I got the book at Books a Million because waiting for shipping was too hard! The employee helped me dig around the trashed cooking section until we found one. I know it was trashed by people looking for Max's cookbook!!! 😂
If anyone is confused, in the US jelly is made of juice, jam is made with crushed fruit and preserves have large chunks of fruit, usually in a base that's half way between jelly and jam in consistency. So it's not just jelly = jam.
Even knowing this, as an Aussie it is so strange. Like why is “jelly” the predominant sweet condiment in the USA? Isn’t it wasteful to not make use of the whole fruit? Why don’t people like the actual fruit in their preserves? Am I missing something?
@@marabanara some fruit is only good for juicing. We make a lot juice concentrates out of fruit that's too ripe or fragile to make it to stores, concentrates have a long shelf life, so that's less wasteful. Of all the things about industrial food production that are wasteful ( every. single. step. ) I don't think choosing whether or not to make juice is the highest priority for change.
My grandma, who grew up during the depression, said that her mother tried a bunch of "tricks" to make them feel like they weren't super poor. One of these "tricks" was to pre-mix the peanut butter and jelly and call it a "jellyAND" sandwich instead of Peanut butter and jelly. My grandma said her and her brother had to constantly fight off all the "trade offers" from the other kids at school, and it made them feel like they had something more. I know it's innocuous, but it kept their morale up, and is just a fun little tidbit regarding American history. Love your vids, Max, and I'm so glad you're finally getting the popularity you've deserved for many years.
Your comment on pb&j struck a note with me about how I helped keep morale up during the pandemic. Apart from lockdown I allowed my children to go to the store at the end of every school week, N95 masks on, to buy a piece of candy of their choosing--if and only if they had kept up with their schoolwork. Not if they got certain grades, but just for showing up on zoom and doing their work. I supervised their schooling and still don't understand why some people pretend that children nationwide missed a year of school. My children didn't miss a day and maintained their physical and mental health and standard of living despite having to use resources more prudently. I'm proud of us for having coped so well, and being able to go to the grocery store and shop every week was a boon for my children's morale in much the same way the jellyAND must have been.
@@poonyaTara people don't "pretend" that kids missed out on school. A lot of kids genuinely did. Just because you managed to find a solution that worked for your family doesn't mean everyone can do it. Basically, it's like you're talking about how during a flood, when you saw the waters rising, you went and looked in the attic, found an old canoe, and put your whole family in it, and that's how you all came through the flood OK. And then, you're making the assumption that because you had a canoe in the attic, *everyone* must be able to find an old canoe in the attic (which, statistically, is just not actually the case). And then, you're sitting there, patting yourself on the back for your clever canoe solution, and blithely saying that you just don't understand all these people who "pretend" that a lot of kids drowned in the flood. That's impossible, you say, no kid could possibly have drowned, their parents would just have put them in their attic canoe once the waters started rising. I'm genuinely glad that you managed to find a way to get your kids to continue investing in their school work during the pandemic. That is great. But that bullshit about how people "pretend" their kids missed out on school is just... yikes. If you don't have any natural empathy, just fucking learn how to fake it, because YIKES.
@@gayahithwen I have empathy, and my point was that not everyone missed out on getting an education during the pandemic. I'm glad I made that point. I think you're getting the false impression that I have no empathy because our community had already planned ahead to cope with the rising cost of textbooks by shifting exclusively to online materials and working with local governments to ensure reliable internet access. Being prepared is not the same as lacking empathy. I'm just tired of hearing people pretending like everyone neglected their children's education after three years of working a full-time pro bono job to help educate them. Yet again society is pretending that not getting paid means that I did nothing, and the reality is that I did the most important work that was available for me to do. If you want to accuse someone of a lack of empathy then accuse society of lacking empathy for caring parents.
after hearing all of max's nostalgic story about his childhood food makes me think that a spin off series of max just cooking his childhood and nostalgic food while telling small anecdotes of his life would be really cool
I (an American) once begged my Dutch friend to try a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, he exclaimed that he didn't know why this never took off in Europe. Now, learning the history, it really makes a lot of sense. Thanks for this video! I love them all, but this one has so much nostalgia wrapped up in it, absolutely lovely!
@D_Must The Dutch and the French do eat peanut butter. The Dutch began importing peanuts from Suriname and making spread about 100 years ago, and they call it "pindaakas" (peanut cheese). The biggest brand in both countries is the French Calve brand, which is a creamy peanut butter that began production in 1948 (possibly inspired by the peanut butter in US soldier's rations).
As a Europian one time I tried to make PBJ but you can't buy jelly here, but I got addicted to 100% peanut butter and I eat it nearly every day just by itself.
My doctor used to recommend a spoonful of peanut butter when I was little. I was way too skinny because the meds I took caused a loss of appetite, making me very skinny. Said it was good for not only gaining weight but also a good source of protein.
So like if you went to a bakery before wrapped bread, they would just put a loaf in your hand with no wrapping? I cannot even imagine that. If I had lived back then, I would have brought a plastic bag with me. Or reusable silicone.
You're never too old to eat a PB&J, despite some people thinking it's exclusively meant for kindergarteners, but it's a quick sweet and salty treat and is as American as Apple pie. I sometimes add cinnamon toast cereal in my PB&J for crunch and it's absolutely divine.
No one believes this, but trust me: Peanut butter, rhubarb jam, hummus and cinnamon on black bread. Maximum protein for athletics, and the sour and sweet and savory balance perfectly. It's like neon flavor. There's more flavor than you'd ever guess.
@TastingHistory I lived and worked for several years in numerous African countries in the early 2000s. Peanut sauce or groundnut sauce depending on what is available (yes, peanuts and groundnuts are not exactly the same thing) is a staple protein in multiple African countries. Either grounded groundnut or grounded peanut is turned into a savory sauce eaten with coarsely ground corn meal served as a savory porridge with steamed greens on the side. I came to love it and even now will not pass up the opportunity to eat it. And thank you for this channel, combining my two favorite hobbies, cooking and history is utter brilliance.
it was such a good protein source when they made it for both the poor and for the elderly that this is one of those "this legitimately helped people" type of foodstuffs that somehow got stigmatized.
@@maria.menezess thats interesting, in the states peanut butter is one of the cheapest foods thatll provide fat and protein making it a pantry staple for many
I use to make triple decker PB&J after school back in the 80s and 90s. Just one of them was enough to satisfy pre-teen me. I liked experimenting with different jellies, jams, and marmalades. I also liked experimenting with fruit. Slicing strawberries for the strawberry deluxe with creamy peanut butter. Or slicing apples thinly for the apple deluxe with crunchy peanut butter. For the apple deluxe I used apple butter. I even made the King sandwich with banana slices. Such happy memories. Thank you for the episode, I almost forgotten all of this.
PB and bananas are actually better without the bread. As a kid, I invented what my dad named "dugout canoes" where you split a banana up the middle with your thumb, essentially peeling off two of the six sections, and spread peanut butter in the hollow, then put the split part back on top and eat it like a hot dog. As an adult I occasionally still eat PB and banana, but I'm much lazier and just spread the PB on the banana without bothering to split it.
When I was a kid in Australia peanut butter and honey was one of my fave sandwiches. Nice to know there's an element of ancient tradition in that combo
Nice to see someone else who's eaten Peanut Butter and Honey. Please forgive my lack of knowledge on Australian culture, but is it as uncommon there as it is in the American northeast? You and I are the only ones I've heard of that have eaten it.
@@DBZHGWgamer the are a lot closer than jam and jello/jelly. US style jelly made from juice doesn't really exist in UK. Jam is close enough for a Brit to understand
I also ran into the issue of a by fat clogged up coffee grinder/mill while trying to recreate "Erbswurst" (one of the oldest convenience foods from 1867 that was used in the great war). Just let cheap rice run through your mill to clean it. Warmth also supports the cleaning process.
I grew up in a military family and lemme tell you, peanut butter is STILL a staple. I have my pancakes with peanut butter because my great grandpa survived on peanut butter in the Philippines as an American guerrilla who escaped the Bataan March. It’s crazy to me how rich the history of something so innocuous can be
@@bewareofsasquatch The presence of the PB should in no way limit the application of standard butter and LOTS of syrup. A pile of banana slices also works well in the mix.
@@kevincrosby1760 oh damn dude peanut butter and banana sandwich are so GOOD. I haven’t had one in like over a decade. I was in high school since I had one. I forgot about it. Thank you for reminding me about it. I want one now
@@bewareofsasquatch Don't feel too bad. Over a decade? I graduated from High School 38 years ago... Memory dims with age. Just about everything that I can remember about High School now seems to revolve around alcohol and females, with an occasional car thrown in for good measure.
I live in France and peanut butter is indeed hard to come by - decent, affordable peanut butter, that is. You can get a small (approx. 4 oz) jar of Skippy for about $5, but that's a bit much. So we typically stock up whenever we go to the States (or when Lidl has their American Week - that peanut butter is generally unsweetened but for PB&Js it's fine). And in any case, I've gotten quite a few raised eyebrows when I've brought a PB&J for my lunch at work. I just tell folks, don't knock it until you try it. Oh, and grape jelly is straight-up impossible to get here, but we have literally every other flavor of jam and jelly you can think of, so overall I actually have more choice than in the States. My personal favorite is red currant jelly. Sweet and tangy.
It's funny, but I've actually a seen a lot more French style jams from Bonne Maman becoming popular over the years and that's one of my favorite brands. Ikea also sells really good Scandinavian jam of Blueberries or Mixed Berries, as well as orange marmalade. I have not tried their cloudberry jam yet, however, as it's a bit more expensive.
I buy my peanut butter at asian food stores in Germany - there you get the one without sugar, meant for cooking. But in the last years it's getting more popular - you should be able to get the American with sugar at bigger stores (Kaufland or similar). The grape jelly is more difficult - but maybe blueberry jam could work as a substitute?
In 2009 I was studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan. One day in class we each had to explain a common recipe from our country in Arabic. As an American, I chose the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, because it rules, is maybe actually our national dish of sorts, and it was easy in the moment. It was fun how people of different nationalities in my class reacted. I remember buying a jar of PB there just to have as a comfort food. Really put me at ease some days, even though I love Levantine cuisine.
I'm from the US. In 2008, I was living in China while my sister was living in Italy. Peanut butter is really popular in Asia (mostly for sauces) so it's readily available. My sister, however, was living in a PB desert and was desperate for peanut butter. It was cheaper for me to mail things to her as opposed to our parents in the States mailing things so that year I regularly sent my sister peanut butter care packages from China to Italy. 😂
Strange. I was able to buy peanut butter in Catalan, at least. But who I was staying with thought it was a disgusting idea to eat and wouldn't touch it. So perhaps not popular in certain European countries?
I confirm what Ezio's saying. Nowadays you can find PB pretty much in every supermarket, people are still not too over-excited about it. Anyway, I do usually have a PB in my pantry, it's nice, although a bit thick, still hasn't brought myself to add that layer of jelly on. Sooner or later, I will, but man it's hard to beat Nutella, as Jamie says :D.
As a young child in the 80's, i first learnt of PB&J from a tv show. As an Australian, the Southern Ocean one not northern Europe, I didnt realise it was peanu butter and jam. I tried it, and was blown away. Smooth peanut butter, a layer of blackberry jam/jelly, it was a literal awakening. Loved it ever since, unashamed work lunch as a grown ass man.
Since peanut butter reached my country just 20 years ago, I love mixing it with plum jam, the non-sugar one, which is a staple food in our country. May not sound great but it sure tastes amazing! 😋
When I was a child, my grandparents had a few crab apple trees on their property and my grandmother would make crab apple jelly with it. Until I was like at least 8 or 9, it was the only kind of jam or jelly that I would eat. She's much older now and doesn't do all the preserves and canning anymore and this video just reminded me of how much I miss that jelly.
We had one at our house and every year we made crabapple jelly. I have been looking for a crabapple tree to plant, the kind that produces the big crabapples, not just the ornamental kind.
Quick, ask her for her recipe, or ask her to teach you how to make it! Before she can't remember, or isn't around to teach you anymore. I really wish I had done that with my grandma!
My late mother used to make peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches and grill them like grilled cheese. Y'all MUST try this. The warm PB&J with buttered grilled bread is AMAZING. It's the best memory of my childhood.
Peanut marzipan, made with sugar rather than honey, is still rather popular in Mexico, to the point that Spanish style almond marzipan is considered an specialty in Central Mexico.
