I can't stand it. Someone please validate my feelings cause im over this natural PB shit. I don't even think it tastes better, but it could be cause I grew up on the Skippy's shit and I have no culture.

  • Abraxiel
    ·
    4 years ago

    Store your jar upside down so you can mix it without the oil splashing all over.

    • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      wow the real life pro tips are in the comments. thanks kind stranger :gold-communist:

  • Zo1db3rg [comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I worked as a lab tech in a PB production facility for 3 years. AMA

    I'll start with some fun facts:

    1. If the "natural peanut butter contains anything other than peanuts, salt, and sugar, it's not natural. Most "Natural No Stir" are like this. They use Palm oil as a stabilizer to keep the peanut oil from separating. You know how Palm oil is produced? They pay poor, impoverished people from 3rd world countries to clear-cut palm forests with no ability to properly replant the trees. They then grind these trees into pulp and basically"squeeze" out the liquids then separate the oil. It's then modified to actually be the stabilizer so it's not even in its natural state. The literal CEO of skippy came out and said most natural PB is a sham. Also peanut butter with palm oil tastes gross imo. First time I had it it gave me the shits fuck you JIF natural.

    2. A large number of PB off brands with generic names like "simply good" and pure goodness" or whatever combination of two positive adjectives they use, are almost all the same or very similar formulas. The company I worked for was designed in a way that allowed them to change formulas on the fly and make just about any kind of PB they needed. They supplied most off brands out there including Meijer, Kroger, and Great Value. I will say, as much I hate to admit it, of all the off brands Great Value is the best. They have their own dedicated formula just like the name brands and it actually tastes good. Meijer and kroger taste like shit because they use a bland formula that uses more stabilizer.

    3. What keeps the oil from separating like what OP has is the stabilizer. Imagine how gelatin powder make jello. In a way that's how the stabilizer works. When it's added at high temps it liquifys and mixes in with the oil and ground peanuts and holds everything in place. Then upon cooling it "sets." One test we actually do is test the set of the PB and we have machines that tell us just how hard the set is. There are no natural stabilizers, see my palm oil rant above. If you want a truly natural PB it's going to have ground peanuts, peanut oil, salt, and a little sugar. It will separate. I actually prefer it like this as I take a bag of mixed nuts, crush them up real good, and mix them with the natural PB to make a super crunch mixed nuts butter and it's amazing. Since so much extra solid matter has been added it actually helps prevent further separation.

    4. You can tell, between to different PB formulas, which has more stabilizer by looking at it and tasting it. More stabilizer causes a waxy/plasticy look to the top of the PB when it sets. If one has a glossier/wet shine it it and the other a kind of shinny, waxy, look then the glossier one more than likely used less stabilizer. When you go to scoop it out if is rather solid and there's no sag in the butter, that's a good amount of stabilizer. If you eat them and one causes you to feel more stickiness in your mouth than the other than that one has less stabilizer. Peanut butter without stabilizer will stick to your mouth a lot more than stabilized butter.

    5. Stabilizer will make the PB more bland. Feel like testing this? Get Meijer PB. It has a fuck load of stabilizer in it. It's super hard, super waxy looking and bland as fuck. It's almost not even peanut colored.

    6. There are two main peanuts used in the industry. There's actually many kinds but two most common. "Jumbo runners" and "#1 runners." Jumbo's are your top tier nuts, they are big and flavorful. We had to sample the peanuts and taste test them. We were supposed to get a single cup and roast them and then taste them. When we did this with jimbo's we'd do several cups and snack on them all day. They are delicious. Our company made a lot of skippy as their plants couldn't manufacture it all and it was easier to contract it out to us. Skippy uses exclusively jumbos and pre tests and approved of shipments for us. We still do our own in house but it's not necessary. Then there's the #1s. These are little nuts that don't pack as much natural flavor like the big bois. Because of this they are roasted to higher temps to bring out and add flavor. Look at the color of skippy butter vs great value butter. GV is super dark butter why? Because it uses almost exclusively #1s. Bit it still actually tastes good why? Because they roast the shit out of this nuts and that dark roasting add a bunch of flavors they don't get as much in the jumbos.

    There's probably more I could go on about but I've been tapping away at my phone long enough.

    • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      lol im in awe of this post. I genuinely learned quite a bit from this, and it was pretty much just a shit post but it has blossomed into something beautiful. thank you

      • Zo1db3rg [comrade/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        My co-workers at my current job get anxious if anyone brings up peanut butter cause they know what's coming if I'm in earshot.

  • AliceBToklas [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I'm inherently mistrustful of foods that should separate not separating.

  • Spinoza [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    can't stand the unnatural stuff, it's just peanut-flavoured icing sugar

    • john_browns_beard [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      After I had the natural stuff I could never go back, I'll deal with the hand cramps from the initial mixing. Your description of "regular" peanut butter is very accurate.

      • garbology [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        American boomers add 1g 1/4 teaspoon of sugar for every year since 1946 to every single recipe in the country. They don't even taste it, it just makes the shakes manageable.

      • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
        ·
        4 years ago

        American food doesn't have a gustatory dimension. You're not supposed to actually taste the food, you're just supposed to experience it with sight and touch.

        This is why Americans typically criticize food from other cultures with "Wow, that looks like shit".

  • RalphGrenader [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Get the kind in the refrigerated area, as long as you keep it cold it doesn't separate. I like "real peanut butter", it's pretty generic.

    https://shop.cub.com/landing?product_id=19378057

    • TankieTanuki [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      FYI you can shorten the link to just this part and it works the same. The product ID is the only important URL parameter.

      https://shop.cub.com/landing?product_id=19378057

    • a_slip_boudinage [she/her,they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Yes! I get the room-temp stuff, give it one good mix when I open it, then store it in the fridge. It wont separate and doesn’t affect the quality.

  • garbage [none/use name,he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    fun fact : preground peanut butter and coffee have a ridiculously high level of insect parts in them because of the way they are processed, but if you get whole nuts/beans they have zero.

      • FloridaBoi [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        just made me think of lab grown meat but like in an alternate future, where the meat has to actually be alive and they look like huge red maggots wriggling around in a vat before being harvested

    • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      ehhh that doesn't bother me. so long as it isn't like straight up rats or other small creatures i can prob live with myself eating some bugs.

      tbh what grossest me out the most is most processed meat stuff and i'll even eat that sometimes, but i do avoid it mostly.

      • garbage [none/use name,he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        for sure, most things will have some parts of bugs in small increments which is totally acceptable and expected, but if you're not squeamish, research the actual volume of bug parts in peanut butter and coffee.

        • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          4 years ago

          yeah a lot of produce has bugs. a lot of produce has a lot of dirt in it, even that bullshit "triple washed" lettuce is almost never completely clean. But processed meat stuff can have some really weird shit in, lots and lots of preservatives and possibly organ meat (which i don't care for) and really just a bucket list of undesirable ingredients.

          • garbage [none/use name,he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            yeah factory farming is basically heinous in every single aspect, from how the animals are treated, all the growth shit they give them, and then how they process them.

          • garbology [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            processed meat stuff can have some really weird shit in

            Yeah WTF it has dead animals in it !?