Make or Buy? Peanut Butter

Ah, peanut butter. Our old lunchbox staple and snacktime favorite, beloved companion to celery sticks and jelly sandwiches everywhere. When we were kids, it was a jar of Skippy or nothing else. What about now?

Just for fun, let's do a three-way comparison today: Skippy's Creamy verses Teddie Old Fashioned Smooth Peanut Butter verses Alton Brown's homemade recipe. All costs were taken from Peapod Online Grocery unless otherwise noted.

• Peapod Online Grocery
• Homemade Peanut Butter from Alton Brown

COST BREAKDOWN

• Skippy's Creamy
TOTAL: $2.69
PER 2-TBSP SERVING: $0.17

• Teddie Old Fashioned Smooth Peanut Butter
TOTAL: $2.69
PER 2-TBSP SERVING: $0.17

• Homemade Peanut Butter
Makes 15 ounces, or 2 cups

15 ounces shelled and skinned roasted peanuts: $4.50
1 teaspoon kosher salt: $0.01
1 1/2 teaspoons honey: $0.08
1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil: $0.09

TOTAL: $4.68
PER 2-TBSP SERVING: $0.31

Note: I used all organic ingredients for the homemade version and was somewhat limited by what was available at Peapod. If you have access to bulk bins or un-shelled peanuts, you can likely bring the cost of the peanuts down by quite a bit.

TIME BREAKDOWN

• Skippy's Creamy: 0 minutes
• Teddie Old Fashioned Smooth Peanut Butter: 0 minutes
• Homemade Peanut Butter: About 3 minutes (add another 45 minutes if you roast and shell your own peanuts)

CONVENIENCE

The biggest inconvenience here can be finding the peanuts themselves. If I'm making my own peanut butter, I'm going to be picky about buying peanuts that are good quality, reasonably fresh, and preferably organic. The best peanuts aren't likely going to be at your local big-name grocery store, so this just takes a little footwork to around your neighborhood to find the peanuts you like the most. Whole Foods and local co-ops are a good place to start.

Alton Brown also recommends finding raw peanuts still in their shell, which can be hard to track down on a consistent basis. I usually settle for shelled peanuts, unsalted and either raw or roasted.

Once you find a good source of peanuts, making your own peanut butter is as simple as whizzing it for a few minutes in the bowl of a food processor. It keeps for up to two months refrigerated, which feels like adequate time to work through a batch even if you don't eat peanut butter very frequently.

TASTINESS AND HEALTHFULNESS

Childhood favorite though it may be, Skippy just doesn't stack up anymore. It's sugary (at least to my palate) and contains hydrogenated vegetable oils. Teddie and other natural peanut butter brands contain only roasted peanuts and salt. They are thick, rich, and haven't had their essential peanut-ness processed out of them. They taste, as they should, authentically of peanuts.

In a side-by-side comparison, Teddie Peanut Butter feels like a tie with homemade. It's nice that you can control the amount of salt and sweetener when you make it yourself, but Teddie and its kin make a very good product.

MAKE OR BUY?

Homemade peanut butter isn't a hands-down winner here, but it's a great option to have in your back pocket. It's easy and keeps nearly as long as a commercial peanut butter. I feel sure that more cost-effective sources of peanuts can be found at local markets.

VERDICT: Skip the Skippy. Either buy a natural peanut butter or make your own.

Do you regularly make your own peanut butter?

Related: Make or Buy: What Do You Say?

(Images: Peapod and Flickr member justgrimes licensed under Creative Commons)

Comments (26)

Buy. The store I shop at has a lovely grinder that with a flip of a switch plops out globs of peanut butter into the container of your choice, for $2.49 a pound. The peanuts out of the bulk bin are a whole $.10 cheaper. I've thought about doing other nut butters in the Cuisinart, but then, I'm lazy.

I'm in the make crowd. It also lets you make awesome mixes (last batch: hazelnut + pecan), or add fun flavors (chocolate, bacon, both).

I have trouble finding peanut butter that I actually like without paying $9. When I go home my mom makes it for me!

i dislike the graininess of natural pb so skippy (or some equivalent) it is for me.

I'm with scotchncoffee on this. Playing with flavors is fun for me (last batch was almond + sesame -- soooo good). I've also found that many of the natural nut butters available to me either taste flat or are too gritty.

So far the only "natural" peanutbutter I've found that I like is Adam's No-stir. The others are either too oily at the top of the jar and too dry at the bottom (I never seem to stir well enough to avoid this) and/or their texture is too grainy. The problem with the Adams is that they only seem to sell it in small jars and it does have some oils added, presumably to make it no-stir.

Does anyone out there know if there is something equivalent to the Adams No-stir that comes in bigger jars OR a truly no-oils-and-no-sugars-added variety that is actually nice and smooth and not so grainy like most of them are? I think if I could find that I would be willing to deal with the varying levels of oil content...

My local health food store has organic peanuts that they will grind up for peanut butter. It works out to about $0.21/ounce, and they will even let me reuse containers to fill with PB.

