Peanut butter.... why?

Cinnamon@beehaw.org to Food and Cooking@beehaw.org – 22 points –

Today I made crêpes for breakfast like I usually do....

And I tried some smooth peanut butter inside one of them. It doesn't taste horrible, but after a bit of eating it, I felt like I was in the 3rd circle of hell.

I asked my mother and my grandma for an opinion, and they too agreed.

Why do Americans torture themselves like this?

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I don't know that crepes are the right venue for peanut butter, especially if it's natural peanut butter, which is gritty and not sweet. While it's true that store-bought peanut butter in the US has too much added sugar, that really shouldn't matter. Ground up peanuts are filling, energy-dense and delicious. Why do non-Americans dislike it so much?

Yeah, crêpes seem like the wrong dish.

As an American, I think that natural peanut butter is delicious in the right context. It goes well on puffed rice cakes, with a little salt if it’s unsalted. It’s good with celery as a snack, and it’s an ingredient in some sauces. It can dry out your mouth, so make sure to drink water too.

The classic American use is peanut butter sandwiches, optionally with jam. IMHO these are pretty mid, but their main advantage is that they’re energy dense and don’t require refrigeration. So they’re good for hiking, at least if you have enough water.

Edited to add: also good in cookies, with chocolate, with bananas, and probably some other things I’m forgetting.

This comment sounds like it was written by a robot that cannot taste peanut butter.

Peanut butter is absolutely amazing. It’s creamy rich flavorful deliciousness. I really don’t know what this robot means by “peanut butter sandwich, optionally with jam”. That’s an insane sentence to read. What Eldrich Horror from beyond put those words together? It’s a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly. It’s jelly, not jam, it’s NOT optional (otherwise it’s not a sandwich is it?! It’s just peanut butter on bread) it’s so common and beloved that it even has a nickname: PB&J

It’s amazing with a banana or many different fruits and pastries and milkshakes and sauces and just with crackers. Sometimes you open a new jar and just eat that first bite with a spoon before anyone else can because everyone knows that first bite tastes the best. Sometimes it’s sugary like Jif which is great and sometimes it’s not sugary like Adams and you have to stir it nuts it’s still great and sometimes the store has a machine that just grinds the nuts and you catch it in a plastic container and that’s great too.

It’s peanuts! Ground up into a paste! AND I LOVE IT!

Beep boop.

Sure, peanut butter and jelly is the classic, unless you grew up listening to Raffi, in which case it’s absolutely made with jam. But to me, jelly just isn’t as tasty as jam, or honey or bananas. And if you take it on a hike it can make the bread soggy. And at home I’d usually rather have meat or cheese in my sandwich. But I still go through a ton of peanut butter for rice cakes. And occasionally for a PB&J, and once in a while for hot pot sauce.

And Jif tastes weird to me, but you do you.

Why do Americans torture themselves like this?

The finest crêpe I ever ate was peanut butter, banana, and honey from a street vendor in Baden-Wurttemberg at 2am. There may have been ethanol on board, but I stand by the claim.

It sounds like you ate bad peanut butter. It should absolutely never taste bitter for any reason.

BECAUSE, it’s delicious and filling and good and perfect, or more accurately because most of us ate it a lot as children, and it’s very cheap. Though, i am not sure how good it would be on something delicate like crepes. Peanut butter belongs on toast or english muffins with honey. It belongs between slices of cheap preservative-filled bread. It belongs on spoons and in cookies. American peanut butter (things like jif) is also usually full of a bunch of sugar and nonsense that makes it a very different food from natural peanut butter. One is a much higher quality product than the other, and the texture is not at all the same. I think most people eat the processed kind, but if you want to make nice things like crepes or quality recipes, the natural kind (which is basically a different food) might taste a lot better to you.

Does it taste like bitter cardboard? I read somewhere on this thread that it is supposed to be salty....

I have tea with peanut butter (Skippy/Jif) & jam (black currant) sandwiches most days of the week for breakfast.

Depends on the kind you get. 100% natural tastes very "plain" as it's just peanuts (the only ingredient). Personally, it's a bit too plain for my taste. But as others have said, unless you really enjoy peanut butter, you should watch how much you put on delicate types of foods. Get a slice of bread, a thin spread of peanut butter, jam if it's your sort of thing, and a nice cup of tea. Delightful.

100 percent natural is the best, and it's not bitter at all. Or cardboardy.

I agree with not bitter/cardboard. It tastes exactly like... plain peanuts. Or at least it should if it's natural.

I do think, to some people, all peanut butter might taste that way. Some kinds are saltier, but it’s not usually that salty. The natural/fresher stuff is closer to “crushed peanuts and their oils + a little salt” and is a lot less sweet and less smooth, but “better” and more peanutty. If you get in a regular jar you will be closer to “thick stubborn substance of indefinite origin that is great on toast”. But maybe I’m overselling the difference- it all tastes like mashed up peanuts and it all definitely sticks to your mouth. It’s a very distinct vibe. Describing it does sound a bit gross haha

Well it did stick to my mouth but... it tasted like bitter N O T H I N G

I am an absolute peanut butter apologist, so my instinct is to tell you to eat it with something sweet. See, in the grand poem of life, peanut butter IS the cardboard, the base if you will, the foundation, upon which jams and honeys and chocolates can be allowed to shine. It elevates them BECAUSE it is nothing, because it is mashed protein giving you an EXCUSE to eat the sugars and condiments on top of it and still be full afterward. The nothingness of peanut butter is its GLORY. It’s a humble condiment, it needs a dance partner. It cannot taste like anything alone on CREPES.

Are you european? I'm from central Europe and have the same experience. From what I've read, I think (US-) Americans have more sugar in their peanut butter.

