[HN Gopher] A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)
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A Brief History of Peanut Butter (2021)
Author : Tomte
Score : 51 points
Date : 2022-08-01 05:56 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
| taeric wrote:
| This was a fun read, but it seemed to just stop.
|
| I'm curious to hear what the total impact of crop rotation and
| other items are on modern farming. I know we are always taught
| that that is the correct way, and yet we also hear how there is a
| single banana in main use. We even learn wines by the name of the
| grape that is used. Is there more crop rotation in place than I
| give credit for?
|
| I feel that this goes to a lot of produce, honestly. There are
| only two main lines of coffee. Tea is a single plant, if I'm not
| mistaken. Avocado is rather homogeneous.
| thebeardisred wrote:
| I'm not sure how an American institution can talk about the
| history of peanut butter in the US without mentioning Ruth
| Desmond:
|
| https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/food/1988/1...
|
| She was the underdog who took on agro-industrial companies to
| ensure peanut butter contained peanuts and not sawdust.
| Naga wrote:
| My parents are from Canada, and when my dad was in the Navy in
| the 1980s, he was deployed to the UK. His biggest story is that
| they couldn't buy peanut butter and Kraft Dinner except at the
| Base, which was obviously a problem. I travelled to the UK
| recently and asked someone there about those two items. Peanut
| butter is available now, but not that popular, but Kraft Dinner
| was unknown and frankly seemed disgusting to her! Which is fair,
| but its comfort food in Canada.
| whylo wrote:
| > Peanut butter is available now, but not that popular
|
| I might be an outlier but my family eats peanut butter all the
| time, and you wouldn't have any trouble finding it even in
| small local shops. Peanut butter and j(elly|am) sandwiches are
| less popular but I maintain that they're America's greatest
| export.
| samatman wrote:
| I wonder what confusion led to this, macaroni cheese (no `and`)
| has been a British staple for centuries.
|
| Boxed macaroni cheese can be purchased at every Tesco as
| "cheesy pasta".
|
| Judging it to be disgusting I would agree with, but 'unknown'?
| By no means.
| treeman79 wrote:
| Anyone else find that Covid had a strong affect on the taste of
| peanut butter?
|
| Right after Covid in Nov of 2020 it started tasting like raw
| sewage for me. I used to love it.
|
| It's only somewhat improved since. Met a few people that won't
| eat it anymore.
|
| https://www.news24.com/amp/health24/medical/infectious-disea...
| StevePerkins wrote:
| Have you _had_ COVID, and experienced any of the loss-of-taste
| symptoms?
|
| Somehow, I've managed to avoid COVID. Or at least, the antibody
| test that I took just before my first vaccination shot last
| year indicated that I had never been infected. If I have had
| any post-vaccination COVID infection, then it was totally
| asymptomatic.
|
| Peanut butter tastes no different for me today than it did
| three years ago.
| treeman79 wrote:
| Got Covid, just before vaccine was available. Was in rough
| shape for a month. Had to double blood thinner dosage for six
| months.
|
| Lost all sense of smell for a couple months. Got sense of
| smell back over a couple months.
|
| Peanut butter is the only food that changed for me though.
| timbit42 wrote:
| I wonder if it has to do with the hydrogenated vegetable oil
| added to it. Do they still like raw peanut butter?
| sweetheart wrote:
| My coworker experienced that. They stopped eating peanut butter
| entirely and they were bummed about it because they loved it
| prior to having Covid.
| matonias wrote:
| Interesting, more a brief history of peanut butter in the US,
| industrialised. Was curious what they have to say about the
| Dutch. We eat a lot.
| thenthenthen wrote:
| Wikipedia mentions it comes from canada [0]. I had suspected an
| Indonesian origin.
|
| [0] https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pindakaas
| PopAlongKid wrote:
| >Kellogg's "food compound" involved boiling nuts and grinding
| them into an easily digestible paste for patients at the Battle
| Creek Sanitarium, a spa for all kinds of ailments.
