Q.
Happy National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day. Are you one of the besotted? If so, are you Team Smooth (🤟🏽) or Team Crunch? Are you PB + or – J? Do you prefer your peanut butter straight-up, or happily nestled in chocolate, cookies, or pie?

What are some nuggets that these masticated not nuts/legumes would like us to know about their history?

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A.

i. Plenty argue about who really invented peanut butter, or which 19^th Century inventor was most important in its evolution. The truth is that Indigenous cultures were grinding and eating peanuts for centuries.

ii. One interesting contributor to peanut butter’s development was the Quebec-based Marcellus Gilmore Edson. This Canadian druggist – formally a chemist and pharmacist – filed a patent on October 21, 1884 for the ‘Manufacture of Peanut-Candy’.

Edson’s peanut process was designed to create a peanut paste which he suggested could be used in the production of candies and sweetmeats. As he wrote in his Letters Patent No. 306,727:

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iii. We will intentionally exclude the high-profile peanut butter protagonist who, when he wasn’t prescribing peanut butter to his patients, was busy promoting forced celibacy, eugenics, and racial segregation.

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iv. Joseph L. Rosefield was another key figure in the history of peanut butter. His main claim to fame? In the early 1920s, Joseph created a commercial process to prevent the oil from separating within the peanut butter potion. In 1938, Rosefield also filed Patent 2,141,725 for a Peanut Butter Package designed to more effectively transport and preserve peanut butter.

Rosefield’s suggested packaging included moisture-proof cellophane, pilofilm, and vegetable parchment.

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v. On April 2^nd, 1946, Joseph – along with Jerome and Marvin Rosefield – filed Patent 2,397,564 focused on further refining the peanut butter process. The Rosefields describe an enhanced approach to manufacturing whose many benefits included:

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vi. According to the US National Peanut Board’s research:
• You’ll need about 540 peanuts to create a 12 ounce jar of peanut butter
• On average, American adults eat 3 Peanut Butter + Jelly sandwiches a month
• Creamy peanut butter is more popular on the East Coast; crunchy on the West

vii. Of course, beyond allergies, not everyone is a peanut butter-lovin’ fan. As we’ve seen, peanut butter cups feature in both Best and Worst Halloween candy lists: Canada Has Halloween Opinions – Just Curious

viii. Let’s hope that those who find themselves in the Guinness Book of World Records for their peanut butter shenanigans are deep fans. Shells off for:

• Germany’s Andre Ortolf who, in 2017, set the record for most peanut butter eaten in one minute – 378 grams.

• 2017 was apparently a big year for peanut butter records. That’s also when New Jersey’s Kevin ‘L.A. Beast’ Strahle earned his crown for most peanut butter cups eaten, and fully swallowed, in one minute – 8

• Let’s not forget Illinois’ Patrick Bertoletti who, in 2012, set the record for most peanut butter sandwiches eaten in one minute – 6. 🤯

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www.justcurious.ca

Header Photo: Madison Kaminski