i've never refrigerated PB.

I make my own peanut butter and have always kept it in the fridge.

I refrigerate mine, but that's just to keep it mixed.

Growing up with regular Jif-style peanut butter, we always kept it in the cupboard - but now that I've switched to an organic almond butter (like the serparating oil variety mentioned) I keep it in the fridge.

I always buy Skippy because I was a big Annette Funicello fan, but I wonder if Jif is better? Any thoughts on this? And I keep it in the cabinet so it's spreadable. And by the way, did you know that a spoonful of peanut butter is a never-fail cure for hiccups?

There's so many dang emulsifiers, stabilizers, and preservatives in non-natural PB that you could keep it on the sun and it wouldn't separate.

The all natural stuff that's really just ground up peanuts, yeah probably best to keep it in the fridge to keep it from separating, and even then you're still probably going to have to mix it up every so often.

Growing up it was kept in the fridge, but my husband's family didn't, so now we don't refrigerate and I like it that way! But we have natural PB for my daughter (trying to keep the sugary stuff away while I can!) and that says right on the container to keep it in the fridge so that stuff stays cold!

Now that I buy natural I keep it in the fridge. Oil can spoil, as Rachael Ray always says! I've never had rancid peanut butter but I did have rancid olive oil once...it was enough to make me keep my oils in the fridge.

Haha in France we don't really eat peanut butter but I had the same experience with Nutella: we would keep it on the shelf at home and I always found it weird when I had it almost frozen (a little like spreadable ice cream) at a friend's house.

I'd also say to keep natural peanut butter in the fridge. Regular peanut butter was my Montreal roommate's main food and he didn't refrigerate it so I guess the shelves are fine (he was almost never sick, despite his peculiar diet).

I buy the cheapy peanut butter...not only because I like it better than the all natural just peanut kind, but because I have very sensitive teeth, I don't want to keep it in the fridge, otherwise I can't eat it until it gets to room temperature! And when you are craving a peanut butter and banana sandwich, you simply cannot wait for it!

I've had all natural peanut butter and I've found that it really does need to stay in the fridge, especially in the summer.

I'm in the UK and I'm lucky enough to be able to get Skippy. I've had it separate in the summer but the rest of the year, it's been fine.

I think that, when it comes to the store-bought PB, it comes down to personal preference. And if it separates? Take a spoon to it and give it a good mix! :)

PB gets hard in the fridge. I keep my dog's PB in there so it doesn't get all over the place, but I keep mine in the pantry.

I buy the natural stuff and keep it in the fridge once it is opened.

All this talk of natural peanut butters separating and needed to be stored in the fridge during the summer is so weird. It's 80F in my house right now and I just took a little at our jar in the pantry. It doesn't strike me as more separated than any other time of the year. My advice is to always store natural peanut butter /upside down/ in the pantry. That way the oil floats to the *bottom* of the jar. When you flip the jar right side up to open it, the peanut butter falls to the bottom of the jar and everything emulsifies and mixes back together. I never have to stir with this method.

I've kept both commercial and all-natural peanut butter at room temperature, and both kept well - but we went through it quickly enough. I suppose if it sat around a long time after opening you might get a different result.

Now that I switched to all-natural, I can't stand the processed stuff, and I do prefer to keep it in the fridge (even if it doesn't separate it becomes a runny mess), but you certainly don't have to in most climates.

I eat all natural peanut butter everyday so I keep it in the pantry. Yes, it separates a little but I just stir it up before I use it. I don't like cold, hard PB. I guess if I used it less, I'd store it in the fridge.

I never refrigerate peanut butter. Even natural peanut butter. It doesn't make sense. Why would you refrigerate peanuts?!

I had rancid peanut butter once; it was stuff I bought at a farmer's market from peanut farmers, and usually their pb was great, but this one jar was awful. And I don't know if it was like that when I bought it, since I didn't open it for quite a while. So now I keep the natural pb in the fridge, and I don't buy the processed stuff anymore.

Natural peanut butter in the fridge, Jif/Skippy types can stay on the shelf.

When I used to buy the mass-produced all natural peanut or nut butter (like from Target or Publix), I found I needed to keep it in the fridge because the oil separation was ridiculous. But when I took it out from the fridge, it was hard as a rock and very hard to spread. I'd leave it on the counter to let it come back to a more natural consistency, but that took forever.

Now I buy fresh ground peanut or almond butter from Fresh Market. Sometimes I get the containers that are already filled or fill my own. I've found that the fresh ground nut butter doesn't need to be kept in the fridge. There's barely any separation. And if I do keep it in the fridge, it doesn't get hard as a rock.

Go figure!

