Weird Facts

Who Invented Peanut Butter

Who Invented Modern Peanut Butter?

American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor. History suggests that the Ancient Incas ground peanuts into a paste, but this would be nothing like our modern peanut butter. Modern peanut butter was invented twice! It was invented by George Washington Carver, an agricultural scientist and chemist, and it was also invented independently by John Harvey Kellogg, a physician and dietician. Both men lived in the United States during the last decades of the nineteenth century.

Carver was an incredibly prolific and creative agricultural scientist. In addition to his peanut butter recipe , he came up with more than three hundred other new ways to use peanuts, and hundreds of ways to use sweet potatoes, soybeans, and other crops. His work revitalized southern agriculture at a time when fields were over-farmed and soils were becoming depleted from continuous single-cropping. Dr. Carver is referred to as the "peanut wizard" and father of the peanut industry. Dr Carver did not patent any of his food products as he believed they were all gifts from God and meant for everyone to enjoy.

John Harvey Kellogg's 1897 patent was for "nutmeal." Kellogg was a passionate believer in healthy diet and exercise, devoting his entire life to medicine and his ideas about healthy living. Today, of course, his name lives on, on cereal boxes around the world.

Also of note is a Canadian Marcellus Gilmore Edson who invented a process for milling peanuts on a hot surface until the peanuts became fluid in 1884.  But most people give credit to George Washington Carver and his peanut butter recipe.

 

Facts about Peanut Butter

Georgia is the #1 peanut producing state, but did you know that Texas is #2.

In 1928 Joseph L. Rosenfield licensed his churning process for smooth peanut butter to the Peter Pan brand but in 1932 introduced his own Skippy brand.

Skippy Peanut Butter, was first sold on February 1, 1933.

It takes almost 850 peanuts to make an 18 oz jar of peanut butter!

Farmers (called growers) harvest the peanuts during September, October and November then sell them to companies known as peanut shellers.

Nobody consumes as much peanut butter as Americans; however, it is popular in Canada, Holland, England, Germany and Saudi Arabia. It is gaining popularity throughout Eastern Europe.

Two peanut farmers have been elected president of the United States: Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter.

Nearly half of the U.S. peanut crop is made into peanut butter each year.

November is Peanut Butter Lover's Month; March is National Peanut Month.

The world's largest peanut butter and jelly sandwich measured 40 feet long. It contained 150 pounds of peanut butter and 50 pounds of jelly. It was created November 6, 1993 in Peanut, Pennsylvania.

Consumers prefer creamy peanut butter to chunky by a 60% to 40% ratio. Children and women prefer creamy, while most men opt for chunky.

When making a PB&J sandwich, 96% of people put the peanut butter on before the jelly.

"Arachibutyrophobia" (pronounced I-RA-KID-BU-TI-RO-PHO-BI-A) is the fear of peanut butter getting stuck to the roof of your mouth.

Peanuts are not a nut! Botanically classified as legumes, peanuts contain properties of both the bean/lentil and tree nuts.

On May 24, 1962, Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter aboard Aurora 7, carried small food cubes made from peanut butter. This was the first solid food eaten by an American astronaut in space.

 

Want to make a real George Washington Carver original recipe?

NO. 83, PEANUT BRITTLE NUMBER ONE

  • 3 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 cup roasted peanuts
  • 1 scant cup boiling water
  • 1/4 teaspoon soda

Melt all together over a slow fire; cook gently without stirring until a little hardens when dropped in cold water; add the nuts; turn the mixture in well-buttered pans and cut while hot. Stirring will cause the syrup to sugar.

 

Sources;

http://www.tuskegee.edu/about_us/legacy_of_fame/george_w_carver/carver_peanut_products.aspx

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/carver-peanut/

http://www.rocketcityspacepioneers.com/space/who-invented-peanut-butter

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/george-washington-carver

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpeanutbutter.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_butter

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/27/weekinreview/dear-mr-carver-this-is-a-cease-and-desist-order.html

http://www.buddymcnutty.com/

http://www.nationalpeanutboard.org/

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