@qhartman, the reason regular PB is so smooth is because of the hydrogenated fats in it. If you want something without sweeteners, I think you're stuck with grainy-- at least at my grocery stores. Here's a link to a Cook's Illustrated taste test--

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tastetests/overview.asp?docid=27439

Whoops, that link is members-only. Here is a summary of it: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tastetests/overview.asp?docid=27439

Argh, this one-- http://americastestkitchen.tumblr.com/post/3604206157/faq-cooks-illustrated-peanut-butter-tasting

Sorry!

It almost doesn't make sense to compare Skippy to Teddy or homemade. They are just such different products. And to me, they each have their place. I love Skippy on an english muffin, but would never use it in a Thai recipe that called for peanut butter.

It also seems kind of harsh to rule out eating Skippy because of what is probably a negligible amount of hydrogenated fat and a fairly average amount of sugar. It's still a wholesome food by today's standards.

Adam's is not remotely "natural" it is just unsweetened.

There are a couple of natural, and organic, no stir brands without trans fats. For example: http://shop.onceagainnutbutter.com/product.sc?productId=9
(this can be purchased in stores too)

P.S. - I don't think that Skippy is smooth because of the added fat. That stuff is there to stabilize the suspension of the oil and the ground nuts and keep them from separating. Skippy is probably smooth because it is just ground/milled much more thoroughly than the gritty stuff.

Going "all natural" or "organic" with peanuts is not the best idea. Peanuts often contain aspergillus which produces a carcinogenic compound aflatoxin. If you'd like to read more, this article seems to summarize reasonably.

My favorite is Santa Cruz organic dark roast. Wonderful. Trader Joes makes an excellent smooth organic peanut butter. It requires stirring upon opening but once refrigerated, stays together.

Peanut butter is a convenience food. No interest in making my own. Easy to find the good stuff.

yeah, I wish I liked natural peanut butter. But really I just like kraft.

Buy. Always natural/unsweetened peanut butter, often from the grinder in the store. If I used it more often I might be interested in making my own to try different combos, (some that other people have mentioned sound delicious), but it's not something I eat much of.

I eat unsalted peanut butter. I either buy Trader Joes version or Crazy Richards which I buy at MOM (mom's organic market).

First I want to thank you for the Teddie Peanut Butter shout out!! We so dig that.

Second - the Skippy Creamy (and Chunky) Natural Peanbut Butters are technically Peanut Butter Spreads ...... PB with less than 90% peanuts as well as non natural ingredients must, (according to the FDA), be called spreads. SOooo don't be mislead by the spread. :)

ALSO, the no stir natural peanut butters do include oils other than the natural peanut oils. Often a palm oil is added ... so check your ingredients.

BUT the bottom line is as suggested in other posts ... Peanut Butter is generally a great healthy snack overall. Some healthier than others... but generally healthy none-the-less. SO whatever your personal preference - ENJOY the YUM that is Peanut Butter!

-SuperChunky
http://buyteddieonline.com

Both.

Buy, I store it in my earthquake kit, I keep two jars on hand since it has a long shelf life.

Make, if I'm making filled chocolates or candy bars, I like to adjust the salt and add other flavors or make other nut butters some of which are really expensive to buy (hazelnut, pistachio).

Because of the comments above it's worth noting that some food processors make perfectly smooth nut butters while others don't, I borrowed various brands and tried them out to find two that worked, though eventually I had enough courage and cash to invest in a VitaMix. Most of the supermarket nut butter machines do a great job of it and you can mix in other nuts for a custom blend.

You're not factoring in the cost of a food processor good enough to make peanut butter out of peanuts, and/or the anxiety of making your food processor's motor burn out.

Buy. I don't eat peanut butter nearly enough to warrant this amount of attention. Especially when I keep replacing it with nutella anyways :)

Definitely a buyer here. I buy a giant thing of Jif, and it gets us through a couple months, for even less per serving because it's bulk. Peanuts are pretty hard to find up here, and I didn't miss the fact that it cost about twice as much to make it. Cost is, unfortunately, the #1 decision point on stuff in our house.

I much prefer to make it at home. The flavor is noticeably fresher, I can control exactly how crunchy it is, and I like knowing exactly what is in it. I use the recipe from Joy of Cooking.

However, I don't like making a special trip to Whole Foods for bulk peanuts because I don't usually shop there. I don't make peanut butter very often anymore because of this.

I love Whole Foods Honey Roasted PB so I will continue to buy it. If that becomes not an option I would absolutely consider making it myself.

Has anyone tried the (pea)nut butter recipe from Nuts in the Kitchen. You simply throw a cup or two into a food processor, turn it on and wait 15 minutes. That'd help cut down on the honey/oil cost.

About 25 years ago, my local grocery store ground their own peanuts for PB. I fell in love with that and have never forgotten that flavor. I have yet to attempt to make my own, but I am definitely leaning towards trying it out.
Otherwise, I'm a Jif creamy buyer.