I was going to say that I am SO STUNNED that mazapan (peanut) is so old! Almond-honey marzipan is usually called turron (either duro for the hard or suave for the soft).
@@KT-Kaboom Turrón, usually although not necessarily, includes egg whites as a major ingredient. But the word Turrón can be used for many similar confectioneries.
@@AdryenneP No, there is the almond one, and also a pumpkin seed one in Southern Mexico and Central America and, it seems that you can use other seeds and nuts, but I have never try them.
I just want to thank you so much for having high-quality captions on every video. I and many others appreciate it so much. Protip: put your peanut butter that separates into the fridge after you stir it. It'll stay homogeneous longer, particularly in the summer. If you want to have a truly transcendent experience: Chocolate hazelnut spread, peanut butter, and a tart jelly of your choice. Large glass of milk or milk-analogue required.
@@BexadrineD Even better, storing it upside down between uses will handle a good chunk of the mixing for you, since all the solids fall into the oil when you flip it over. I only occasionally feel the need to manually mix my peanut butter thanks to that trick.
@@rashkavar I lay my PB and almond butter on their sides and rotate the jars whenever I open the pantry. It's admittedly a bit of a pain but it stays mixed and I like my PB&J sandwiches with the natural stuff.
It's been days but I gotta just say it's so nice to be able to participate in a comment section without some bitter person picking a fight in it. This channel is a valuable bright spot
In South Africa, we make PB and J sandwiches with Apricot or Mixed Fruit Jam. We also use Golden Syrup but there is a trick to it. We mix the peanut butter and golden syrup with butter and margarine to stop the syrup from crystallizing on the bread. Ps, I like the Girafarig in the background
I remember when my aunt made us peanut butter sandwiches with her sandwich press. As a young kid, there was nothing tastier than crispy toasted white bread filled with a warm, runny peanut butter. We didn't have jam back then. I also remember watching cartoons with a bunch of PB&J scenes and wondering how good those would taste as i ate my peanut butter toast. Now I buy strawberry jam just for PB&J.
I've never met anyone else who also grew up on grilled peanut butter sandwiches (as we called them)! I grew up super poor and mostly relied on food pantry foods and government boxes, which did not often include jam/jelly/preserves. There usually was a jar of peanut butter and white bread, though. I sometimes even still make them when I'm feeling nostalgic and they're legit delicious. Something about hot melty peanut butter on crunchy bread hits just right.
The biggest surprise I've had since living in Japan was the discovery that the Japanese do not know what pbj's are. I was explaining it to somebody the other day, and they just could not wrap their head around it! 😂 They kept thinking I was saying to have them on separate pieces of toast. Eventually I gave up and just made them one and it totally blew their mind! Now, my husband and I make it a point to bring cut up little PBJs to the school kids every so often for them to tast. It is always a huge hit and lots it's of fun to watch them muse over the tinny sandwiches. We bring some toasted and some untoasted, because a lot of the Japanese people don't like things to be too sweet and will often prefer the toasted version. So, just as you bring the peanut butter and jelly sides of your sandwich together, know that so too does PBJ bring people together.❤
I'm surprised your Japanese friends were having difficulty comprehending PBJ, because of two things: salty-with-sweet is a very popular flavor combination in Japan, and soft white bread (Milk Bread) is popular for "Sando" I think theyshould try a PBJ KitKat version.
Growing up here in Brazil in the 80's, Pullman was a synonym for sandwich bread where I lived, as it was the better known brand. Even today I write down "Pão Pullman" in the shopping list.
When I was living in Italy some 20 years ago, PB was hard to come by, so I used a 1990s Braun coffee grinder to grind peanuts into the paste and it totally worked. I've tried it since with both a spice grinder and a small food processor. Neither has worked; I end up with greasy peanut powder. If you are new to PBJ, see if you can find concord grape jelly and use a white bread (French baguette is wonderful). This is the iconic flavor. Very distinct from other jams.
Hazelnut butter is easy to make, not in a coffee grinder (duh), but a regular cuisinart works fine. they have the nutella sandwhich and we have the pbj.
When I was a kid in 1978, my cousin Mario came to visit from Italy. He had been captured in WWII and was, "Imprisoned" here in the US. I put that word in quotes because he went to Palisades Amusement Park regularly with his fellow "prisoners". Anyway, we prepared lunch for a day at the beach at the Jersey shore when Mario bit into a PB&J and cried out in joy. He said he had been looking for this stuff for decades but didn't know what it was called. He was so happy. He went home with a case of peanut butter.
Meanwhile, Americans of Japanese descent were kept in dilapidated internment camps during the same time period. Such a terrible injustice. I am glad your cousin was treated well and had such a beautiful reaction to peanut butter. I just wish we had treated our own countrymen with as much dignity and kindness.
@@mirentxulorimer1688that's true but you seldom here about the Germans and Italians who were also placed in camps they certainly didn't get any reparations. So while yes horrible what happened to Japanese-Americans let's not pretend that they were the only ones that suffered
Peanut butter is indeed difficult to come by in Bangladesh. But we finally got a blender that was sufficient to grind the peanuts. If you toast the peanuts well until the oil is shining on the surface and then let them completely cool, they grind much more easily, like in about 6 minutes as opposed to 30 min. And we made jam from jam (a somewhat tart fruit) so that was fun.
@@christisking777 The peanut butter was so good. I just added a little salt to it once it was nearly completely smooth and just finished blending it. The jam jam was delicious!
@@alexfrideres1198 No sunflower butter that I could find. That would have probably been delicious too, but while we could find sunflower oil, I didn’t find any sunflower seeds at all.
The reason why she says to eat it with tea is because of the time period. Milk was often thought of as only given to babies and many adults never drank it throughout history. It became widely popular for more American adults to drink milk, just a little while after this recipe was likely published. It's so fascinating to see this time period in American history because it shows how we got here. I'd recommend doing that full kellogg episode Max! For everyone reading this, I'd recommend a PBS special about the Poison Squad! Fantastic material 👏
As a tea drinker and only like milk in cereal, I'd drink filtered water mixed with fruit juice with PB&J. Sadly, PB give me heartburn now so I haven't had the sandwich in years.😥
@@jasonslade6259 Omg yes! I do kinda love peanut butter toast with my coffee in the morning. Or to gild the lily, peanut butter banana toast with a honey drizzle. Something about the hot coffee just like...power washes the stuck pb and bread out of my mouth in an immensely satisfying way.
I rather enjoyed the dramatized stories in "The Foods That Built America" about Kellogg and his brother... How Post and eventually Grape Nuts got their starts and the "Cereal Wars"... while Kellogg's Sanitarium rose and then fell... NOT going to swoon about the honesty of the series, but it's worth looking at... if you have time... ;o)
“It’s just PB&J how interesting could it _possibly_ be?” *9 minutes later* “Sunnova Biscuit, that goober Kellogg is at it again!” *6 minutes later* “Max is decent people, you can tell from his choice in peanut butter” *60 seconds later* “Lazy boomer food, called it… hey when are we gonna talk about that third slice of bread… there we are.” Max, you’ve always kinda reminded me of early Good Eats in a way, getting me to watch 20 minutes on PB&J is some Alton Brown level skill. Good on you.
Fun fact I learned about Pullman train cars: Pullman was an early adopter of a new type of train wheel that greatly improved comfort - paper. Richard Allen invented a laminated paper core with iron hub and tire train wheel that didn't catch on until Pullman bought them and advertised it about his train cars. The wheels became super popular in passenger cars until 1915, when they were banned, because train carriages got much heavier, faster, and the technology of suspension and solid wheels improved, causing the paper wheels to fail quickly.
Important note: John Harvey Kellogg is not actually the guy behind modern cornflakes. He did make a bland, unsweetened corn flake (to kill libido), but it was his brother William who added sugar & created the Kellogg cereal company! :3
As much as his philosophies make me cringe, the part about meat being an aphrodisiac is very well established, if not entirely factual: At least as far back as the Roman empire, rare red meat was the equivalent of Viagra.
@@ericwilliams1659 You beat me to it :) But it was a book as well, both the book and movie were loosely based on his life and the cereal mania, much like the internet mania and housing bubble in recent times, of that era.
When I was a kid, we used to make PBJ on toast, then put them in the freezer. We would have a cold snack later in the day during the summer, as an alternative to ice cream. It was really good.
Pullman loaf is named after the baking mold that was designed specifically for use in restricted space train kitchens aboard the luxurious Pullman carriages. The Pullman tin is distinct in its trapezoidal shape AND in that it is designed with a sliding lid on it (again, for safety and quality aboard a moving train).
Thanks Max for the WW2 soldier connection of PB&J. I feel like there's a stigma for adults to make and enjoy PB&J because it's a "kids food". Now I can feel better when I'm out on a long hike eating like a soldier. I'm also a toasted soughdough fan, ideally with homemade apricot or strawberry jam, that makes a big difference in sweetness.
My dad was a WW2 Navy vet. He used to always say they survived on coffee, cigarettes and PB&J. They would be at general quarters for hours on their guns and that was almost always what was brought out to them on watch. It was always one of his favorites. After seeing this, I kind of understand why grape jelly was a standard in my house as a kid, along with the blackberry jam we made ourselves.
One of the current MREs (packaged soldier meals) contains the makings of a PB&J. Most guys just eat the bread and save the PB & J packets for a convenient snack
I'm genuinely surprised that PB&J would have a stigma to it; I grew up eating them and my parents would make one for themselves now and again as a snack. I still find them to be a great meal when served with a glass of milk.
As a Filipino, I was already a(n) older teen/young adult when I actually tried putting peanut butter and jelly/jam together in a sandwich. As a child, I took them separately though I was already aware of PB&J from cartoons. Besides, we rarely had peanut butter and jam in the house together; it tended to be one or the other. Then, one day I actually tried it, and...I couldn't believe I waited so long to do it. LOL My go-to "jelly" is strawberry preserves.
Late 90s, sitting in my UK house talking to my USA friend in America, on the internet. He says "Right, just gonna get myself a pbj". " what is a pbj"? Long story short he talked me into going to the supermarket, buying the stuff, making one, eating it. I've loved em ever since
Here in Mexico peanut butter is kind of expensive, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches aren't very popular, but in my family we buy peanut butter and strawberry jam as a treat a couple of times a year. My favorite combination is peanut butter and strawberry jam in a bolillo. A bolillo is pretty much the default Mexican white bread.
Over here in Germany i have to cross over to the Netherlands to get good and cheap(er) peanut butter, but that only pays off when i want to get a crapton of other stuff from our neighbors that is either more expensive or unobtainable over here. Mostly stuff for the deep-fryer... 😅
Ohhh I LOVE bolillo, its taste is definitely different from most White Breads in the U.S. I will have to try that next time I am down there. I do the same but use Potato Bread here in the states!
Strawberry with peanut butter just tastes wrong to me. It is supposed to be grape jelly or it is wrong. Strawberry jelly is good on toast, but not on a PB&J.
I just buy peanuts and make my own peanut butter, because yeah, in Ecuador it's expensive too. My mom lived in the states when she was a teenager and she introduced me to the pb&j when I was a kid, love the stuff.
My mom in the Fifties once made us a lunch menu for fun. (Maybe we had some little friends coming by.) "Smashed Goobers and Berries on a Raft" "Cow Juice" (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.) I never forgot that, I laughed so much. At that time, the PBJ was only as old as the 70's are to us now. So for my Depression-era Mom, PBJ was probably a luxury item because their family ate a lot of dark bread.
When my family moved from the US to Greece, I was 11 and peanut butter was one of the things I missed. It was impossible to come by and even if you did, it was ridiculously expensive. And when I would talk about it as a flavor, I would be made fun of and told to be "less of an American"... Fast forward to the past few years: there are now Greek companies that make all types of nut butters and there is always peanut butter in my cupboard to be enjoyed with homemade jam ❤️
Completely Understand. I believe their PB is not as sweet more salty. A Greek I talked to on Google couldn't believe we in USA mix PB salty his words with Jelly sweet. I really blew his mind with choc Carmel salted candy. I haven't been given the opportunity to eat bacon covered iced bakery .. but it sounds so good.
@@badreality2 its cool to hate americans but they love to emulate and enjoy our music, fashion, movies etc. not to mention 90 percent of the world wants to come here
Another excellent episode (as always), My only thought is that The Grapelade (and others) were probably pronounced 'Grape-ah-lah-dah', as in Tapenade, which they basically were. You're so right. That half frozen, slightly smooshed, white bread PB&J really was the best of the best.
