Who won the spread?
Peanut butter sandwiches may not be permitted in some schools these days because of concerns about allergies, but this classic kids’ favorite can still be enjoyed for breakfast or as an afternoon snack during the academic year.
The Tribune Food & Dining staff set out to find the best creamy, no-stir peanut butter in a blind taste test. Sure, your house probably has a favorite brand, but don’t you wonder about the other jars crowding store shelves?
We settled on creamy because women and kids, apparently, prefer creamy over crunchy, according to the National Peanut Board, an industry group. And kids are, eventually, the target audience for this article — though we recognize plenty of grown-ups still love a PB&J.
And why no-stir? I love the old-fashioned type of peanut butter in which oil rises to the top and you have to mix the peanut butter and oil together with a knife or spoon. Given the growing amount of shelf space devoted to that style, it’s clear others do too. But, the back-to-school rationale behind this tasting calls to mind the harried parents putting together lunches.
I remember well my days as a frazzled dad trying to get my daughter to the school bus. If someone had handed me a jar of peanut butter and told me to mix it before school, I would have tossed the jar out the window and sent Caroline off with an extra bag or two of Doritos.
For the tasting, I purchased 10 jars of peanut butter. Some were labeled as “peanut butter spread.” Why the difference? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a definition for “peanut butter.” To be so labeled, the product must contain at least 90 percent peanuts to which “safe and suitable seasoning and stabilizing ingredients” may be added.
“Allowable ingredients” include salt, sweeteners and hydrogenated vegetable oil, notes the National Peanut Board. Peanut butters that use, say, palm oil instead of hydrogenated vegetable oil should be labeled as “peanut butter spread.”
The peanut butters and peanut butter spreads were purchased at a downtown Chicago Mariano’s supermarket, a neighborhood Jewel-Osco supermarket, and a Trader Joe’s and a Whole Foods Market, both in Evanston, Ill. I did not buy membership-only club brands because I wanted peanut butter the general public had a reasonable chance of buying. Prices listed are what I paid — some brands were on sale.
This was a blind tasting, meaning tasters didn’t know which peanut butter was which. Each participant was asked to rate each brand on appearance, aroma, texture and flavor.