By Brian Roulston
As much as Canadians love their bacon, they also love their peanut butter too, in fact, 97% of all Canadians eat peanut butter at least once a week according to a 2016 survey by the Canadian branch of The American Peanut Council.
November is Peanut Butter Month in Canada while January 24th has been designated Peanut Butter Day in the U.S.
The Aztecs, a civilization of Mexico around 1300 to 1521 A.D. mashed roasted peanuts into a paste and used this ancient form of peanut butter as a remedy for toothaches.
We can credit three people for the modern version of peanut butter as we know it today. The first of three inventors Marcellus G. Edson of Montreal perfected the process of milling roasted peanuts between two heated surfaces in which he created a peanut paste that was first used to make peanut flavored candy. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (Yep, the cereal guy) patented a process for creating peanut butter from raw peanuts. Kellogg, at the time marketed his peanut butter initially to expensive health care institutes for the wealthy as a healthy protein substitute for those with bad or no teeth who could not otherwise get their protein by chewing meat. In 1903 Dr. Andrew Straub patented the first peanut butter making machine. Dr.Straub also founded Peter Pan Peanut Butter that marketed as the first smooth peanut butter. In 1932 it became known as Skippy peanut butter. Skippy disappeared off store shelves in 2017 after being discontinued in Canada.
It takes approximately 540 peanuts to make a 340 gram (12 oz.) jar of peanut butter.
While peanut butter cookies or peanut butter & jelly/jam are the tastiest and preferred way to use this confection, there are some other surprising uses. In a pinch you could use it as shaving cream, leather cleaner, ant bait in traps. Some even use as a lubricant to fix squeaks, even those little mouse squeaks can be silenced if you use it as bait in mouse traps. Cruel? Yes!
Don’t forget there are adults and children who are deathly allergic to peanuts and be sure to check with them first before serving them any type of peanut or peanut butter.