I can tell you how to recreate that school sandwich... cheapest sliced white bread you can find (think generic brands, although your school cafeteria was probably using government supplied staples), welch's grape jelly (provided to public schools just like military mess kits) and cheapest smooth pb. Make a bunch of them, squeeze them down into a big pan, freeze them overnight. Take out next morning to thaw, that way not still hard as a brick at lunch time. Find one at the bottom of the pan for that nostalgic smashed sandwich feeling. This lesson brought to you by a year in food and hospitality trade classes :) (one of our field trips was to see how the cafeteria was run. The mystery meat really is 100% hamburger)
We were lucky enough to have a slice of American Cheese on it. From my experience it was the same tasting as my grandfather's supply of cheese. Government Issue. I miss those flavors and agree with Max on the search for them. Thanks for the sharing of their secrets on schools PB&J!
My kid's school would use one slice of whole wheat and one slice of white bread, worst of both worlds. My son didn't like the sweet bread or the sweetened PB; many popular brands have I swear as much sugar and shortening as they do peanuts.
I love the fact how neatly the ad segment is integrated in your show. Not only does it support character, bot no! We also learned what a (goofy) goober is!
Blackcurrant is a very popular flavor in Poland for jams, cakes and sweets. Its kind of tangy and sour and yes i have tried it with peanut butter before being Polish American. It was good. Its very easy to find here in Chicago.
I grew up eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches starting in the early 1960's and still eat them regularly. White or wheat bread works for me toasted or not. One thing I didn't like when I was in grade school was the sandwich made for my lunch...the jelly would soak into one side of the bread and make it mussy before lunch. What did to fix that was put a heavy layer of peanut butter on one slice and a thin later on the other slice before putting the jelly on the thin layer side. It fixed the problem for me and still do it that way.
Hi Max. The reason for the middle bread is two fold. In tea sandwiches it boosted the height for a more elegant presentation and separated the filling for absorbent purposes as to not drip on the fine clothing of the day. Also, served with afternoon tea, hence the name Tea Sandwiches.
I worked in a nursing home while I was in college and one of my favorite residents was the Peter Pan Peanut Butter girl back in, I wanna say, the 30s or maybe early 40s. She toured around dressed up at Peter Pan. She had photos and everything.
After watching the video, I was inspired to try making the Pullman Loaf. I bought the pan from Amazon, followed Max's directions exactly, and the loaf was...BEAUTIFUL! There will be many more to come in the future, no more store bought sandwich bread for me . Thanks Max.
@@dianem7563 haha what that guy said confused me too, but, after running it through my linguistic analysis machine, i think he's asking whether after three weeks of baking that first loaf, have you resorted to buying sandwich bread at the store
@@vitorpereira9515 Depends on how you store it. At room temperature, about 3 days. I keep it in the fridge in a thick freezer-style zip-lock, and it'll last a week. Assuming I don't eat it all...
My family made their own strawberry jam and plum jelly - both made VERY sweet. I was always a Skippy creamy guy, no chunky for me. The final component had to be white Wonder bread in the thin sandwich style. Super soft for maximum squish.
Mom always made its canned tomato soup variant, Pink Bunny. Often with a couple hot dogs sliced up in it, over saltine crackers. Trick was, to let the crisp crackers soften up in the hot soup mixture where you could readily cut them with your fork.
I’ve been allergic to peanuts my whole life and was always curious about the taste. From being on a research trial, I can now eat 7 whole peanuts (before I go into anaphylaxis lol) and trying peanut butter for the first time was wild. So much more savoury than I expected and tasted a bit like hummus? PB&J is pretty good (from the tiny amount I have tried). Another great vid max!
I would be quite hesitant of being part of such a study. I could just see myself going through one, and then some of the idiots in my family going "Oh great, you can have peanuts and peanut butter now!"...and then offer me something *loaded* with it, and I end up in the ER. (My sister and I have pretty much the same food allergies, while our brother is heathy as a horse...and a number of family members on my dad's side of the family just didn't know - or didn't care - enough with us about those allergies.)
It's awesome you took part in that study! I can see how it could easily be scary to do so, but it's awesome you're helping people figure out how to maybe one day cure peanut allergies!
Oh yeah. Like he said he has been chasing that one flavor for thirty years, I have been chasing black raspberry anything for about 60. My folks had both black raspberries (WHY are they so hard to find??) and concord grapes so there was a lot of homemade jelly and jam on our table.
I did this for the first time last week. 😅 Okay, i didn’t grow the raspberries (but I’m moving in a few months and have already decided they’re one of the first things I want to tackle), but the rest of it! I also used a strainer to get the juice from the raspberries and infused a chocolate ganache with it and made bonbons today. Sooo good.
My mom used to pack me a PBJ every day for lunch. I used to love how the sandwich would age between its creation in the morning and lunch. It gave the components time to meld together, it was amazing. On a side note: I used to love elementary school parties when you would eat potato chips with the residue of sweet pastries still in your mouth, that crushed it.
Pro tip: if you are packing a PBJ for lunch, PB both sides and put the jelly in the middle. That will keep the jelly from soaking into the bread and making it soggy. Also keep it away from cold drinks.
I'm from the UK, and although peanut butter and jam isn't that common here, it's not unheard of, and I usually have it as part of a packed lunch for work once a month or so. My favourite (and I think the best) jam to have in this sandwich is loganberry (if you can get it!) - not as sweet and sickly as strawberry, but not as tart as raspberry. In my opinion, it can't be beaten and is well worth trying!
Crabapple jelly is the nectar of the gods. I grew up with a crabapple tree in my backyard. My mom would make loads of jelly and store it in the basement. Fond memories.
Since watching this months and months ago, This has become a staple recipe in my house; I make it every week for the kids lunches, and I keep my loaf in the Pullman loaf with the lid and only open when I’m ready to cut pieces off.at the end of the week I make either French toast or bread pudding with the leftovers (usually aren’t very much leftovers to be honest) and the cycle starts again in Sunday.
My fiancé is of Incan/Quechuan descent and a first generation American. He’s also quite fond of peanut butter. Neither one of us knew that peanuts and peanut butter actually came from the Andes, (I’d always been told peanuts came from Africa and hadn’t realized that they were transplants) but both of us were delighted with the new knowledge. I guess that my fiancé can claim that peanut butter is part of his cultural heritage twice over now. 😂 Also, apricot jam is the superior jam for PB&J and I will die on that hill.
I agree with the apricot jam, though I also love peach or pineapple preserves as well. My mom got me hooked on sour cherry preserves...I do love them as well. For me, the era of grape jelly ended for me when I left 4th grade.
I love apricot for peanut butter sandwiches. I usually prefer seedless raspberry or blackberry. Peach or cherry preserves are nice too. And I discovered that lingonberry jam is terrific on a PB&J! I’ve never tried pineapple. Sounds weird, but … maybe? Seems like texture that might not appeal to me. Commercial grape jelly is pretty blah, but I once made homemade Concord grape jelly, and that was FANTASTIC. Honestly, I can’t think of very many jams or jellies I might NOT like in a PB&J. I don’t think I’d use a mint jelly though! It does occur to me that some folks - probably not me, as I am a spice wimp! - might actually enjoy something like a jalapeño jam, though. I could see a bit of heat working well with the peanut butter. I do prefer crunchy peanut butter, but seedless jam. Which come to think of it, is a bit odd, but there we are! 😂 Now I’m hungry for a PB&J! 😂
Crabapple used to be one of the most common jelly flavors when I was a kid, longer ago than I like to think. So many foods and flavors go in and out of fashion. Blackberry jam with PB sounds fantastic though!
I've never liked PB&J either. A sandwich with just Chunky (or smooth if you don't have chunky) peanut butter - yes, please. And thanks to finally trying Uncrustables - I found I like peanut butter and honey sandwiches but if I'm making it - just peanut butter is fine. Chunky peanut butter and sliced banana sandwich is also good.
That and the fact that food goes bad and if the product doesn’t have a warning that it has a shelf life, they could be liable for your illness or injury. That date is there to protect companies from idiots and over litigious societies.
By eight years old I was a latch-key kid, fending for myself most days. PB&J on Wonder bread with a glass of milk kept me fed. I turned 55 a couple days ago, and it is still my favorite lunch or snack. No wonder bread these days, but there are delicious alternatives.
definitely PB(Peter Pan or Skippy) & grape jelly(Welsh's) on Wonder Bread . served with bowl of Campbells Cream of Tomato soup and glass of whole milk with Quik chocolate (or maybe Quik Strawberry)
I love that you can make something as simple as PB&J so interesting. While my Dutch husband loved peanut sauce in Indonesian food, the thought of peanut butter with jelly on bread was horrifying to him. He managed to live in the US for 20 some years without trying it. When I met him I finally convinced him. He says it's an acquired taste and he has warmed to it over the years so much so that it's a favorite now. As it happens we grow black currants in our garden so black currant jam is what we normally use. It's distinctive flavor holds up well with the peanut butter.
Peanuts had an interesting turn in the far east via the East Indian Company and the Asian peoples sure knew what to do with peanuts beyond mashing it and sweetening it and slapping it on bread. I love love love getting anything Satay sauced... and used that as my inspo to put two heaping spoons full in my curries. It adds a nice nutty creaminess to the sauce and it really works well as a savory spice flavour enhancer. If you use crunchy pb then you add texture to your meal too.
And I learned to make Peanut Butter Soup, which was great when funds were limited. Just think Satay flavor. For real cheap eats with protein, spicy Ramen/pot noodle soup with a blop of peanut butter and a splash of low salt soy sauce. And frozen veggies if you have them.
Something to try with PBJs. Make a standard PBJ, freeze it. While its frozen butter the outside of the sandwich and grill it in a pan like a grilled cheese. Also, former lunch lady here, those sandwiches were probably made in large quantities and put in the freezer. Tips for recreating school lunch PBJ: start with frozen white bread. Let it thaw just enough to separate the slices, then add your peanut butter and grape jelly (bonus if your grape jelly comes from a metal can). Put it back in the freezer, probably in a plastic bag. Take out later, let it barely thaw and enjoy.
I recently started making my own jam since I have a couple grapevines on the property. The amount of sugar the recipe required was surprising, nearly half of the total weight before I even started boiling it down. No wonder I have such a sweet tooth for PB&J.
@@Orinslayerh, it’s delicious. Especially in Oatmeal or in non-sweetened warm cereal. Mazapan, in general, is a staple in Mexican/Latin American households. Try “De La Rosa” Mazapan, you’re gonna love it.
As a European, this is so interesting to watch, since PB&J sandwiches are just not a thing here in Belgium. I tried it once a few years ago and didn't particularly care for it (while I adore peanut butter and I like jam, I guess its combination is an acquired taste haha). It makes more sense to me after watching this video why it isn't as popular here!
Hey, you in Belgium should like PB&J! After all, we in the United States like your er French Fries! Though you got a raw deal with that, since fries were invented in Belgium. They should be called Belgium Fries.😉
The peanut can be overwhelming to the fruit. My favorite is peanut butter and orange marmalade. Europeans might also use less jelly or jam, too. The combination doesn't work unless the flavors balance well.
@@charlotteplaisant7965 I forgot. You probably want to avoid maramlade that specifically reports it is sweet on the label. I prefer old style thick-cut myself.
I think it was just made to fit in a sheet pan? I worked in the dining hall in college and pretty much everything they made was portioned to institutional pans.
@@grimleaper9471The rectangular “pizza strip” pizzas with no cheese? If you ever end up in Rhode Island you can buy them all over, but I think Superior Bakery is where most of them are made here. Idk about elsewhere.
I like open face English muffins, toasted. Since you can toast them longer it gets hot enough to melt the peanut butter. Molten PB&J is the best ever! Also a toasted sub roll works too.
Super interesting! As the granddaughter of a British immigrant, I grew up making tea sandwiches! I would say, your bread is cut quite thickly for a tea sandwich, which might be why you feel there's too much bread. Nana used to put the bread in the fridge overnight to firm it up, so we could get REALLY thin slices. Love the episodes when you tackle "common" food!
I hope you know how much happiness you bring to peoples' lives with your channel! Look at all the wonderful comments! Thank you for a happy place with the added bonus of learning!
In the American South, we boil raw peanuts in brine for hours until "al dente", and they are a favorite (albeit an acquired taste to those unfamiliar with it!) Congrats on your book, Max!