I forgot to add, I never buy more than a little over than half a pound. Like other groceries, and because it's fresh, I'd rather go shop for it when I run out of it than stock up on it. :-)

Huh, I never keep the natural stuff in the fridge...maybe because we go through it so quickly that it never has a chance to go rancid. And like Anita83 says above, we buy about 1/2 lb at a time.

My Jif lives in the pantry, as did the natural pb I used to buy the g-kids (stored upside down, never an issue). Cold pb is nasty, imho. And I love it on toast when it becomes a hot mess. Yum. Before the kids moved cross country, I could always tell when sil helped clean-up the kitchen. My pb, mustard & catsup would suddently be MIA. After much wasted time searching, I finally learned to check the refrigerator first.

Been eating natural PB since I was a child, when we got "Deaf Smith" brand in a big paint bucket at room temperature. When we switched to Smucker's, we store the unopened jar upside down in the cupboard, but have to stir it for first use, and then store in fridge to keep from separating. With other natural brands (Whole Foods, Trader Joe's), we've had the new, unopened jar leak while upside down, and they often have too much oil, so we take some off, and then stir and fridge right-side up.

A relative microwaves their PB briefly to warm it (I think they have Jif at rooom temp).

For the fake brands, they are always kept in the cupboard. The fridge is only for the separating natural kind, although the oil rancid issue might be important for those infrequent eaters.

Nutella actually says on the jar "do not refrigerate".

Good quality nut butters go into the fridge. I let it sit out for a minutes or toast a clump briefly to spread it.

I was raised on Skippy but would never, ever buy that junk now.

Nutella is on the counter, but it is hardly natural so...

I have an eight-year old. Peanut butter, natural or not, doesn't have time to spoil at our house.

Jif, Skippy, etc. I never refrigerated growing up. My mom always kept it in the cupboard, and when I struck out on my own I did the same. My fiance's family was the opposite. Now whenever I leave it on the counter, I always find it put back in the fridge (he also insists on refrigerating soy sauce, which I never did growing up). It's kind of a pain when trying to spread, but I've found that storing it on the door generally keeps it somewhat spreadable, since the door is opened and closed so much during the day, and if I get it out at the beginning of my sandwich/toast prep, and don't try spreading it until the end it's usually spreadable enough at that point.

Natural butters are always refrigerated of course.

@MMMARIE mentioned coming across people who refrigerated Nutella. My fiance tried to do the same, until I pointed out that the jar (at least those distributed in the US) has "DO NOT REFRIGERATE" printed right on it!

I keep any peanut butters like Jif or Skippy in the pantry but any all natural peanut butters go in the refrigerator. If you look on the label, it will tell you whether you need to refrigerate it or not.

This is interesting. I have never put peanut butter in the fridge and never gave a thought to it. We use natural peanut butter and don't use it very fast and I have never had it go rancid. It does get a little bit messy when the oil separates and the jars is full.

I buy natural peanut butter and Jif. I eat the Jif.

Both kept in the refrig, only because I like to store like-with-like.

I didn't know that about natural ones! If we do get that, I'll bear it in mind that it has to be refrigerated.

MMMarie's mention of Nutella reminded me of something - we normally just keep it in the pantry, but I tried to do that when I went on exchange in southern Arizona in August... ahahah no. It basically turned into a drink. I kept it in the fridge after that.

I've had homemade nut butters go rancid pretty quickly at room temperature. For some reason natural nut butters don't seem to have that problem, even though they use the same ingredients.

I usually keep nut butters at room temperature, stored on their sides so the oil is easy to stir back in. I hate how hard they get in the fridge, although some of them (like the Maranatha almond I currently have) don't have that problem so I'll keep them chilled.

The newest naturals don't need to be mixed to keep the oil in, and don't have to be refrigerated, either. Jif's is pretty good.

I'd be inclined to refrigerate the "natural" kind in warm climates because of the not infrequent mould that grows on peanuts and their butters.

I have never put PB in the fridge. Growing up we always had Jif, now I keep that around plus some Smuckers Natural for baking. They both seem to do fine in cupboard, even in the summer heat.

We have a brand of peanut butter that doesn't have anything other than peanuts in it, it keeps on the shelf. But even then, it's quite solid, so the ratio of peanut solids to oil is probably too low for it to split. It rarely forms a thin layer of oil if the jar is scooped out in the middle.

My rule of thumb is if the nuts are raw, they and their butters go in the fridge; if they've been roasted, they're fine at room temp unless you're eat it very infrequently. Raw nuts/seeds always do better in the fridge because their oils are more delicate and susceptible to rancidity. Peanuts are always sold roasted (even if they are labelled as "raw," apparently they have been steamed/boiled for food safety reasons). Yes, peanuts have a tendency to harbour mold, but this would probably occur *before* they get turned into nut butter, not after.

I refrigerate, just because every time i try to mix PB back together I wind up with oil everywhere. I'm just not coordinated enough to leave it at room temperature.