Japanese Peanut Butter

[Zeke]

I bought a single auger juicer recently. It came with a book of recipes in engrish. One of them is for peanut butter. I always thought peanut butter was made with peanuts, and possibly some unnecessary chemicals.

This recipe calls for peanuts, butter, and eggyolk. Roasted peanuts and ground up, then mixed into the butter and egg yolk which is then cooked on the stove.

This recipe is totally weird to me. Is this normal peanut butter in Japan?

[sanrensho]

This recipe is totally weird to me. Is this normal peanut butter in Japan?

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Interesting. It's been years and years since I had any Japanese peanut butter, but a quick search for Japanese recipes indicates that most call for butter/margarine and sugar, but not yolks.

Literally, peanuts + butter = (Japanese) peanut butter. It makes me wonder if Japanese peanut butter morphed into a butter-based paste due to a transliteration issue.

Although the recipe may seem "weird," it isn't necessarily bad if the results taste good.

Edited February 28, 2008 by sanrensho (log)

[Zeke]

This recipe is totally weird to me. Is this normal peanut butter in Japan?

←

Interesting. It's been years and years since I had any Japanese peanut butter, but a quick search for Japanese recipes indicates that most call for butter/margarine and sugar, but not yolks.

Literally, peanuts + butter = (Japanese) peanut butter. It makes me wonder if Japanese peanut butter morphed into a butter-based paste due to a transliteration issue.

Although the recipe may seem "weird," it isn't necessarily bad if the results taste good.

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Who said bad? I didn't say bad. It's just that after years of conditioning, I didn't expect peanut butter to actually contain butter. I'm much more open minded than I sound.

[helenjp]

Isn't it in a recipe book because it's different from commercial peanut butter? Perhaps the lecithin in the eggyolk is supposed to emulsify the fats a bit.

I feel so deceived - here I thought this topic was going to be about how weird it is to have sugar in peanut butter!

I live in Japan's peanut heartland, and can occasionally buy a tasty but very amateurishly packaged peanut/kinako or peanut/sesame butters, which deserve better than backroom production. Easy to make at home though, using whatever proportions appeal. And if you *have* to use sugar, Japanese kuro-zatou (black sugar) suits peanut butter!

[sanrensho]

Who said bad? I didn't say bad.

Whoah, nobody accused you of anything. Notice the quotes around the word "weird" (your words).

All I'm saying is that it might not be half bad. Let us know if you try it. I won't have a chance to try any commercial Japanese pb for another couple of months, so I'm tempted to have a go at this--minus the egg yolk.

Helen, what do you think of the commercial Japanese peanut butters, compared with a US brand like Skippy's? Kris, you must have some thoughts on this.

The addition of sugar doesn't bother me at all, since it's normal in my household to spread a little honey with our peanut butter (not big pbj fans).

Edited February 29, 2008 by sanrensho (log)

[prasantrin]

I've never seen Japanese peanut butter, other than St. Cousair brand (all of their nut and sesame butters are quite nice, by the way, and I like their packaging ). Peanut cream is much, much more common and when I first came to Japan, it was all I could find unless I went to import shops (not that I looked much, because I don't really like peanut butter).

Perhaps the recipe you found is for peanut cream rather than peanut butter? Is usually much sweeter and less peanut-y than peanut butter, and smoother, too.

[jean_genie]

Perhaps the recipe you found is for peanut cream rather than peanut butter?  Is usually much sweeter and less peanut-y than peanut butter, and smoother, too.

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I might add that "peanut cream" also has an almost gel consistency, but this is judging only from one experience when I bought peanut cream because there was no peanut butter available. I suppose peanut cream is nice in its own right, but we were expecting peanut butter, not peanut jam

[sanrensho]

Perhaps the recipe you found is for peanut cream rather than peanut butter?

I think you're right, but most of the Japanese recipes I found for "peanut butter" refer to a mixture of peanuts, butter/margarine and sugar/maple syrup. Which is peanut cream, no?

[helenjp]

I have a feeling that the peanuts + butter approach may be rather new, I don't recall seeing it 10-20 years ago - but sanrensho's right, suddenly it's all over the net! So somebody saw the word "butter" and reverse engineered...but with the image of peanut cream in mind?

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I was so fascinated when I found the recipe that sanrensho probably saw that I searched the ingredients again under "peanut cream" and "handmade"...heh heh, there it was, somebody saying that they made the recipe from that site, BUT the person refers to it as a "recipe for peanut cream". The truth will out!

The use of egg reminds me of "kaya" coconut jam, though I think that uses whole egg. And I guess that without the egg, kaya is a bit like a certain type of peanut cream that I used to see sometimes, that was peanut flour suspended in mizu-ame - almost like liquid peanut taffy.

And I think that there is a similar type of peanut jam in China? But that peanut butter/solid shortening peanut cream stuff may be unique to Japan.

[Zeke]

I've decided that I shall try this recipe. I'm going to buy some fresh peanuts and fresh butter and try this. I will take pictures and let everyone know how it went.