I think peanut butter on wheat toast is the perfect breakfast, with or without jelly. It is cheap, nutritious, delicious and very filling and hearty. It will really get you through until lunch without your stomach growling for hours 😊
I remember hearing someone say "If Hell only had space for one person I hope it's Kellogg in that spot" so I'd love to see a video about Kellogg to see what he did to earn that guy's ire
Well he is the primary reason why most American males were circumcised (regardless of religious beliefs) up to this very day. Also a lot of other quackery
I fondly recall cafeteria lunches at my elementary school where students were allowed to have seconds of the entree, but only once. However, you were allowed to have a slice of white bread with a glop of smooth peanut butter on it as many times as you wished. Lunches, which consisted of a meat entree, vegetables, bread with PB, carrot sticks, pint of milk (in a glass bottle), and dessert (usually jello, pudding, or plain cake) would cost a whopping 25¢.
Now all peanut products are not allowed in the school. Next will be fish. Then all wheat products. Then all dairy products. Won't be long it will be just be water.
This is a great if purely academic video for me: I'm allergic to ground nuts. But it's still very cool to see how so many kids in the US came to love this. Thanks, Max!
@@BornRemaining By "ground nuts" he means the nuts that grow near the ground rather than on trees. It's a common allergy... If you were making a joke, I apologize. 👍👍👍
@@stickychocolate8155 Nope, and that's part of the joke. There's tree nuts and nuts that grow in the ground; two very different families with different genetic makeup. But there are some people who are picky about texture and will say they're only allergic to something if it's prepared in a way they don't like, even tho it's the same ingredients and same amount of heat. Like Amberlynn Reid lying about being "allergic to scrambled eggs" because she prefers omelets.
The background music included while you are tasting the BP&Js is perfect-1950s home/kitchen feeling to it. This is one of the many many aspects of your podcasts that make them so delightful-the background music selected is always perfect for what is going on in the podcast (and just right volume, “supportive”, never overpowering).
Growing up in Mexico it was still a staple of my childhood because my dad just so happened to be in love with PB&J sandwiches, not that the idea was completely foreign in Mexico by the 90s but I was definitely the only kid bringing them to school for lunch (or at least in my homeroom).
Max! My book finally came! It is so well done, combining history and recipies in perfect balance. Just like your show. I find myself reading in your voice. Ha. Beautiful. Congratulations to you and your team.
So I'm over at my parent's house to have dinner with them. I just watched this video and then asked my parents if they knew about this. My mother told me that my grandmother would make them exactly the same way as they're made in the video. She also said that it was considered a specialty sandwich and not something they had all the time. Also my great grandmother on my mother's side would make them for her afternoon tea.
I'm a Spaniard and I remember the first time I was trying to give a Brit a recipe about a sandwich I made. We call that Pullman bread "pan de molde" (literally, mould bread) and for us it's got it's own category, an inferior one. We call "bread" ciapata, baguette, hogaza... But pullman bread is more of a cake or a croissant than bread for us in Spain. The thing is I didn't know at that time how it was cold. The Brit replied "idk, it's normal bread to me". Yeah, right, I'm sorry but that's the last thing I'd call bread. I'd call pizza a kind of bread rather than calling that bread
@@Noblesix84 Or maybe hardtack, bread that practically doesn't spoil as long as it stays dry? Then again, the people who actually had to eat it usually didn't appreciate it very much lol.
When I was a kid and you forgot your lunch you got donations from other kids lunches. It was great because so many kids donated something that you got a better lunch than you would normally have.
While peanut butter is readily available down here in Australia, grape jam is very hard to find. What Australians call 'jelly' is what Americans call 'jello', something that caused me some confusion when my online American friends would talk about PB&J. At least until I worked out the difference. 😅
@antoniahamilton32010 seconds ago The beauty of a PB&J is you can use whatever jam you have on hand. Marmalade is fine too. I find the sugar free jams are less than satisfying. Whatever floats your boat. A glass of ice cold milk to accompany it highly recommended. I enjoy mine with hot coffee.
Jell-o and jelly are very different. Jell-o is artificial flavored gelatin and used as a dessert as well as in molds Jelly is made with the juice of actual fruit and is spreadable on bread . Jam is made with the fruit and Americans eat that,too
Order the TASTING HISTORY COOKBOOK: amzn.to/42O10Lx
👀
@@deleted-something my mom is getting one
By end of Vid,
Me: WAIT I thought we were learning to make it from scratch !
History lesson was actually interesting though
I got the book at Books a Million because waiting for shipping was too hard! The employee helped me dig around the trashed cooking section until we found one. I know it was trashed by people looking for Max's cookbook!!! 😂
Wait til you try peanut butter whiskey...
If anyone is confused, in the US jelly is made of juice, jam is made with crushed fruit and preserves have large chunks of fruit, usually in a base that's half way between jelly and jam in consistency. So it's not just jelly = jam.
Jellies are clear, jams have bits in so they're aren't clear
Even knowing this, as an Aussie it is so strange. Like why is “jelly” the predominant sweet condiment in the USA? Isn’t it wasteful to not make use of the whole fruit? Why don’t people like the actual fruit in their preserves? Am I missing something?
@@marabanara The concord grape is only really useful for its juice so there's that for the grape jelly.
jam tomorrow, jam yesterday, but never ever jam todayl.
@@marabanara some fruit is only good for juicing. We make a lot juice concentrates out of fruit that's too ripe or fragile to make it to stores, concentrates have a long shelf life, so that's less wasteful. Of all the things about industrial food production that are wasteful ( every. single. step. ) I don't think choosing whether or not to make juice is the highest priority for change.
My grandma, who grew up during the depression, said that her mother tried a bunch of "tricks" to make them feel like they weren't super poor. One of these "tricks" was to pre-mix the peanut butter and jelly and call it a "jellyAND" sandwich instead of Peanut butter and jelly. My grandma said her and her brother had to constantly fight off all the "trade offers" from the other kids at school, and it made them feel like they had something more. I know it's innocuous, but it kept their morale up, and is just a fun little tidbit regarding American history. Love your vids, Max, and I'm so glad you're finally getting the popularity you've deserved for many years.
Your grandma sounds like a clever lady.
Your comment on pb&j struck a note with me about how I helped keep morale up during the pandemic. Apart from lockdown I allowed my children to go to the store at the end of every school week, N95 masks on, to buy a piece of candy of their choosing--if and only if they had kept up with their schoolwork. Not if they got certain grades, but just for showing up on zoom and doing their work. I supervised their schooling and still don't understand why some people pretend that children nationwide missed a year of school. My children didn't miss a day and maintained their physical and mental health and standard of living despite having to use resources more prudently. I'm proud of us for having coped so well, and being able to go to the grocery store and shop every week was a boon for my children's morale in much the same way the jellyAND must have been.
@@poonyaTara people don't "pretend" that kids missed out on school. A lot of kids genuinely did. Just because you managed to find a solution that worked for your family doesn't mean everyone can do it.
Basically, it's like you're talking about how during a flood, when you saw the waters rising, you went and looked in the attic, found an old canoe, and put your whole family in it, and that's how you all came through the flood OK. And then, you're making the assumption that because you had a canoe in the attic, *everyone* must be able to find an old canoe in the attic (which, statistically, is just not actually the case). And then, you're sitting there, patting yourself on the back for your clever canoe solution, and blithely saying that you just don't understand all these people who "pretend" that a lot of kids drowned in the flood. That's impossible, you say, no kid could possibly have drowned, their parents would just have put them in their attic canoe once the waters started rising.
I'm genuinely glad that you managed to find a way to get your kids to continue investing in their school work during the pandemic. That is great. But that bullshit about how people "pretend" their kids missed out on school is just... yikes. If you don't have any natural empathy, just fucking learn how to fake it, because YIKES.
@@gayahithwen I have empathy, and my point was that not everyone missed out on getting an education during the pandemic. I'm glad I made that point. I think you're getting the false impression that I have no empathy because our community had already planned ahead to cope with the rising cost of textbooks by shifting exclusively to online materials and working with local governments to ensure reliable internet access. Being prepared is not the same as lacking empathy. I'm just tired of hearing people pretending like everyone neglected their children's education after three years of working a full-time pro bono job to help educate them. Yet again society is pretending that not getting paid means that I did nothing, and the reality is that I did the most important work that was available for me to do. If you want to accuse someone of a lack of empathy then accuse society of lacking empathy for caring parents.
@@poonyaTara L
its funny to think that when sliced bread came out, they literally said "this is the best thing since wrapped bread"
I've always wondered what saying people used before there was pre-sliced bread. Now I know!
And to think we haven't really innovated since. With all the amazing tech of the past century, everything is still only comparable to sliced bread.
But what became before they had wrapped bread
If we go back far enough they'd say
This is the best thing since Quinoa
And before that, it was "best thing since leavened bread!"
this channel is like a youtube version of a public access show, love it
Look into some actual public access television shows, like Jerkbeast or Sister Who, and this will look even better 😅
after hearing all of max's nostalgic story about his childhood food makes me think that a spin off series of max just cooking his childhood and nostalgic food while telling small anecdotes of his life would be really cool
Love this idea!!
agreed!
I'd watch that
I'd watch it.
Tasting Max Miller’s History with Max Miller
I will be very much looking forward to a Kellog video, he is such a weirdo it’s always interesting to read about him.
The Road to Wellville (1994), with Anthony Hopkins as J.H. Kellogg, is a very strange film!
@@g.patton6872 It is brilliant: Most of the early US Nutrition and health food experts seemed to be genuinely kooky!
Alternatively, the original Graham cracker, which was from a similar ideology.
sexual violence and cereal, who knew theyd come out the same mind
It was actually his brother who invented and perfected the cereal. But Kellogg took the credit. He was not a good man.
I (an American) once begged my Dutch friend to try a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, he exclaimed that he didn't know why this never took off in Europe. Now, learning the history, it really makes a lot of sense. Thanks for this video! I love them all, but this one has so much nostalgia wrapped up in it, absolutely lovely!
th-cam.com/video/jPy_mx5VM_c/w-d-xo.html
a lot of people who aren't Native to the Americas have genetic dispositions to peanuts and get allergies.
I'm 68 yrs old a pb & j and a bowl of chicken noodles soup was what I grew up on.
Peanut butter was never really a thing in Europe
@D_Must The Dutch and the French do eat peanut butter. The Dutch began importing peanuts from Suriname and making spread about 100 years ago, and they call it "pindaakas" (peanut cheese). The biggest brand in both countries is the French Calve brand, which is a creamy peanut butter that began production in 1948 (possibly inspired by the peanut butter in US soldier's rations).
As a Europian one time I tried to make PBJ but you can't buy jelly here, but I got addicted to 100% peanut butter and I eat it nearly every day just by itself.
You can make your own jelly or I can send you some :)
If you can get your hands on jam or preserves, that works just as well
My doctor used to recommend a spoonful of peanut butter when I was little. I was way too skinny because the meds I took caused a loss of appetite, making me very skinny. Said it was good for not only gaining weight but also a good source of protein.
Where are you in Europe? You can definitely buy jelly in Europe
Use preserves or jam. Strawberry and grape usually are the go-to. You can make your own as well. It's like a compote
I love that the saying before, "It's the best thing since sliced bread" was "It's the best thing since wrapped bread."
Came here to say this!
When wrapped bread was invented: "It's the best thing since bread!"
@@filipmazic5486 well what would the saying be before we even invented bread
So like if you went to a bakery before wrapped bread, they would just put a loaf in your hand with no wrapping? I cannot even imagine that. If I had lived back then, I would have brought a plastic bag with me. Or reusable silicone.
@@Truerussiantigershark The best thing since gruel
You're never too old to eat a PB&J, despite some people thinking it's exclusively meant for kindergarteners, but it's a quick sweet and salty treat and is as American as Apple pie. I sometimes add cinnamon toast cereal in my PB&J for crunch and it's absolutely divine.
Oh! Interesting!
Have you ever grilled a PBJ like you would grilled cheese? It's my favorite way to eat it.
No one believes this, but trust me: Peanut butter, rhubarb jam, hummus and cinnamon on black bread. Maximum protein for athletics, and the sour and sweet and savory balance perfectly. It's like neon flavor. There's more flavor than you'd ever guess.
@@liimlsan3I believe you enough to try it!
Never thought of that. I believe I will have to do that tomorrow, damnit! I can already taste it!