It depends what kind of peanut butter. Anything labeled 'natural' should not have any sugar added and should literally just be peanuts and salt. It should have a layer of oil on top that you have to stir in. If the peanut butter is not labeled 'natural' or does not have a layer of oil on top it's pretty much guaranteed to have a lot of sugar added. The kind with sugar is much more common.

Am from Central Europe, yeah.

Yep, when I compare the nutrition labels for the peanut butter I get from the local grocery store to Jif or Skippy (american brands), it has less fat and sugar per 100g. Dunno where you are, but I think that's probably it!

I don't think something bitter and something sweet mix well. If you add too much sugar to mask the awfulness of it, then it's not really peanut-butter anymore but just sugar and some peanuts.

Bitter? Hmm I'm pretty sensitive to bitter tastes, but I wouldn't call peanut butter bitter 🤔 it's only bitter to me if the peanuts were roasted too much or the oil has gone rancid. Are you sure the peanut butter was still alright?? It should really just taste like smooth, oily peanut.

I think any nut butter is nice with or without sugar, but yeah, with sugar I'd call it something like peanut spread, not butter.

Peanuts aren't bitter, they're salty. Salty and sweet go together amazingly. Peanut butter should not be bitter, so I'm not sure what you're eating.

A big part of PB is the texture, otherwise it's just peanut brittle. Which is another thing Americans sometimes eat.

I've never eaten a peanut or peanut butter that I thought tasted bitter, and it definitely wouldn't go rancid after 1 day, although if it's the kind of PB with oil on top you should refrigerate it after you open it. But is it possible it was old, expired and already rancid when you bought it? If most people don't eat peanut butter where you are, it could have sat on the shelf for a long time and went bad.

If you didn't like it then there's no reason to torture yourself by trying to like it, but if you do want to try again, get another brand and see if you still think it's bitter. Make sure to check the date on it too to make sure it's fresh. That just doesn't sound right so it sounds like something was wrong with that jar. I'm saying this as someone who has eaten a lot of different kinds of peanut butter and liked them all lol ;)

I think you may have replied to the wrong comment? I also said that peanuts aren't bitter.

I love peanut butter, especially the plain 'ol natural stuff, but I'd never put it on crêpes, unless it was peanut butter that had a little bit of sugar in it or something.

Yeah, that sounds like it would be a textural nightmare with how thick and heavy peanut butter is.

It's very rare to eat peanut butter on its own. It's most famous for the way it pairs with other flavors. Peanut butter and jelly (strawberry jam is a classic), peanut butter and honey, peanut butter and chocolate, or if you want something super extreme peanut butter and marshmallow fluff.

I would bet you'd like it more if it hadn't been peanut butter only.

I'm not American, but I find there is a huge difference in taste between the regular peanut butter and the natural one (the one where the oil separate from the rest)

After trying the natural peanut butter the regular version just taste off, it's like some cardboard feel in the mixer with the peanuts.

I don't think I'd put peanut butter by itself in a crepe; the reason peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are so popular is that the jelly/jam helps cut the stickiness of the peanut butter.

But then again, I ate sandwiches that only had peanut butter in them for most of elementary school. Wash it down with some milk, and it's filling and tasty.

Well either that was bad peanut butter, but it's more likely crepes aren't good with peanut butter. The heat of the crepes might turn the peanut butter into oily glue, or in some cases gross clotted gorp. I used to try to put peanut butter on pancakes and it always turned out terrible (and I love peanut butter)

Peanut butter is much better with something that's a contrast like toast, crackers, crunchy veg - or blended into something like cookies, desserts, hot cereal, etc.

Try adding some jam to them to ease the clagginess of just peanut butter.

They said their pb was bitter, so they either ate pb made from over roasted nuts or it went rancid. Or it never happened, who knows.

DID YOU JUST MAKE UP A WORD TO USE AGAINST PEANUT BUTTER

Haha, no, “claggy” is a great word that describes the thick sticky mud you typically get in peat bogs. Also works very well for PB.

I hope to one day have someone that defends me the way you do peanut butter.

Real word, although I’ve never heard an American use it. I just associate it with Great British Bake-off haha

If you want the sweeter/candy spread you gotta go with the junk food brands like jif or peter pan. For crepes I'd only use it as glue to stick other things on, like strawberry preserves or some chocolate. Someone had a banana and honey suggestion that sounded good. That said, I cannot justify peanut butter pie. I'm sorry if we're exporting that.

Edit. Fluffernutter! How could I forget fluffernutter. Hey global community, has that broken containment? If you want some true nonredeemable American crack, make a peanut butter and fluff sandwich. If you use the natural pb it might not put you in a diabetic coma.

Man, I love peanut butter. I could eat it out of the jar with a spoon. Sadly, I'm now allergic to peanuts.

It never tasted bitter to me. But I always got the brands with sugar and salt mixed into them.

I'm not American so I grew up hearing about peanut butter from their media. I made up this amazing idea of it, which was completely shattered when I finally tasted it.

It's probably one of those acquired tastes like Australians with Vegemite (which I also tried according to recommendations but I probably just needed to go back in time and be born in Australia).

I still dream of tasting my imaginary peanut butter.

The straightforward natural peanut butters, like Adams, that pretty much only have peanuts in the ingredients list, taste much better than the cheaper ones, for what it's worth. Also unsalted is way better, imo. Some brands add way to much salt and/or sugar and ruin the taste.

The no-stir ones might also taste different - I'm not sure since I've always just avoided those.

But ofc maybe it's just not your thing. Point is that different peanut butters do taste different.

#1 Use crunchy #2 Put it on something heartier than crêpes. Delicate flavors won't stand up to peanut butter.