5 things you didn’t know about peanut butter
Every weekday morning, one of us is back there again, still bleary-eyed and on autopilot, spreading peanut butter and jam on a sandwich for the lunchbox. I mean, peanut butter is perfectly delicious, of course, but the same thing every day?? Yep. Are you a peanut butter fanatic too? Curious to find out whether you already knew the facts below!
Because besides loving it in all its varieties (it’s September already, supermarkets, bring on that spiced cookie peanut butter) and also enjoying it in an Asian-style sauce or in a faux-chicken satay toastie, we naturally love trivia about peanut butter. Did you know, for example, that:
Peanut butter was invented for people without teeth
No joke! Peanut butter is, of course, packed with nutritional value, and inventor Dr. John Harvey Kellogg had the health of patients in mind who needed to get enough vitamins and protein without being able to chew. That’s why he came up with the idea of grinding peanuts for them in 1895.
It takes around 550 peanuts to make a 350-gram jar
So if you’re wondering, ‘Why so many calories?’, just picture how many peanuts that is, spread out on a rug in front of you. But don’t worry: mainly healthy fats, okay! Especially if you leave the varieties with palm oil (and there are many) on the shelf and go for ‘pure’ peanut butter. Such as Mister Kitchen’s super crunchy peanut butter without palm oil.
It takes almost 20 litres of water to peel around 30 grams of peanuts
Not the best news either. And yes, that sounds like a huge amount, but it’s still less than what’s needed to peel 30 grams of almonds (290 litres, namely). Or 30 grams of walnuts (270 litres). Just sayin’.
Europeans eat much less peanut butter than Americans
But it has to be said: the number of peanut butter lovers is growing in the Netherlands! As it is in the United Kingdom and Germany, but in the rest of Europe the stuff is far less popular. America isn’t happy about that, because the country has an enormous number of peanut farmers who would naturally love to see their market grow. Come on, guys, one more sandwich with peanut butter and pickles; we can do this!
You can make diamonds from peanut butter
Whaaaat?! Yes, not simply at home in your shed or anything, with your nephew’s chemistry toy set. But scientists in Germany managed to subject certain materials to such pressure and heat in a lab that, at the end of the process, after removing the oxygen, a tiny diamond remained. Wahnsinn! You know what, let’s just start calmly by making peanut butter; you can easily do that at home!
Also read:
- Peanut butter: sweet or savoury?
- 5 savoury ways to cook with peanut butter
- So this is where the cheese in peanut butter comes from