If you don't know what to do with the rest of the crab apple jelly, it is amazing with pork roast.
Pulled pork and crabapple jelly sandwich.
@@lairdcummings9092 🤤
Or to glaze prok chops 👍
Or to glaze a ham (I also use peach or apricot jam!). Or a thin smear of crab apple jam on a ham sandwich! Apple is always good with pork.
Or just put it on on hot toast with lots of butter.
@TastingHistory I lived and worked for several years in numerous African countries in the early 2000s. Peanut sauce or groundnut sauce depending on what is available (yes, peanuts and groundnuts are not exactly the same thing) is a staple protein in multiple African countries. Either grounded groundnut or grounded peanut is turned into a savory sauce eaten with coarsely ground corn meal served as a savory porridge with steamed greens on the side. I came to love it and even now will not pass up the opportunity to eat it.
And thank you for this channel, combining my two favorite hobbies, cooking and history is utter brilliance.
as a poor person, peanutbutter is an essential food
As a Mexican it is a staple
Plumpy Nut a vitamin fortified form of Peanut Butter is fed to starving Children to help them put on weight especially if they have difficulty eating.
it was such a good protein source when they made it for both the poor and for the elderly that this is one of those "this legitimately helped people" type of foodstuffs that somehow got stigmatized.
As a brazilian, it's pretty much a luxury to have peanut butter :c (very expensive, we usually are more able to afford margerine)
@@maria.menezess thats interesting, in the states peanut butter is one of the cheapest foods thatll provide fat and protein making it a pantry staple for many
I use to make triple decker PB&J after school back in the 80s and 90s. Just one of them was enough to satisfy pre-teen me. I liked experimenting with different jellies, jams, and marmalades.
I also liked experimenting with fruit. Slicing strawberries for the strawberry deluxe with creamy peanut butter. Or slicing apples thinly for the apple deluxe with crunchy peanut butter. For the apple deluxe I used apple butter. I even made the King sandwich with banana slices. Such happy memories.
Thank you for the episode, I almost forgotten all of this.
Apples and crunchy PB sounds soooo good
PB and bananas are actually better without the bread. As a kid, I invented what my dad named "dugout canoes" where you split a banana up the middle with your thumb, essentially peeling off two of the six sections, and spread peanut butter in the hollow, then put the split part back on top and eat it like a hot dog.
As an adult I occasionally still eat PB and banana, but I'm much lazier and just spread the PB on the banana without bothering to split it.
I need to try your strawberry and apple deluxes!!
@@gwennorthcutt421 first core the apple then slice like a tomato
it is! And no bread needed! @@juiceecherry
When I was a kid in Australia peanut butter and honey was one of my fave sandwiches. Nice to know there's an element of ancient tradition in that combo
That combo sounds delicious
Nice to see someone else who's eaten Peanut Butter and Honey. Please forgive my lack of knowledge on Australian culture, but is it as uncommon there as it is in the American northeast? You and I are the only ones I've heard of that have eaten it.
Pb and H is my favorite. My Mom made what she called peanut butter honey also delicious. Equal parts of pb, honey and butter, real butter lol
I wonder if there's much of a difference between jam and jelly (being Australian and all) or just difference in names?
@@carriephilippi now I wish I had peanut butter so I can try it
the school lunch pb n j tasted so good bc you were upset you had no lunch and the lunch lady was nice to you. the secret ingredient was kindness.
One of my favorite memories from my travels abroad was overhearing a British gentleman describe the PB&J to his astonished friends.
What did he say?
The main thing to explain is jelly means jam not jello!
I was confused for most of childhood
@@scollybjelly and jam are not the same thing though.
@@DBZHGWgamer the are a lot closer than jam and jello/jelly. US style jelly made from juice doesn't really exist in UK. Jam is close enough for a Brit to understand
@@scollybhonestly jam is better anyway. I always use jam or preserves. Jelly has to much added sugar, or at least I notice it more.
I also ran into the issue of a by fat clogged up coffee grinder/mill while trying to recreate "Erbswurst" (one of the oldest convenience foods from 1867 that was used in the great war).
Just let cheap rice run through your mill to clean it.
Warmth also supports the cleaning process.
I grew up in a military family and lemme tell you, peanut butter is STILL a staple. I have my pancakes with peanut butter because my great grandpa survived on peanut butter in the Philippines as an American guerrilla who escaped the Bataan March. It’s crazy to me how rich the history of something so innocuous can be
Pancakes and peanut butter sounds yummy. Never had it
@@bewareofsasquatch The presence of the PB should in no way limit the application of standard butter and LOTS of syrup. A pile of banana slices also works well in the mix.
@@kevincrosby1760 oh damn dude peanut butter and banana sandwich are so GOOD. I haven’t had one in like over a decade. I was in high school since I had one. I forgot about it. Thank you for reminding me about it. I want one now
@@bewareofsasquatch Don't feel too bad. Over a decade? I graduated from High School 38 years ago...
Memory dims with age. Just about everything that I can remember about High School now seems to revolve around alcohol and females, with an occasional car thrown in for good measure.
Peanut butter with my pancakes has always been a must for me - the combination with the sweet maple syrup is so good!
I live in France and peanut butter is indeed hard to come by - decent, affordable peanut butter, that is. You can get a small (approx. 4 oz) jar of Skippy for about $5, but that's a bit much. So we typically stock up whenever we go to the States (or when Lidl has their American Week - that peanut butter is generally unsweetened but for PB&Js it's fine). And in any case, I've gotten quite a few raised eyebrows when I've brought a PB&J for my lunch at work. I just tell folks, don't knock it until you try it.
Oh, and grape jelly is straight-up impossible to get here, but we have literally every other flavor of jam and jelly you can think of, so overall I actually have more choice than in the States. My personal favorite is red currant jelly. Sweet and tangy.
Do u have nuts? U can grind hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, lol, into “nut butter”.
Every do a crisps and pb&j sandwich? The British and their damn crisps sandwich.... add pb&j and it's amazing
Best PB&Js I’ve had are unsweetened peanut butter and Bonne Maman. Bonus points if you turn it into a pinchy pie
It's funny, but I've actually a seen a lot more French style jams from Bonne Maman becoming popular over the years and that's one of my favorite brands. Ikea also sells really good Scandinavian jam of Blueberries or Mixed Berries, as well as orange marmalade. I have not tried their cloudberry jam yet, however, as it's a bit more expensive.
I buy my peanut butter at asian food stores in Germany - there you get the one without sugar, meant for cooking.
But in the last years it's getting more popular - you should be able to get the American with sugar at bigger stores (Kaufland or similar).
The grape jelly is more difficult - but maybe blueberry jam could work as a substitute?
In 2009 I was studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan. One day in class we each had to explain a common recipe from our country in Arabic. As an American, I chose the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, because it rules, is maybe actually our national dish of sorts, and it was easy in the moment. It was fun how people of different nationalities in my class reacted. I remember buying a jar of PB there just to have as a comfort food. Really put me at ease some days, even though I love Levantine cuisine.
I'm from the US. In 2008, I was living in China while my sister was living in Italy. Peanut butter is really popular in Asia (mostly for sauces) so it's readily available. My sister, however, was living in a PB desert and was desperate for peanut butter. It was cheaper for me to mail things to her as opposed to our parents in the States mailing things so that year I regularly sent my sister peanut butter care packages from China to Italy. 😂
Nowadays PB is quite easily available in Italy, mainly in supermarkets. It isn't a popular food though, at least not yet.
Italy: No peanut butter, drowning in Nutella
Strange. I was able to buy peanut butter in Catalan, at least. But who I was staying with thought it was a disgusting idea to eat and wouldn't touch it. So perhaps not popular in certain European countries?
I confirm what Ezio's saying. Nowadays you can find PB pretty much in every supermarket, people are still not too over-excited about it. Anyway, I do usually have a PB in my pantry, it's nice, although a bit thick, still hasn't brought myself to add that layer of jelly on. Sooner or later, I will, but man it's hard to beat Nutella, as Jamie says :D.
@@guidogbd7302 I saw the concept of peanut butter + nutella somewhere and tried it, and I gotta say... it's unfortunately really damn good haha
As a young child in the 80's, i first learnt of PB&J from a tv show. As an Australian, the Southern Ocean one not northern Europe, I didnt realise it was peanu butter and jam. I tried it, and was blown away. Smooth peanut butter, a layer of blackberry jam/jelly, it was a literal awakening. Loved it ever since, unashamed work lunch as a grown ass man.
Blackberry is the best with PB! Enjoyed your recollection, thank you. 👍
Anything is better than Marmite!
I'm from the north and I prefer vegemite lol.
Try it with a jalapeno blackberry jam....soooo good.
People confuse Austrians and Australians?
Since peanut butter reached my country just 20 years ago, I love mixing it with plum jam, the non-sugar one, which is a staple food in our country. May not sound great but it sure tastes amazing! 😋
When I was a child, my grandparents had a few crab apple trees on their property and my grandmother would make crab apple jelly with it. Until I was like at least 8 or 9, it was the only kind of jam or jelly that I would eat. She's much older now and doesn't do all the preserves and canning anymore and this video just reminded me of how much I miss that jelly.
Maybe you should give it a try and if it works out give some to her. I bet she'd really appreciate it.
We had one at our house and every year we made crabapple jelly. I have been looking for a crabapple tree to plant, the kind that produces the big crabapples, not just the ornamental kind.
Quick, ask her for her recipe, or ask her to teach you how to make it! Before she can't remember, or isn't around to teach you anymore. I really wish I had done that with my grandma!
@@e.urbach7780
YES! DIY!
Please, please, please ask your Grandma how it's done! Have her sit with you while you do it, you'll cherish the memories and it'll make her day.
Pb&j is extremely nostalgic for most people who grew up in Canada or the US. Cool to see the origins of the combo.
Very cool indeed 😊
Yep I ate it so much I hate it now but it still reminds me of better times
I'm touching almost half a century, and it's still my favorite sammich.
Is there anything more nostalgiac than a pb&j sandwich on a sunny afternoon, likely paired with a cold glass of milk to wash it down?
Hate it.. Hate it a lot.
My late mother used to make peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches and grill them like grilled cheese. Y'all MUST try this. The warm PB&J with buttered grilled bread is AMAZING. It's the best memory of my childhood.
I concur
Agreed! I first had it in a galley on a deep sea fishing trip that I was too small to fish. I went back and had a second.
I never heard of frying PBJ but now because I am already going to have a grilled cheese tmw I also want to try this.
That sounds good, could top with a little powdered sugar and would be bomb.
Your mom sounds amazing. Here is a video how to grill the pb and j: th-cam.com/video/Z3hWGfKKPes/w-d-xo.html
Fresh ground peanut butter is soooooo good. No salt, no sugar, no BS.
Peanut marzipan, made with sugar rather than honey, is still rather popular in Mexico, to the point that Spanish style almond marzipan is considered an specialty in Central Mexico.
I was going to say that I am SO STUNNED that mazapan (peanut) is so old! Almond-honey marzipan is usually called turron (either duro for the hard or suave for the soft).
I thought all marzipan was made of peanuts all this time!
@@KT-Kaboom Turrón, usually although not necessarily, includes egg whites as a major ingredient. But the word Turrón can be used for many similar confectioneries.
@@AdryenneP No, there is the almond one, and also a pumpkin seed one in Southern Mexico and Central America and, it seems that you can use other seeds and nuts, but I have never try them.
@@AdryenneP I thought it was always almonds. I guess we both learned something. LOL
I remember the cold PB&J’s from field trips. It was this magic reaction to being in a hot bus, in an ice chest. Impossible to recreate on purpose.❤
Yesss I love when it’s almost soggy & cold with the bread & the jelly 😩
@@NegroFever they sell uncrustables at Walmart in grape and strawberry
@@redditaddicts2858 Yeah their cool but nothing beats the home made ones
I just want to thank you so much for having high-quality captions on every video. I and many others appreciate it so much.
Protip: put your peanut butter that separates into the fridge after you stir it. It'll stay homogeneous longer, particularly in the summer.
If you want to have a truly transcendent experience: Chocolate hazelnut spread, peanut butter, and a tart jelly of your choice. Large glass of milk or milk-analogue required.
Also if it's extremely separated when you buy it if you store it upside down before you open it it makes it easier to mix
@@BexadrineD Even better, storing it upside down between uses will handle a good chunk of the mixing for you, since all the solids fall into the oil when you flip it over. I only occasionally feel the need to manually mix my peanut butter thanks to that trick.
