Natural Peanut Butter


Ioway

Ioway

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I noticed in recent purchases over several months peanut butter brands have apparently cheaped out and gotten very soupy. I’m not too picky, buying the cheap stuff in the 64 oz jars. But they are all doing it now regardless of brand. Hydrogenated oils kinda screw up my guts anyway, so I thought I’d try out the natural PB.

The natural peanut butters aren’t much better - I bought a few different brands to see what’s what. The “simple truth” brand creamy is like pancake batter. Just stupid bad. Makes a mess. I suppose I could pour off some or most the oil first thing, and get a decent consistency. Maybe. Should be good for frying spuds.

I remember buying natural peanut butter many years ago, and it was like a brick to get it stirred and incorporated. What’s a good brand of natural PB? The Kroger chunky was a little better. Natural PB sure is expensive compared to the synthetic kind.
 
Wife grinds nut butters in an old Robot Coupe food processor. I've heard there area a few newer models that are strong enough to do it.
She usually blends a few different nuts together, my favorite is almonds with sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
 
So, I’m curious, no additional oil needs to be added when grinding your own? I guess I never understood the routine in the first place. The peanut oil is removed, and replace it with hyrdrogenated fat to prevent separation.

Lots of sweeteners are added to commercial brands. Sometimes mollasses. I’m not a complicated guy, just trying to make a sammich here that won’t drip everywhere.
 
Ioway said:
So, I’m curious, no additional oil needs to be added when grinding your own? I guess I never understood the routine in the first place. The peanut oil is removed, and replace it with hyrdrogenated fat to prevent separation.

Lots of sweeteners are added to commercial brands. Sometimes mollasses. I’m not a complicated guy, just trying to make a sammich here that won’t drip everywhere.
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It depends on the nut. Almonds have to be chopped fine before the oil starts coming out, so they turn to a dry chunk while grinding. It's thick and will overheat the machine. She used to add a little oil to them to help grinding but now uses sunflower seeds.

Oily varieties, like walnuts and peanuts, are easier to grind with nothing added.

If you really want to change your life, put fresh ground pecan butter and honey on homemade graham crackers.
 
I grew up with Laura Scudder’s natural PB and I consider it character-building to stir it up without spilling oil all over the outside of the jar and your counter ;) If you have a Trader Joe’s nearby theirs is the cheapest I’ve found (16oz size only) and the two ingredients are peanuts and salt. My strategy has been to use a tortilla instead of bread for my first post-stirring “sandwich” and then keep the jar in the refrigerator. After a couple hours it is a bit firmer and ready for a proper sandwich.
 
I mix a jar of almond butter, 2/3 cup maple syrup, and 1/3 cup almond milk.
Tasty and spreadable.
After adding maple syrup I found it can harden for some reason. So I experimented with almond milk.

It also works with peanut butter.

The butters I get have nothing except maybe salt added.
 
Here is what I think.

The regular emulsified peanut butter with a little bit of oil and corn syrup is probably just fine when taking into account all that we eat.

If you want the natural kind, you should consider a better way to stir it. Have you tried using a spoon? A butter knife? I bet you have used both and were frustrated.

I use a large metal chopstick to stir mine. To say that it's just as easy as regular emulsified peanut butter would be a lie, but it's not as difficult as trying to use a spoon or butter knife. It doesn't kick up oil that spills over and it glides through the peanut butter.

For me, it's worth the extra effort to use natural butter, but anyone who tells you it's not extra effort is lying. To be specific, I recommend a long stainless steel chopstick that you can hold in a hammer grip. If you want you could get even more creative and use a cordless drill with a thinga a ma bob in its chuck. You know an electric mixer attachment or whatever it's called. Or heck, put a MSR ground hog tent stake in that chuck and get to stirring.
.
 
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For several months, we used HEB natural peanut butter. It was really good, then our last couple of jars weren’t as good. It was smooth and spreadable at first, then we got a couple jars that were hard and not spreadable. We started trying different brands and right now we are buying Skippy natural.
 
We have good luck with Jif products. I’m not particular, the wife likes “Simply Jif.” I used to eat the stuff all the time, rarely now- so it sits a while and I don’t notice any weirdness. “Fully” hydrogenated oils, if that makes any difference…

Ha! Just thought about the first time we saw “natural” pb. I don’t remember why we grabbed it, we were traveling around Colorado in ‘79, probably. Must have been all the little market had (?). “Yuck! Look at all this oil!” Being a moron, I dumped it out the window, the oil blew down the side of my buddy’s Corvair Greenbrier… I’m still pretty stupid, but man, I used to be really stupid…. ;-)
 
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I don’t mind mixing it, doesn’t bother me, I just want something that isn’t the consistency of 5w30 motor oil. I can drink the stuff, or pour it out of the jar. .

It tastes fine, but they are obviously thinning it out. Peanut butter should not be pourable at ordinary room temperature, sammiches aren’t supposed to drip.
 
I pour off the peanut oil for small batches of fried fish. At the rate we use peanut butter nowadays it would take a long time to get enough to fry a big batch.
 
I have a Champion juicer. I used to make nut butter. Easier to buy, but man, thats good.
 
You can make your own at some 'health food' grocery stores. Never felt the need, but I see the machine when I go there to buy the brand of chicken we prefer.
 
I used to buy Almond butter at a hippie style co-op, and goat cheese, which is definitely different. They had a whole aisle full of different granola.
 
Morrow7x said:
You can make your own at some 'health food' grocery stores. Never felt the need, but I see the machine when I go there to buy the brand of chicken we prefer.
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It's been years since I was so energetic. :)
 
Smuckers here as well, I pour off the oil first thing for cooking.
 
Adam's for a couple of decades. It's the only kind I'll eat.
Stirring can be a bit of work. Butter knife held like you're trying to cut the pb won't spill too bad. If you have some time just sitting around try shaking the jar. Turn it around, upside down, sideways, shaking it. It will slowly start to mix and get thicker. After a while it is thick enough to stir without spilling it.
Warm the jar a little in front of a heater. Turn upside down and let it sit a couple of days. The oil should rise to the bottom of the jar. Stirring should be less sloppy now.
Once mixed you can refrigerate and it won't separate. But it will be hard to spread unless you warm it up a little.
 
We use Jiff and it has alot oil in it. Definitely not like it was 5 year's ago in my opinion I don't recall when I noticed excessive oil laying on top but the last few years it seems like more.
 
x39 said:
I like Teddie All Natural unsalted peanut butter. It lists one ingredient, roasted peanuts.
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Teddie smooth for me, the salted variety. WAY better than Smuckers, which is not at all consistent. Every jar of Teddie tastes the same, perfect.
 
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