the other hand, doesn’t split open like other legumes (in any case, not on it’s own.)
The USA has become the largest provider of peanut butter, and also the biggest consumer! Argentina as well as Chile also export considerable amounts of peanut butter. A few other countries harvest peanut crops, however the peanuts aren’t generally used in peanut butter. They’re used in animal feed and to make peanut oil for cooking.
In the US, law governs that peanut butter has at least 90% peanuts. This means that when you create a low fat version of peanut butter you need to refer to it something different, like a nut spread. Remember this if you intend to create a brand new peanut butter process and promoting it yourself as the future Peter Pan!
Roasted Peanuts
Peanut butter is made from peanuts roasted in an oven. The peanuts chosen must be looked over first. A lot of the peanuts used originate from Florida, Georgia (remember Jimmy Carter?), and Alabama. After a peanut is roasted, it goes thru a procedure to immediately cool it with air so that it will not cook further. The outer skin is taken off with belts or brushes. After that, the peanuts are split, washed and sorted. Then, the peanuts go to a grinder. An initial stage consists of pulverizing the nut, and a second stage adding additional ingredients like salt and sugar (the non healthy part of traditional commercial peanut butter.) It’s during this second stage that the peanut butter has a stabilizer added to ensure the oil doesn’t separate.
So that’s the basic history of peanut butter. With the world becoming more aware of health issues, the last thing that’s been happening is a turn towards finding ways to make peanut butter more healthy. Later you’ll get the story of the invention of peanut butter cups to the new healthy milk chocolate peanut butter cups.