I'm a savage and just drain the oil out when it separates. It makes my PB nice and THICC
@@rashkavar I lay my PB and almond butter on their sides and rotate the jars whenever I open the pantry. It's admittedly a bit of a pain but it stays mixed and I like my PB&J sandwiches with the natural stuff.
It's been days but I gotta just say it's so nice to be able to participate in a comment section without some bitter person picking a fight in it. This channel is a valuable bright spot
In South Africa, we make PB and J sandwiches with Apricot or Mixed Fruit Jam. We also use Golden Syrup but there is a trick to it. We mix the peanut butter and golden syrup with butter and margarine to stop the syrup from crystallizing on the bread. Ps, I like the Girafarig in the background
What’s golden syrup
@@vrock913 It's an Anglo desert thing kind of like treacle syrup made of invert sugar so it doesn't crystallize iirc. Think honey but made from sugar.
**furiously starts taking notes**
I didn’t even notice the Girafarig until you pointed it out. Nice.
Omg im South african and I had no clue it was a typical snack. My father made them with PB and honey
I remember when my aunt made us peanut butter sandwiches with her sandwich press. As a young kid, there was nothing tastier than crispy toasted white bread filled with a warm, runny peanut butter. We didn't have jam back then. I also remember watching cartoons with a bunch of PB&J scenes and wondering how good those would taste as i ate my peanut butter toast. Now I buy strawberry jam just for PB&J.
I've never met anyone else who also grew up on grilled peanut butter sandwiches (as we called them)! I grew up super poor and mostly relied on food pantry foods and government boxes, which did not often include jam/jelly/preserves. There usually was a jar of peanut butter and white bread, though. I sometimes even still make them when I'm feeling nostalgic and they're legit delicious. Something about hot melty peanut butter on crunchy bread hits just right.
The biggest surprise I've had since living in Japan was the discovery that the Japanese do not know what pbj's are. I was explaining it to somebody the other day, and they just could not wrap their head around it! 😂 They kept thinking I was saying to have them on separate pieces of toast. Eventually I gave up and just made them one and it totally blew their mind!
Now, my husband and I make it a point to bring cut up little PBJs to the school kids every so often for them to tast. It is always a huge hit and lots it's of fun to watch them muse over the tinny sandwiches. We bring some toasted and some untoasted, because a lot of the Japanese people don't like things to be too sweet and will often prefer the toasted version.
So, just as you bring the peanut butter and jelly sides of your sandwich together, know that so too does PBJ bring people together.❤
Peanut butter on toast with a little honey is fantastic. Though I've never quite got the peanut butter and jam thing.
I'm surprised your Japanese friends were having difficulty comprehending PBJ, because of two things: salty-with-sweet is a very popular flavor combination in Japan, and soft white bread (Milk Bread) is popular for "Sando" I think theyshould try a PBJ KitKat version.
Family Mart sells peanut sandwiches and strawberry sandwiches, alas no PB&J 🥹
You’re surprised that a completely different culture doesn’t know of a predominantly American cuisine? Colour me shocked!
Peanut butter is actually pretty popular on Okinawa.
Introduced after the war.
Growing up here in Brazil in the 80's, Pullman was a synonym for sandwich bread where I lived, as it was the better known brand. Even today I write down "Pão Pullman" in the shopping list.
I was going to say the same thing. My Brazilian mom always talked fondly of Pullman pao de forma as picnic bread.
You know your brand is doing well when it becomes a synonym for that food.
Pullman loaves - large and rectangular take their name from Pullman train cars and to this day, this pan is called a Pullman pan.
I love knowing that. Thank you for sharing!
@@SRV2013 Yes, so he explained in the video. In detail.
When I was living in Italy some 20 years ago, PB was hard to come by, so I used a 1990s Braun coffee grinder to grind peanuts into the paste and it totally worked. I've tried it since with both a spice grinder and a small food processor. Neither has worked; I end up with greasy peanut powder.
If you are new to PBJ, see if you can find concord grape jelly and use a white bread (French baguette is wonderful). This is the iconic flavor. Very distinct from other jams.
Hazelnut butter is easy to make, not in a coffee grinder (duh), but a regular cuisinart works fine. they have the nutella sandwhich and we have the pbj.
When I was a kid in 1978, my cousin Mario came to visit from Italy. He had been captured in WWII and was, "Imprisoned" here in the US. I put that word in quotes because he went to Palisades Amusement Park regularly with his fellow "prisoners". Anyway, we prepared lunch for a day at the beach at the Jersey shore when Mario bit into a PB&J and cried out in joy. He said he had been looking for this stuff for decades but didn't know what it was called. He was so happy. He went home with a case of peanut butter.
The Axis prisoners in the US had it good here.
@@kirbyculp3449 So good many of them didn’t want to go home when the war was over.
I’m loving these personal stories with PB&J good memories
Meanwhile, Americans of Japanese descent were kept in dilapidated internment camps during the same time period. Such a terrible injustice. I am glad your cousin was treated well and had such a beautiful reaction to peanut butter. I just wish we had treated our own countrymen with as much dignity and kindness.
@@mirentxulorimer1688that's true but you seldom here about the Germans and Italians who were also placed in camps they certainly didn't get any reparations. So while yes horrible what happened to Japanese-Americans let's not pretend that they were the only ones that suffered
Peanut butter is indeed difficult to come by in Bangladesh. But we finally got a blender that was sufficient to grind the peanuts. If you toast the peanuts well until the oil is shining on the surface and then let them completely cool, they grind much more easily, like in about 6 minutes as opposed to 30 min. And we made jam from jam (a somewhat tart fruit) so that was fun.
Was it good?
you guys have sunflower butter there right?
Sounds delicious!
@@christisking777 The peanut butter was so good. I just added a little salt to it once it was nearly completely smooth and just finished blending it. The jam jam was delicious!
@@alexfrideres1198 No sunflower butter that I could find. That would have probably been delicious too, but while we could find sunflower oil, I didn’t find any sunflower seeds at all.
The reason why she says to eat it with tea is because of the time period. Milk was often thought of as only given to babies and many adults never drank it throughout history. It became widely popular for more American adults to drink milk, just a little while after this recipe was likely published. It's so fascinating to see this time period in American history because it shows how we got here. I'd recommend doing that full kellogg episode Max! For everyone reading this, I'd recommend a PBS special about the Poison Squad! Fantastic material 👏
Haha funny because I often do this.
As a tea drinker and only like milk in cereal, I'd drink filtered water mixed with fruit juice with PB&J.
Sadly, PB give me heartburn now so I haven't had the sandwich in years.😥
Tea and Coffee are excellent with PB and J. The Heat from the hot drink softens the PB so it doesn't stick in your mouth so much.
@@jasonslade6259 Omg yes! I do kinda love peanut butter toast with my coffee in the morning. Or to gild the lily, peanut butter banana toast with a honey drizzle. Something about the hot coffee just like...power washes the stuck pb and bread out of my mouth in an immensely satisfying way.
I rather enjoyed the dramatized stories in "The Foods That Built America" about Kellogg and his brother... How Post and eventually Grape Nuts got their starts and the "Cereal Wars"... while Kellogg's Sanitarium rose and then fell... NOT going to swoon about the honesty of the series, but it's worth looking at... if you have time... ;o)
Toasted, crunchy PB, and raspberry preserves is my favorite and has been for 60 years 👍
“It’s just PB&J how interesting could it _possibly_ be?” *9 minutes later* “Sunnova Biscuit, that goober Kellogg is at it again!” *6 minutes later* “Max is decent people, you can tell from his choice in peanut butter” *60 seconds later* “Lazy boomer food, called it… hey when are we gonna talk about that third slice of bread… there we are.”
Max, you’ve always kinda reminded me of early Good Eats in a way, getting me to watch 20 minutes on PB&J is some Alton Brown level skill. Good on you.
Love old school Good Eats!
@@Labyrinth6000Me too!
Early Good Eats!!!!! You nailed it!
To paraphrase _Sharpe:_ Now _that's_ fanboying! In a good way. All those guys give me hungry tummy...
Creamy master race
Fun fact I learned about Pullman train cars: Pullman was an early adopter of a new type of train wheel that greatly improved comfort - paper. Richard Allen invented a laminated paper core with iron hub and tire train wheel that didn't catch on until Pullman bought them and advertised it about his train cars. The wheels became super popular in passenger cars until 1915, when they were banned, because train carriages got much heavier, faster, and the technology of suspension and solid wheels improved, causing the paper wheels to fail quickly.
Looks like it was worth it to see if the comment I was about to make already existed, though only once, funnily enough.
Important note: John Harvey Kellogg is not actually the guy behind modern cornflakes. He did make a bland, unsweetened corn flake (to kill libido), but it was his brother William who added sugar & created the Kellogg cereal company! :3
Smart man
As much as his philosophies make me cringe, the part about meat being an aphrodisiac is very well established, if not entirely factual: At least as far back as the Roman empire, rare red meat was the equivalent of Viagra.
"The Road to Wellville" was a funny movie about it. (Kind of)
@@ericwilliams1659 You beat me to it :) But it was a book as well, both the book and movie were loosely based on his life and the cereal mania, much like the internet mania and housing bubble in recent times, of that era.
John Harvey Kellogg did serve a cereal at his sanatorium. It was more of a granola and it turned to what we now call Grape Nuts
When I was a kid, we used to make PBJ on toast, then put them in the freezer. We would have a cold snack later in the day during the summer, as an alternative to ice cream. It was really good.
You gotta really love uncrustables then…
Pullman loaf is named after the baking mold that was designed specifically for use in restricted space train kitchens aboard the luxurious Pullman carriages. The Pullman tin is distinct in its trapezoidal shape AND in that it is designed with a sliding lid on it (again, for safety and quality aboard a moving train).
Thanks Max for the WW2 soldier connection of PB&J. I feel like there's a stigma for adults to make and enjoy PB&J because it's a "kids food". Now I can feel better when I'm out on a long hike eating like a soldier. I'm also a toasted soughdough fan, ideally with homemade apricot or strawberry jam, that makes a big difference in sweetness.
My dad was a WW2 Navy vet. He used to always say they survived on coffee, cigarettes and PB&J. They would be at general quarters for hours on their guns and that was almost always what was brought out to them on watch. It was always one of his favorites. After seeing this, I kind of understand why grape jelly was a standard in my house as a kid, along with the blackberry jam we made ourselves.
One of the current MREs (packaged soldier meals) contains the makings of a PB&J. Most guys just eat the bread and save the PB & J packets for a convenient snack
People who said it’s kids food should be ignored.
I'm genuinely surprised that PB&J would have a stigma to it; I grew up eating them and my parents would make one for themselves now and again as a snack. I still find them to be a great meal when served with a glass of milk.
My wife is 50, and eats a PB&J at least once a week. It's just a simple food. There is no age limit on food. Except baby food...
As a Filipino, I was already a(n) older teen/young adult when I actually tried putting peanut butter and jelly/jam together in a sandwich. As a child, I took them separately though I was already aware of PB&J from cartoons. Besides, we rarely had peanut butter and jam in the house together; it tended to be one or the other. Then, one day I actually tried it, and...I couldn't believe I waited so long to do it. LOL My go-to "jelly" is strawberry preserves.
Very excellent choice, sir.
The combination with strawberry is my fav aswell.
Late 90s, sitting in my UK house talking to my USA friend in America, on the internet. He says
"Right, just gonna get myself a pbj".
" what is a pbj"?
Long story short he talked me into going to the supermarket, buying the stuff, making one, eating it.
I've loved em ever since
Here in Mexico peanut butter is kind of expensive, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches aren't very popular, but in my family we buy peanut butter and strawberry jam as a treat a couple of times a year. My favorite combination is peanut butter and strawberry jam in a bolillo. A bolillo is pretty much the default Mexican white bread.
In South Texas we eat the combo on flour tortillas!
Over here in Germany i have to cross over to the Netherlands to get good and cheap(er) peanut butter, but that only pays off when i want to get a crapton of other stuff from our neighbors that is either more expensive or unobtainable over here. Mostly stuff for the deep-fryer... 😅
Ohhh I LOVE bolillo, its taste is definitely different from most White Breads in the U.S. I will have to try that next time I am down there. I do the same but use Potato Bread here in the states!
Strawberry with peanut butter just tastes wrong to me. It is supposed to be grape jelly or it is wrong. Strawberry jelly is good on toast, but not on a PB&J.
