When nut butters separate

[natasha1270]

If you generally buy the same size peanut butter jar, maybe it would be worthwhile to invest in a Peanut Butter Mixer?

[Boilerfood]

The brand I buy (Smuckers) says to refrigerate. That always kept mine from separating.

[DanM]

The blender strategy worked, and I sort of backed into a method close to Andie's. My one issue with the method is the percentage product loss because it's so hard to get it all out of the blender pitcher.

I would add a few scoops of ice cream, some milk, malted milk, and maybe some chocolate sauce to the blender.

I usually purchase peanut butter from a grind to order machine at the grocery store. I have never had an issue with separation with the stuff.

[thock]

I had this problem just yesterday. Plopped the oily concrete into my KitchenAid, put the flat beater on, and let 'er rip on the slowest speed for a few minutes. Worked great.

Very little "waste," which I dealt with by licking the beater. The bowl scraped pretty well clean, and everything went back into the original jar, with the exception of the stuff that got licked off the beater. Yum!

Edited July 15, 2011 by thock (log)

[Beebs]

When mine is totally separated, I turn the jar upaide down for a day. This usually homogenates it enough to easily finish the job with a utensil.

I do this too. Stir with a fork or chopsticks, then leave it in the fridge, giving it a stir whenever it starts to look like it's separating.

[Allura]

I'll third the storing upside down. Not only that, but when you get that spare jar for the pantry, stick it upside down. No mixing when you open it a few days/weeks later. At that point, refrigerating as the packaging says tends to keep it together.

[Country]

I usually purchase peanut butter from a grind to order machine at the grocery store. I have never had an issue with separation with the stuff.

Same here. Last year when a local food coop expanded, they put in a peanut grinder. It works great! No added salt or oil. Just peanuts ground into peanut butter. Best peanut butter I've ever had - and that goes back to Skippy in the fifties.....

[Paul Bacino]

I have a few nut butters that I use occasionally.

 

ie  Ground Peanut Butter, Almond Butter, Flax seed butter

 

But if I don't use them in awhile they separate into oil on top and a dense under nut structure.   Whats the best way to re-cream them?  Stirring in the jar never seems to work well?

 

TIA  Paul

[Martin Fisher]

I address that problem in a few different ways.

 

I sometimes refrigerate the butter, which is a pain because it'll stiffen or I keep it in the cupboard or wherever and flip the jar every couple of days or whatever it takes....a couple days on the bottom....a couple days on the lid....that'll keep it mixed quite well.

 

I've also added a small amount of coconut oil (I use it a lot) when making peanut butter or the like....that keeps the butter from separating.

 

If the butter has already separated and you don't need it right away, flip the jar for a few days until the oil reincorporates....short of that it's best to remove it from the jar, mix it and return it to the jar, but that's a pain in the rear end.

[Mjx]

There's a nut-butter mixer that consists of a screw-top with a thick, curved wire that is supposed to work quite well. It's about ten bucks, so seems worth a go.

[Paul Bacino]

I did a bit of initial stirring and been flipping it .. worked fine

 

Thanks

[Shel_B]

Whenever I buy commercial nut butter, it separates.  However, when I grind it in the store using their machines, I never get any separation - never - although some people here have said that if the nut butter sits long enough it will separate.  Neither Toots nor I have found that to be the case, and between us we must purchase about 15 containers a year.

 

I've observed that a lot of the prepared or commercial butters have added oil in them, and others seem to be ground finer and smoother than the butter from the in-store machines.