OT Peanut Butter (was Worcestershire sauce et al.)

Robert Wilson wrote:

> On Thu, 9 Oct 2003 16:04:50 -0400 Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>
> writes:
>
> > I've never heard that before. Peanut butter is bland enough that
> > most
> > people will eat it.
>
> i won't eat it... peanuts, sugar, and vegetable oil just don't taste good
> together.
>
I agree about the sugar and hydrogenated petroleum.  So try "old fashioned"
style (the peanut oil separates out, and you have to keep stirring it up).
According to the jar in front of me, the ingredients are:  ground roasted
peanuts, salt. (You can find it without salt, but that's really bland.)  I
live on the stuff (well, not really :-))) )-- it used to be available only
in health-food stores, or grind-it-yourself* at home, but now even the
chains offer "store-brands".

*Those of us old enough to qualify as quondam hippies will remember the
home-peanut-butter-grinding-machines that were popular in the late 60s/70s.

The PB industry seems to have come full-circle.  When I was a child in the
early 40s, the only kind imaginable was what we now call "old-fashioned"
style-- it separated, and mothers all over the land complained about having
to stir it up, and yes, it did stick to the roof of your mouth. Then someone
discovered the hydrogenation process, and some brands even boasted that
theirs "doesn't stick to the roof of your mouth"!!. Maybe the sugar hid the
taste of inferior oils. Purists and worry-warts still sought out overpriced
"Deaf Smith" and other brands (organic to boot) at health food stores.  Then
the aforementioned hippie movement led to food-coops that offered the
ground-on-the-spot stuff  at real prices-- evidently that put a noticeable
dent in the sales of the conventional stuff, because a few years after, the
supermarkets followed suit.