I just buy peanuts and make my own peanut butter, because yeah, in Ecuador it's expensive too. My mom lived in the states when she was a teenager and she introduced me to the pb&j when I was a kid, love the stuff.
My mom in the Fifties once made us a lunch menu for fun. (Maybe we had some little friends coming by.) "Smashed Goobers and Berries on a Raft" "Cow Juice" (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.) I never forgot that, I laughed so much. At that time, the PBJ was only as old as the 70's are to us now. So for my Depression-era Mom, PBJ was probably a luxury item because their family ate a lot of dark bread.
When my family moved from the US to Greece, I was 11 and peanut butter was one of the things I missed. It was impossible to come by and even if you did, it was ridiculously expensive. And when I would talk about it as a flavor, I would be made fun of and told to be "less of an American"... Fast forward to the past few years: there are now Greek companies that make all types of nut butters and there is always peanut butter in my cupboard to be enjoyed with homemade jam ❤️
Common American cultural W
I bet it tastes so delicious with homemade jam 😊
@@NickCorruption Literally.
Other cultures make fun of American culture, ...until they assimilate it to their own...
Completely Understand. I believe their PB is not as sweet more salty. A Greek I talked to on Google couldn't believe we in USA mix PB salty his words with Jelly sweet. I really blew his mind with choc Carmel salted candy. I haven't been given the opportunity to eat bacon covered iced bakery .. but it sounds so good.
@@badreality2 its cool to hate americans but they love to emulate and enjoy our music, fashion, movies etc. not to mention 90 percent of the world wants to come here
Another excellent episode (as always), My only thought is that The Grapelade (and others) were probably pronounced 'Grape-ah-lah-dah', as in Tapenade, which they basically were.
You're so right. That half frozen, slightly smooshed, white bread PB&J really was the best of the best.
I can tell you how to recreate that school sandwich... cheapest sliced white bread you can find (think generic brands, although your school cafeteria was probably using government supplied staples), welch's grape jelly (provided to public schools just like military mess kits) and cheapest smooth pb. Make a bunch of them, squeeze them down into a big pan, freeze them overnight. Take out next morning to thaw, that way not still hard as a brick at lunch time. Find one at the bottom of the pan for that nostalgic smashed sandwich feeling. This lesson brought to you by a year in food and hospitality trade classes :) (one of our field trips was to see how the cafeteria was run. The mystery meat really is 100% hamburger)
We were lucky enough to have a slice of American Cheese on it. From my experience it was the same tasting as my grandfather's supply of cheese. Government Issue. I miss those flavors and agree with Max on the search for them. Thanks for the sharing of their secrets on schools PB&J!
@@adamlaplant9989 Government cheese was awesome. A great compromise between meltable and substantial.
My kid's school would use one slice of whole wheat and one slice of white bread, worst of both worlds. My son didn't like the sweet bread or the sweetened PB; many popular brands have I swear as much sugar and shortening as they do peanuts.
I feel like we need closure on him trying thesandwich
I'm not buying that mystery meat explanation.
I love the fact how neatly the ad segment is integrated in your show. Not only does it support character, bot no! We also learned what a (goofy) goober is!
I knew about Goobers as a kid
Blackcurrant is a very popular flavor in Poland for jams, cakes and sweets. Its kind of tangy and sour and yes i have tried it with peanut butter before being Polish American. It was good. Its very easy to find here in Chicago.
Lots of polish ancestry in Chicago
I grew up eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches starting in the early 1960's and still eat them regularly. White or wheat bread works for me toasted or not. One thing I didn't like when I was in grade school was the sandwich made for my lunch...the jelly would soak into one side of the bread and make it mussy before lunch. What did to fix that was put a heavy layer of peanut butter on one slice and a thin later on the other slice before putting the jelly on the thin layer side. It fixed the problem for me and still do it that way.
Hi Max. The reason for the middle bread is two fold. In tea sandwiches it boosted the height for a more elegant presentation and separated the filling for absorbent purposes as to not drip on the fine clothing of the day. Also, served with afternoon tea, hence the name Tea Sandwiches.
I worked in a nursing home while I was in college and one of my favorite residents was the Peter Pan Peanut Butter girl back in, I wanna say, the 30s or maybe early 40s. She toured around dressed up at Peter Pan. She had photos and everything.
What an awesome story!!!!
After watching the video, I was inspired to try making the Pullman Loaf. I bought the pan from Amazon, followed Max's directions exactly, and the loaf was...BEAUTIFUL!
There will be many more to come in the future, no more store bought sandwich bread for me .
Thanks Max.
Is been 3 week u make bread. You but yet?
@@FriskyPoliceman ?
@@dianem7563 haha what that guy said confused me too, but, after running it through my linguistic analysis machine, i think he's asking whether after three weeks of baking that first loaf, have you resorted to buying sandwich bread at the store
Homemade bread is the healthiest option there is because it has no artificial preservatives. But how long does homemade bread last?
@@vitorpereira9515 Depends on how you store it. At room temperature, about 3 days. I keep it in the fridge in a thick freezer-style zip-lock, and it'll last a week. Assuming I don't eat it all...
My family made their own strawberry jam and plum jelly - both made VERY sweet. I was always a Skippy creamy guy, no chunky for me. The final component had to be white Wonder bread in the thin sandwich style. Super soft for maximum squish.
The mention of Welsh rarebit makes me want an episode on it. It'd feature an appearance by the grandfather of animation, Windsor McKay!
Mom always made its canned tomato soup variant, Pink Bunny. Often with a couple hot dogs sliced up in it, over saltine crackers. Trick was, to let the crisp crackers soften up in the hot soup mixture where you could readily cut them with your fork.
I’ve been allergic to peanuts my whole life and was always curious about the taste. From being on a research trial, I can now eat 7 whole peanuts (before I go into anaphylaxis lol) and trying peanut butter for the first time was wild. So much more savoury than I expected and tasted a bit like hummus? PB&J is pretty good (from the tiny amount I have tried). Another great vid max!
I would be quite hesitant of being part of such a study. I could just see myself going through one, and then some of the idiots in my family going "Oh great, you can have peanuts and peanut butter now!"...and then offer me something *loaded* with it, and I end up in the ER. (My sister and I have pretty much the same food allergies, while our brother is heathy as a horse...and a number of family members on my dad's side of the family just didn't know - or didn't care - enough with us about those allergies.)
Chickpeas and peanuts are both legumes, so that could be why they taste similar to you
It's awesome you took part in that study! I can see how it could easily be scary to do so, but it's awesome you're helping people figure out how to maybe one day cure peanut allergies!
Woo-hoo! 7 whole peanuts! 💪 Please be careful. Great comment 👍
Are you allergic to soy? They make soy butter that's a good substitute.
my grandma used to grow her own raspberries, make it into jam, and then bake her own bread and make pb&j's with it. i think if i had one now i'd cry.
Oh yeah. Like he said he has been chasing that one flavor for thirty years, I have been chasing black raspberry anything for about 60. My folks had both black raspberries (WHY are they so hard to find??) and concord grapes so there was a lot of homemade jelly and jam on our table.
I did this for the first time last week. 😅 Okay, i didn’t grow the raspberries (but I’m moving in a few months and have already decided they’re one of the first things I want to tackle), but the rest of it!
I also used a strainer to get the juice from the raspberries and infused a chocolate ganache with it and made bonbons today. Sooo good.
That would be so cool/yummy to have a PB&J with homemade jam (or “preserves”).
Too bad she didn't grow her own on peanuts
My mom used to pack me a PBJ every day for lunch. I used to love how the sandwich would age between its creation in the morning and lunch. It gave the components time to meld together, it was amazing. On a side note: I used to love elementary school parties when you would eat potato chips with the residue of sweet pastries still in your mouth, that crushed it.
Pro tip: if you are packing a PBJ for lunch, PB both sides and put the jelly in the middle. That will keep the jelly from soaking into the bread and making it soggy. Also keep it away from cold drinks.
I'm from the UK, and although peanut butter and jam isn't that common here, it's not unheard of, and I usually have it as part of a packed lunch for work once a month or so. My favourite (and I think the best) jam to have in this sandwich is loganberry (if you can get it!) - not as sweet and sickly as strawberry, but not as tart as raspberry. In my opinion, it can't be beaten and is well worth trying!
Treat yourself to a sammie of PB, sliced banana, and chocolate chips.
Crabapple jelly is the nectar of the gods. I grew up with a crabapple tree in my backyard. My mom would make loads of jelly and store it in the basement. Fond memories.
Since watching this months and months ago, This has become a staple recipe in my house; I make it every week for the kids lunches, and I keep my loaf in the Pullman loaf with the lid and only open when I’m ready to cut pieces off.at the end of the week I make either French toast or bread pudding with the leftovers (usually aren’t very much leftovers to be honest) and the cycle starts again in Sunday.
My fiancé is of Incan/Quechuan descent and a first generation American. He’s also quite fond of peanut butter. Neither one of us knew that peanuts and peanut butter actually came from the Andes, (I’d always been told peanuts came from Africa and hadn’t realized that they were transplants) but both of us were delighted with the new knowledge. I guess that my fiancé can claim that peanut butter is part of his cultural heritage twice over now. 😂
Also, apricot jam is the superior jam for PB&J and I will die on that hill.
stuck on _transplants_ because they're a plant
I concur on the apricot! (Blueberry is also nice)
I agree with the apricot jam, though I also love peach or pineapple preserves as well. My mom got me hooked on sour cherry preserves...I do love them as well. For me, the era of grape jelly ended for me when I left 4th grade.
I love apricot for peanut butter sandwiches. I usually prefer seedless raspberry or blackberry. Peach or cherry preserves are nice too. And I discovered that lingonberry jam is terrific on a PB&J! I’ve never tried pineapple. Sounds weird, but … maybe? Seems like texture that might not appeal to me.
Commercial grape jelly is pretty blah, but I once made homemade Concord grape jelly, and that was FANTASTIC.
Honestly, I can’t think of very many jams or jellies I might NOT like in a PB&J. I don’t think I’d use a mint jelly though! It does occur to me that some folks - probably not me, as I am a spice wimp! - might actually enjoy something like a jalapeño jam, though. I could see a bit of heat working well with the peanut butter.
I do prefer crunchy peanut butter, but seedless jam. Which come to think of it, is a bit odd, but there we are! 😂
Now I’m hungry for a PB&J! 😂
@bug marmalade I used to make a yellow plum jam from those little yellow “cherry plums”. That was FABULOUS!
I really like blackberry jam and occasionally blueberry. A well made PB&J with milk is just amazing.
Crabapple used to be one of the most common jelly flavors when I was a kid, longer ago than I like to think. So many foods and flavors go in and out of fashion. Blackberry jam with PB sounds fantastic though!
If you've never tried St. Dalfour fruit spread, you must! Wild Blueberry is the best flavor.
If you like blackberry give marionberry a try
Natural peanut butter, strawberry preserves, banana slices and Fluff.
Pure heaven
@@kurtbarlow9402
I'm going to try that.
You know, I’ve never cared for PB&J, even as a kid. But this was incredibly fascinating to me and an instant subscribe.
Same here, even when I was a kid. Like jelly, love PB, but not together.
You are in for a treat as you review past episodes!
I've never liked PB&J either. A sandwich with just Chunky (or smooth if you don't have chunky) peanut butter - yes, please. And thanks to finally trying Uncrustables - I found I like peanut butter and honey sandwiches but if I'm making it - just peanut butter is fine. Chunky peanut butter and sliced banana sandwich is also good.
@@tildessmoonteresting I’ve always used multigrain bread and I feel it adds a bit of flavor to the PB and J
I myself cannot stand grape jelly or jam but I love stawberry jam and peanut butter. 😊
12:32 "Consumed" meaning, it expires and gets thrown away faster, so you have to go buy more. That explains why the companies implemented it
That and the fact that food goes bad and if the product doesn’t have a warning that it has a shelf life, they could be liable for your illness or injury. That date is there to protect companies from idiots and over litigious societies.
By eight years old I was a latch-key kid, fending for myself most days. PB&J on Wonder bread with a glass of milk kept me fed. I turned 55 a couple days ago, and it is still my favorite lunch or snack. No wonder bread these days, but there are delicious alternatives.