|
| That sounds similar to boiled peanuts (except without the
| grinding), a favorite in the U.S. southern region. I've never had
| them but would like to. According to Wikipedia, there are even
| some claims that eating boiled peanuts not only circumvents
| peanut allergies but can actually help reduce them.
|
| I grew up with the Skippy-style peanut butter, but eventually
| switched to the type which is nothing but peanuts and salt (no
| sugar, no hydrogenation). Stirring in the oil is not that hard
| with a reasonably-sized jar.
|
| When I was a teenager (many decades ago) I tried to engineer a
| cheap, nutritious diet for myself, and a cup of peanuts every day
| turned out to be a great way to get a lot of protein for not much
| cost. Still have PB sandwiches several times a week even now.
| taeric wrote:
| I'm a fan of boiled peanuts. Definitely recommend them if you
| can get some. Just remember that it is like edamame, where you
| don't eat the shells. :D
| klipt wrote:
| > a cup of peanuts every day turned out to be a great way to
| get a lot of protein for not much cost
|
| Probably similar to any other legume (lentils, beans,
| chickpeas)?
| pchristensen wrote:
| Boiled peanuts are sooo good. The countrier the road and the
| more beat up the pickup you buy them from, the better they're
| going to taste!
|
| Source: grew up in Pasco County, FL.
| bnralt wrote:
| Boiled peanuts are also popular in China. If you want to try
| them, I suggest having a go at it. They're very simple to make.
| obloid wrote:
| A tip to keep the oil from separating: I add about 5ml of water
| to a jar of peanut butter and stir in well. This creates an
| emulsion that thickens the peanut butter and prevents the oil
| from separating out. It improves the spreadability as well.
| HelloMcFly wrote:
| Another tip: store your unopened jar upside down.
| PopAlongKid wrote:
| I already do that.
| ComputerCat wrote:
| Save yourself a huge mess and don't try using an electric
| handheld mixer to do the initial oil stir...I got peanut
| butter EVERYWHERE. It's a nightmare to clean.
| skrbjc wrote:
| Or just stir it up and put it in the fridge
| carapace wrote:
| (BTW who is Tomte?)
| phlakaton wrote:
| Ah, yes, Skippy Peanut Butter: another erstwhile proud product of
| Alameda, California--the town that brought you Perforce, and
| which remains ready for all your nut-butter-addicted tech venture
| needs.
|
| (DISCLOSURE: Commenter received no consideration from the City of
| Alameda for this comment.)
| abusque wrote:
| I'm surprised there is no mention of Marcellus Gilmore Edson [0].
| He was a pharmacist from Montreal who patented a method to make
| an early version of peanut butter, more than a decade before the
| Kellogg's patent mentioned in the Smithsonian article.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcellus_Gilmore_Edson
| drpgq wrote:
| Probably because it's the Smithsonian.
| jklinger410 wrote:
| A quick Google indicates there is some confusion about whether
| Edson was a black or white man?
| samatman wrote:
| He's clearly white.
|
| The other face you're seeing is George Washington Carver, not
| surprising given that fin de siecle peanut science is a small
| field.
| jklinger410 wrote:
| Reddit and Google Images seem to be teaming up to mix these
| two up
|
| - https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/f4op87/this_is_mar
| cel...
|
| - https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/89suoe/ti
| l_c...
|
| - https://www.google.com/search?q=Marcellus+Gilmore+Edson&s
| xsr...
| Finnucane wrote:
| What's described in the patent sounds like the filling of a
| Reese's peanut butter cup.
| Synaesthesia wrote:
| Really interesting in the end about George Carver who taught
| sustainable farming techniques.
| azekai wrote:
| George Washington Carver is a personal hero of mine. He faced
| all sorts of hardship and still sought to make the world a
| better place.
| le-mark wrote:
| Everyone not familiar should read about him, very
| inspirational.
| not_a_sw_dork wrote:
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