Peanut Butter and Jelly - The Sandwich

[weinoo]

So - I'm making myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch today.

 

And I'm stymied by a few things.

 

Peanut butter on both sides and then jelly in the middle?

 

Peanut butter on one side and jelly on the other?

 

Favorite nut butter? Cause peanut isn't really a nut, is it? But - it's what I like.

 

Favorite jelly? Jam? Preserves?

 

HELP!

[Porthos]

Peanut butter on one side, fruit preserves or marmalade on the other side. Not on cheap white bread! You have inspired me. I need a substantial snack at the moment. PB&M on sourdough.

[Tri2Cook]

Peanut butter on one side, jam, jelly, preserves, marmalade (whatever I happen to have at the time) on the other. I'm fine with cheap white bread. I'm fine with other types of bread too. And I'm not about balance with this one, I lay the peanut butter on thick. If I had to pick one PB&J as the only one I can have for the rest of my life, it would be crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jam on cheap white bread... but I'm glad that's not a requirement.

[robirdstx]

I am not a fan of jelly, but my other half is and he prefers his pb&j open face with Jif Creamy Peanut Butter on regular white bread topped with lots of Welch's Concord Grape Jelly. He said he could make one right now, for me to take a photo, but I said that was not necessary. 

[Alex]

With pb&j, there are no rules, only preferences. I make my own pb from Planter's unsalted roasted peanuts, stocking up when they're on sale. I prefer two substantial pieces of toast (gluten-free nowadays, but fortunately there's a decent locally baked loaf). Then a layer of pb, a very light sprinking of kosher salt, and finally the fruit right on top of the pb. I'm not sure when I started doing that vs. putting it on the second piece of bread. At any given time we'll have four to eight different fruit concoctions in the fridge, so I guess I don't have a particular favorite, although I'm currently enamored of American Spoon Strawberry-Rhubarb Preserves. Then, of course, in the non-fruit spread category, we have Nutella (I actually prefer the Jif version), sliced banana, some bacon, or a thick slice of an in-season tomato. (I've even tried various combinations of the aforementioned. Yes, I'm odd.) I've made similar sandwiches with almond or cashew butter, but they just don't measure up.

Edited July 9, 2017 by Alex (log)

[Lisa Shock]

I prefer a whole wheat pullman loaf for PB & J.

 

I make my own peanut butter. I keep raw peanuts in the freezer and roast them until dark in a pan with a lid on the stovetop. I allow them to cool a bit then hit them with an immersion blender and a dash of salt. (I use a milkshake machine cup.) This only takes a few minutes, but makes really great tasting PB.

 

I like many different jams and jellies, so, I change the type often. Sometimes, I will make ½ and ½ different flavors like apricot and cassis. I also enjoy PB & honey, with raw honey.

[MelissaH]

The bread: something I buy. Homemade bread never tastes quite right for this. If the bread's been in my house more than a couple of days, it gets toasted slightly. PB: Jif Extra-Crunchy, on one side of the bread. If the bread is toasted, spread the PB on while the toast is still slightly warm so it melts just a little bit. J: my favorite is homemade strawberry freezer jam. My other favorite is homemade concord grape jelly. My second favorite is homemade cherry jelly. My other second favorite is homemade concord grape jam. (See a theme here?) The J goes on the other piece of bread, AFTER the PB gets spread on the first piece. Slightly melted PB good, slightly melted J not so good. The sandwich gets put together, and then cut on a diagonal.

 

Fluffernutters are a completely different species!

[Katie Meadow]

Weinoo, the fact that you are asking for help making a PB&J sandwich is touching and probably a joke on eG, but it not it leads me to believe you sprang fully grown from the head of Zeus in the doorway of Russ and Daughters. I went to school when lunch was provided and never had to make my own lunches, and I don't remember my parents eating peanut butter. But I suppose at camp and at college I learned to make my own sandwiches the way I preferred them: peanut butter on one side, jam on the other, white or wheat bread. During the hippy years of the late sixties and seventies I learned to love homemade or natural salted chunky pb minus the sugar. I also discovered that a good multi-grain seedy bread (but never rye bread) makes an excellent sandwich, especially for hiking. My jam of choice is always raspberry if available. Although I can see how concord grape preserves, if not too sweet, would be a peak experience. I like my jam to bite me back.

 

I owe a great debt to the fact that while my daughter was in school peanut butter sandwiches were still allowed; I wasn't the kind of mother who made bento boxes with Hello Kitty shaped eggs, although I'm sure that is commendable and fun for kids. If desperate I certainly wouldn't  refuse to eat Jif, but I tasted it about 20 years ago and indeed it resembles real peanut butter the way Hersheys resembles Valrhona. But if a banana even so much as looked at my sandwich I would put a dish towel over its prying eyes.

[weinoo]

Nope, not joking; it's what I made for lunch, but with peanut butter (Wf's organic, freshly ground peanuts) on both slices of (Breads Bakery's 7-grain) bread and then Favorit Swiss Preserves of red cherry in the middle. I'm a heathen!

 

And I forgot that when I was a kid, peanut butter was allowed, gluten-free didn't exist, and we all managed to reach our youthful middle age.

 

Then again, I was often told to go play outside - in the streets of Forest Hills.