There is still Wonder bread out there, you remember Hillbilly Bread ?
definitely PB(Peter Pan or Skippy) & grape jelly(Welsh's) on Wonder Bread . served with bowl of Campbells Cream of Tomato soup and glass of whole milk with Quik chocolate (or maybe Quik Strawberry)
@@qazwiz best when I was a kid~ Hillbilly bread with Jef Chucky wirh strawberry or Grape jelly & cold milk and Lays Potatoe Chips😋🤓
@@colinchampollion4420 I remember hillbilly bread 😊
@@qazwiz what a mixture
I love that you can make something as simple as PB&J so interesting. While my Dutch husband loved peanut sauce in Indonesian food, the thought of peanut butter with jelly on bread was horrifying to him. He managed to live in the US for 20 some years without trying it. When I met him I finally convinced him. He says it's an acquired taste and he has warmed to it over the years so much so that it's a favorite now. As it happens we grow black currants in our garden so black currant jam is what we normally use. It's distinctive flavor holds up well with the peanut butter.
Does he put sambal on his peanut butter sandwich though?
Peanuts had an interesting turn in the far east via the East Indian Company and the Asian peoples sure knew what to do with peanuts beyond mashing it and sweetening it and slapping it on bread. I love love love getting anything Satay sauced... and used that as my inspo to put two heaping spoons full in my curries. It adds a nice nutty creaminess to the sauce and it really works well as a savory spice flavour enhancer. If you use crunchy pb then you add texture to your meal too.
And I learned to make Peanut Butter Soup, which was great when funds were limited.
Just think Satay flavor. For real cheap eats with protein, spicy Ramen/pot noodle soup with a blop of peanut butter and a splash of low salt soy sauce. And frozen veggies if you have them.
@@snazzypazzy he says yes, he has peanut butter and sambal toasties. Now I want to try it.
@@CindyduPlessis Ohh I'm going to give that a try!
Something to try with PBJs. Make a standard PBJ, freeze it. While its frozen butter the outside of the sandwich and grill it in a pan like a grilled cheese.
Also, former lunch lady here, those sandwiches were probably made in large quantities and put in the freezer. Tips for recreating school lunch PBJ: start with frozen white bread. Let it thaw just enough to separate the slices, then add your peanut butter and grape jelly (bonus if your grape jelly comes from a metal can). Put it back in the freezer, probably in a plastic bag. Take out later, let it barely thaw and enjoy.
Hmmm. Maybe make it like a Monty Cristo.
One of my favorite sandwiches as a child was fried PbJ’s!
I recently started making my own jam since I have a couple grapevines on the property. The amount of sugar the recipe required was surprising, nearly half of the total weight before I even started boiling it down. No wonder I have such a sweet tooth for PB&J.
Mazapan (ground peanuts and sugar, usually formed into a small disk) is a very classic, popular Mexican candy. I had no idea it was pre-Columbian!
I love these candies 😊
I put them in oatmeal.
@@nannetteralphs9042 I've never tried that, sounds amazing, maybe a little too amazing😅
@@Orinslayerh, it’s delicious. Especially in Oatmeal or in non-sweetened warm cereal. Mazapan, in general, is a staple in Mexican/Latin American households. Try “De La Rosa” Mazapan, you’re gonna love it.
I've tried them, way too much sugar for my taste, which seems to be be a problem with a lot of Mexican sweets.
As a European, this is so interesting to watch, since PB&J sandwiches are just not a thing here in Belgium. I tried it once a few years ago and didn't particularly care for it (while I adore peanut butter and I like jam, I guess its combination is an acquired taste haha). It makes more sense to me after watching this video why it isn't as popular here!
Hey, you in Belgium should like PB&J! After all, we in the United States like your er French Fries! Though you got a raw deal with that, since fries were invented in Belgium. They should be called Belgium Fries.😉
@@algini12 hahaa truth!
The peanut can be overwhelming to the fruit. My favorite is peanut butter and orange marmalade. Europeans might also use less jelly or jam, too. The combination doesn't work unless the flavors balance well.
@@theeddorian oooh I'm so trying orange marmalade with it, good tip!
@@charlotteplaisant7965 I forgot. You probably want to avoid maramlade that specifically reports it is sweet on the label. I prefer old style thick-cut myself.
I would love a history lesson on the square pizza we used to get in school.
😂 yes!
Darn I wish U could buy that somewhere. Nostalgia!
I think it was just made to fit in a sheet pan? I worked in the dining hall in college and pretty much everything they made was portioned to institutional pans.
@@grimleaper9471The rectangular “pizza strip” pizzas with no cheese? If you ever end up in Rhode Island you can buy them all over, but I think Superior Bakery is where most of them are made here. Idk about elsewhere.
@brittybee6615 nah these were pepperoni and cheese or sausage and cheese
I like open face English muffins, toasted. Since you can toast them longer it gets hot enough to melt the peanut butter. Molten PB&J is the best ever! Also a toasted sub roll works too.
Super interesting! As the granddaughter of a British immigrant, I grew up making tea sandwiches! I would say, your bread is cut quite thickly for a tea sandwich, which might be why you feel there's too much bread. Nana used to put the bread in the fridge overnight to firm it up, so we could get REALLY thin slices. Love the episodes when you tackle "common" food!
"Nana"? Did you mean "my nana"?
@@spankynater4242 Yes.
Thank you for this, OP.
What an excellent tip to chill the bread to cut thinner slices! Cheers!🇬🇧
Thanks!
I hope you know how much happiness you bring to peoples' lives with your channel! Look at all the wonderful comments! Thank you for a happy place with the added bonus of learning!
In the American South, we boil raw peanuts in brine for hours until "al dente", and they are a favorite (albeit an acquired taste to those unfamiliar with it!)
Congrats on your book, Max!
I think peanut butter on wheat toast is the perfect breakfast, with or without jelly. It is cheap, nutritious, delicious and very filling and hearty. It will really get you through until lunch without your stomach growling for hours 😊
I remember hearing someone say "If Hell only had space for one person I hope it's Kellogg in that spot" so I'd love to see a video about Kellogg to see what he did to earn that guy's ire
what about like hitler
Well he is the primary reason why most American males were circumcised (regardless of religious beliefs) up to this very day. Also a lot of other quackery
@@elefantefresa1059 I don't know why the way this comment was written made me laugh so hard hahahaha
I'm pretty sure he did already episode on Kelloggs, look it up
Kellog was multiple flavors of crazy, and since he had money, was influential.
I fondly recall cafeteria lunches at my elementary school where students were allowed to have seconds of the entree, but only once. However, you were allowed to have a slice of white bread with a glop of smooth peanut butter on it as many times as you wished.
Lunches, which consisted of a meat entree, vegetables, bread with PB, carrot sticks, pint of milk (in a glass bottle), and dessert (usually jello, pudding, or plain cake) would cost a whopping 25¢.
God damn! Meanwhile id go into debt at school for school lunches.
@@fable4735 Well, you had to remember that back then, average wages were $1.00 an hour.
@@VoightCompMichelle Obama also wasnt First Lady 😅
@@ZaeOSWS I fail to see the relevance of that comment.
Now all peanut products are not allowed in the school. Next will be fish. Then all wheat products. Then all dairy products. Won't be long it will be just be water.
This is a great if purely academic video for me: I'm allergic to ground nuts. But it's still very cool to see how so many kids in the US came to love this. Thanks, Max!
I've read that there were no peanut 🥜 allergies b4 the GMO crops came around ... Have you tried non-GMO peanuts..?
Implying that you're not allergic to the nuts somehow if they're whole?
@@BornRemaining By "ground nuts" he means the nuts that grow near the ground rather than on trees. It's a common allergy... If you were making a joke, I apologize. 👍👍👍
@Ryudenki yeah... what? Is that a thing?
@@stickychocolate8155 Nope, and that's part of the joke. There's tree nuts and nuts that grow in the ground; two very different families with different genetic makeup. But there are some people who are picky about texture and will say they're only allergic to something if it's prepared in a way they don't like, even tho it's the same ingredients and same amount of heat. Like Amberlynn Reid lying about being "allergic to scrambled eggs" because she prefers omelets.
The background music included while you are tasting the BP&Js is perfect-1950s home/kitchen feeling to it. This is one of the many many aspects of your podcasts that make them so delightful-the background music selected is always perfect for what is going on in the podcast (and just right volume, “supportive”, never overpowering).
Hmm yes, my favorite food, the BP&J, or the beanut putter and jelly
Growing up in Mexico it was still a staple of my childhood because my dad just so happened to be in love with PB&J sandwiches, not that the idea was completely foreign in Mexico by the 90s but I was definitely the only kid bringing them to school for lunch (or at least in my homeroom).
Max! My book finally came! It is so well done, combining history and recipies in perfect balance. Just like your show. I find myself reading in your voice. Ha. Beautiful. Congratulations to you and your team.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it.
So I'm over at my parent's house to have dinner with them. I just watched this video and then asked my parents if they knew about this. My mother told me that my grandmother would make them exactly the same way as they're made in the video. She also said that it was considered a specialty sandwich and not something they had all the time. Also my great grandmother on my mother's side would make them for her afternoon tea.
I think this is an anglo (Irish - Scottish) thing. The jelly part and bread being essentially cake for teas.
I'm a Spaniard and I remember the first time I was trying to give a Brit a recipe about a sandwich I made.
We call that Pullman bread "pan de molde" (literally, mould bread) and for us it's got it's own category, an inferior one.
We call "bread" ciapata, baguette, hogaza... But pullman bread is more of a cake or a croissant than bread for us in Spain.
The thing is I didn't know at that time how it was cold. The Brit replied "idk, it's normal bread to me".
Yeah, right, I'm sorry but that's the last thing I'd call bread. I'd call pizza a kind of bread rather than calling that bread
It makes me unreasonably happy that he included the history of sliced bread
Peanuts being called goobers makes SpongeBob's Goofy Goober make so much sense now
THEY WERE STILL CALLED GOOBERS WHEN I WAS A CHILD IN THE 1950'S
@@donaldkgarman296Turn off the Caps Lock.
NOT YOUR CONCERN.......MIND YOUR BUISINESS AND LEAVE MINE TO MYSELF@@cwg73160
Goober was also the name of the peanut butter and jelly combo in a jar. I think you can still find it today!
How about Goober candy😂
i love that they had their own version of the saying with "since bread was wrapped"
Sliced bread was the best thing since wrapped bread, but what was wrapped bread the best thing since? The bread lore thickens.
@@generalrubbish9513 Maybe boxed bread or shipped bread, as it bread that could be made more often and sent out to other places
@@Noblesix84 Or maybe hardtack, bread that practically doesn't spoil as long as it stays dry? Then again, the people who actually had to eat it usually didn't appreciate it very much lol.
@@generalrubbish9513 *clack clack*
Never understood that saying anyways. Sliced bread is clearly the worst bread.
When I was a kid and you forgot your lunch you got donations from other kids lunches. It was great because so many kids donated something that you got a better lunch than you would normally have.
As someone who makes his own crabapple jelly: SO MUCH SUGAR. Imagine a lot of sugar, AND ADD MORE.
Also a crabapple jelly maker and can confirm. ALL.THE.SUGAR! But at least we don't need added pectin or lemon juice to make it set. 😅
yuck a duck!
I use a 16th century English method for making jam (jelly). It uses an equal weight of sugar to fruit.
@@reneegriffin8904 Yeah when he said the jelly contained fruit, jelly "and a little bit of pectin" I wondered if it really contained crabapples!
Hehe, my mom used to make that
That "Food A Cultural Culinary History" audiobook is INCREDIBLE. 18ish hours and I listened to it while commuting to work.
While peanut butter is readily available down here in Australia, grape jam is very hard to find.
What Australians call 'jelly' is what Americans call 'jello', something that caused me some confusion when my online American friends would talk about PB&J. At least until I worked out the difference. 😅
Well... you _could_ spread that with a knife. Maybe the back of a spoon.
Can you find strawberry jam? Maybe just make some jam with cooked fruit and sugar (no need to do the jarring process, just eat it)
@antoniahamilton32010 seconds ago
The beauty of a PB&J is you can use whatever jam you have on hand. Marmalade is fine too. I find the sugar free jams are less than satisfying. Whatever floats your boat. A glass of ice cold milk to accompany it highly recommended. I enjoy mine with hot coffee.
Jell-o and jelly are very different.
Jell-o is artificial flavored gelatin and used as a dessert as well as in molds
Jelly is made with the juice of actual fruit and is spreadable on bread .
Jam is made with the fruit and Americans eat that,too
Yup. I did work out the difference, but it took a while and was rather confusing until I did so.