Welcome to this Ash Wednesday edition of Tips and Tricks Tuesday. Sorry I’m a little behind this week. We’ll make this one quick for you today…
If your house is anything like ours, peanut butter is an indispensable part of your weekly diet and there is much consternation if ever the peanut butter jar runs dry. My solution to avoid a peanut butter supply catastrophe is to always have a jar in the cupboard in reserve. When that jar gets opened and moved to the fridge, I put peanut butter on my shopping list, so the back-up jar gets restocked. Crisis averted.
Here’s the thing though. I’m sort of a peanut butter snob. I’ll only buy it if the ingredients label says: “Peanuts, Salt.” That’s it… just two things. And I love it that way. I love it, except when I have to open a new jar and attempt to stir in all the oil that has separated and is now sitting on top of a peanuty rock. I always end up creating a huge mess and getting oil all down the sides of the jar and on my hands and still the bottom of the jar is completely hard and… arrrrggghhh! It was almost enough to make me buy a jar of Jiff!
Then one day a light bulb went on in my head and I thought…
Why not just store the jar upside-down? And what do you know, it worked! The oil all went to the BOTTOM of the jar and, yes, I still had to stir it on first opening, but it was waaaaayyy easier. The oil came back up through the jar, working with me, instead of me trying to escape all over the sides.
So there you go. If you are a natural peanut butter lover like me, keep your spare jar on it’s head for easier handling. Or you could get one of these. Totally up to you!
Is Natural PB that much better? I’ve heard it is but then the people who tell me that (I grew up on Jiff) are organic snobs (even though I did research and found out that they’re ‘organic’ stuff wasn’t so very organic after all). So real, unbiased opinion HOW is it better?
I really love 2 ingredient peanut butter for the taste. I’m totally not an organic snob (the Smucker’s PB I buy is natural, but not organic). I mostly just don’t like peanut butter that contains sugar. It tastes sweet and I don’t like that. I like salty and peanuty, but not sweet. And actually, you can find some peanut butters that are ‘all natural’ but have three ingredients: peanuts, sugar and salt. I don’t like those either, so it’s really not a natural or organic thing for me, it’s purely a taste preference. Does that make sense?
I still remember my mom dumping out the jar into a bowl and using an electric mixer to mix it up and then put it back into the jar. When I got older we all knew how to do it, and there was a silent struggle to not be the one to need the new jar. Pretty sure I went without peanut butter some mornings just to avoid the chore :)
Now we buy Parker’s Farm. It has 5 ingredients: Peanuts, salt, love, care & pride :) Another plus is that it is a local product. Best thing ever? No mixing. It has to be refrigerated, so the oil doesn’t settle out. It can be hard to find at times, but I love it. It also is in a plastic container, which I like because the boys make their own toast. Peanut butter is big at our place, we go through 2 pounds about every 10 days.
Haha! That sounds like a chore we would have had at our house, but somehow it wasn’t. I totally can picture my brother and I having a ‘wait it out’ war to see who would cave first and finally open the new jar.
I think I’ve heard you mention Parker’s Farm peanut butter before. I like the sound of the no mixing thing. Where do you get it?
Oh, I forgot to mention: I am not an organic snob. I like the way the natural peanut butter tastes – it doesn’t have all the extra sugar, and I can tell. I don’t like my peanut butter sweet, I like it peanut-y :) I get plenty of sugar from lots of my other favorite foods :)
My thoughts exactly!
I heartily endorse real peanut butter, and it’s a firm plank in the platform. The only one I haven’t really cared for is Kreema. There is no second ingredient even, just peanuts. Turns out that salt is a stalwart flavor enhancer and pairs nicely with peanuts. Beer manufacturers have known this for a long time.
Long live Parker Farms. Though it nearly killed us when it shot up to $12.99/2lbs.
And 2 lbs a week is closer to the truth.
You know I was just thinking today that someone ought to try to make a peanut butter with just peanuts and no salt. But then I thought, “I bet it wouldn’t be nearly as good without the salt.” I guess I was right.
$12.99 is definitely not pocket change, but how big is a 2 lb thing of peanut butter? I’m having trouble picturing it.
Um…it’s twice as big as the 1lb one in your picture :)