 

 

[Tri2Cook]

9 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Nope, not joking; it's what I made for lunch, but with peanut butter (Wf's organic, freshly ground peanuts) on both slices of (Breads Bakery's 7-grain) bread and then Favorit Swiss Preserves of red cherry in the middle. I'm a heathen!

 

And I forgot that when I was a kid, peanut butter was allowed, gluten-free didn't exist, and we all managed to reach our youthful middle age.

 

Then again, I was often told to go play outside - in the streets of Forest Hills.

 

 

Maybe I just get too greedy with the ingredients. I've tried peanut butter on both side with the jelly in the middle and it seems like it becomes very difficult to keep the jelly in the sandwich after a bite or two.

I too am from a time when the peanuts were still allowed in school. My daughter is not and when she was first starting school PB&J was the only sandwich she would eat so we had to come up with other things. And then someone at the school called and asked why we never send a sandwich for her because apparently she was complaining that she didn't have a sandwich like the other kids. So I told them why and exactly my feelings on the subject. There were no further calls. I'm reminded of the comedian I saw who said that there are schools asking that kids not even be allowed to eat peanuts/peanut products at home because of the risk for allergic kids. He then put forth the idea that if your kid is going to die because someone who ate a peanut in the last 12 hours breathed on him/her, it might be a good idea to not get too attached. 

[kayb]

30 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Nope, not joking; it's what I made for lunch, but with peanut butter (Wf's organic, freshly ground peanuts) on both slices of (Breads Bakery's 7-grain) bread and then Favorit Swiss Preserves of red cherry in the middle. I'm a heathen!

 

And I forgot that when I was a kid, peanut butter was allowed, gluten-free didn't exist, and we all managed to reach our youthful middle age.

 

Then again, I was often told to go play outside - in the streets of Forest Hills.

 

 

First, the structure of a proper PB&J:

 

• Soft white sandwich bread. 
• Peanut butter, about 4 tbsp worth, spread on one slice
• Fruit jam or preserves (jelly only if no jams or preserves are available) spread on the other, maybe 2.5 tbsp max. My personal favorite was always blackberry jam, though strawberry is good as well) on the other
• Put together, and always, always consumed with the jelly side on top. I do not know why this is so, but it has been so for 60-odd years.

 

I commend to you Nut Butter Nation peanut butter. It's available on Amazon. It's also made by my kids. In the "About" section, they're the cute couple you see. (And can I just tell you the salted caramel, used as a dip for Granny Smith apple slices, is a food for the gods? I am not partial to the brown sugar cinnamon, though it's my daughter's favorite.)

 

[Shelby]

Yep, the jelly squirts out if there is PB on both side.

 

And, yes, there are rules.

 

Squishy white bread.   PB on one side.  Grape jelly on the other.  

 

Period.

[weinoo]

I can see I've touched a nerve.

 

In any event, I didn't have any squirting out of the middle of my sandwich today; but I was frugal with the jam. Or was it jelly?

 

And no one goes for cashew or almond butter, it appears.

[Shelby]

No nerve touched here.....there are just certain ways to do things.

 

 

[Shelby]

BTW, the jelly is always on the top slice.

[PattyO]

And, to gild the lily, potato chips in the middle.  Yum!

[Mmmpomps]

Soft white , store bought bread, butter both sides (me mudder is Irish!) Peanut butter , Kraft smooooth on each side and strawberry jam with a big glass of milk....its been a LONG time since I've had one of those!

 

[Shelby]

18 minutes ago, PattyO said:

And, to gild the lily, potato chips in the middle.  Yum!

[cakewalk]

Potato chips go on tuna fish sandwiches.

Of course your jelly didn't squirt out, you used fancy schmancy peanut butter, which is permeable, so the jelly sinks in. Skippy and Jiff are impermeable, the jelly just slides off all that oil. And whole grain bread? Fuhgeddabowdit!

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

I hesitate to say this, but has anyone tried peanut butter and mayonnaise?

 

Nancy in Patzcuaro

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

BTW, the jelly is always on the top slice.

We're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy!

[lindag]

I love peanut butter but not on soft bread.

growing up we had pb sandwiches but never with jam, I don't know why because this was the fifties and there were not a lot of choices then in the Midwest.

when I have pb now I like it on a toasted English muffin drizzled with honey then spread with super chunky pb.

Or on pretzel rods dipped in pb...so good.

Of course pb in cookies is a favorite.

[Katie Meadow]

Cashew and Almond butter are usually too sweet to pair with jam.

 

Nancy in Patz: You couldn't resist, could you? Yes, my husband's mother packed him a pb & mayo sandwich in elementary school--that was like 60 years ago and he hasn't forgotten or forgiven her. It is debatable as to whether or not it was an absent-minded mistake, a passive aggressive dig or an optimistic inspiration. PB&M is a creation of El Diablito. Or someone who has the munchies and a nearly bare cupboard.

 

If your jelly or jam squirts out it means you have too much of it in there. Or you have white bread so plasticky that nothing sticks to it, or, as noted by someone above, you have sandwiched the jam between two layers of pb, in which case you have too much pb.

[cakewalk]

2 hours ago, lindag said:

when I have pb now I like it on a toasted English muffin drizzled with honey then spread with super chunky pb.

Peanut butter and honey is a great combination.

[Anna N]

10 hours ago, PattyO said:

And, to gild the lily, potato chips in the middle.  Yum!

If we could deep six all of the other stuff and just have the potato chips I'd be right in there.