When I read the headline to Ruth Reichl's piece on Gilt Taste earlier this week, I chuckled: How to Make a Better Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. What could there possibly be to learn that we don't know already?
Now I should take a step back and mention that when I used to teach high school English, one of the assignments I'd give my students was to write detailed instructions on a task that seemed easy or mundane. This encouraged them to be very specific and visual in their writing. We practiced in the classroom jotting down instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and most found the activity strangely difficult. You just do it, they'd insist! Put peanut butter and jelly on bread: done!
Well, not so fast. According to Ruth Reichl this week, there's a lot we have to learn or, at the very least, to consider. Among those things is choosing good ingredients, not relying on squishy bad bread, and using real fruit jam instead of jelly. But then she gets to the real secrets: spread a layer of butter on one side of the bread and top it with the peanut butter and a smidge of flaky salt. Then spread jelly on the other side as you normally would. Now, Reichl advises that you cut off the crusts and ... ready for this? Microwave your sandwich for 8 seconds. This will, she insists, "melt the ingredients into a texture so sexy you will barely recognize the innocent sandwich of your childhood." We're game. How about you?
Read more: How to Make a Better Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwic
Related: Snack Recipe: Peanut Butter and Jelly Icebox Cookies
(Image: Flickr member tunnelarmr licensed for use under Creative Commons)
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Ruth is wrong. Homemade grape jam is delicious on a PBJ, and not inferior to homemade strawberry jam. However, strawberry jam is the #1 choice on a plain PBJ. I also believe you would not need to microwave the sandwich if the bread is soft enough to begin with.
The very best way to make a PBJ, if calories are no obstacle, is to make a layer of barbequed Fritos sandwiched inside. Potato chips are good, too. This obviously provides the salt she is looking for, along with a fabulous crunch. And both of these taste better with grape jam, I think.
This is how I grew up eating PB&J! Ruth is absolutely correct....the butter adds a creamy, silky unctuousness that turns PB&J from ordinary to extraordinary. Ruth is so right.
I always thought my mom added the butter to up the calorie content for our growing bodies...but this trick also made them (if possible) oh so much tastier! I still fondly think back to those sandwiches to this day!
I have a friend who puts in a layer of plain cream cheese between the pb&j. I need to try that, AND this now. They both sound amazing.
I believe the perfect PB&J needs a very light toasting of the bread, a generous layer of crunchy peanut butter, and very light layer of strawberry jam.
I used to do something vaguely along these lines, until I read the recipe here on The Kitchn for miso-peanut butter rosemary-black pepper-strawberry jam sandwiches. Now I have no patience for any other kind of PB&J. Not even if it has butter and flaky salt.
NO! You just brought back nightmarish childhood memories! My mom used to put butter (ok, margarine) on pb sandwiches and I thought it was revolting. It actually boils my blood to think about it even now. I hate the smell and nasty, revolting texture of butter/margarine unless they're well hidden in baked goods. The only way IMHO to improve pb&j is to slap it on toast.
PB&J gets sexy when I make it because I lightly toast the bread, then add LOTS of extra chunky peanut butter and strawberry jam. The peanut butter gets all melty and delicious from the warm bread. Gotta have a big glass of milk to go with it. Ok, I know what I'm having for lunch now.
My husband adds cheddar cheese slices to his PB&J, and he has to use grape jelly. So weird.
I only use the microwave to disinfect my sponges, never for heating or "cooking" food. Good grain bread, homemade if possible. With crusts. Chunky peanut butter. Strawberry jam. A big pile of crispy potato chips (Lays is my Chip of Choice). Mash down a bit to crush the chips. Toast the bread first if you must, but keep it out of the microwave. :)
My mom always buttered our PB&J's on the side with the jam to keep it from leaking thru the bread if the sandwich happened to get smooshed in our backpacks. so yummy.
Decogirl, my mom did the same thing and I HATED it!
Of course, as much as I enjoy a pb&j, I'm really a pb&pickle kinda girl.
toast the bread, and while it is still hot smear peanut butter on one side and blackberry all-fruit jam on the other. cut in triangles and enjoy with a cold glass of milk. perfection.
homemade concord grape JELLY on freshly ground peanut butter on toasted bread. no nasty fruit chunks falling out, lots of warm, unctuousness from the nearly liquid filling.
Ugh! I hate butter on PB&J. My friend's mom always did this and it was just icky!
If my wheat bread is perfectly fresh, I make my PB&J without toasting. If the bread is a few days old, I toast it. I always spread creamy peanut butter on both sides of the bread so that it holds the strawberry jam (with seeds, please!) in place.
And here I sit, eating a peanut butter sandwich (no jam/jelly) on the two heel ends of the loaf of bread no one wants.
Food isn't sexy. It's delicious, tasty, appealing, etc.
What they call "better," I call "an abomination." No thank you.
Also, calling a sandwich sexy is slightly disgusting.
Wow, I've always been embarrassed that my mother used to butter the bread for PB&J. It must have been a thing, not just her thing.
I think I like peanutbutter and honeycomb on whole wheat bread the best—the liquid honey combines with the bread for a great texture, and the comb adds some more chew to make the whole thing less squishy.
Whatever you do, just don't mix the pb and jelly together before spreading it on the bread. I know my grandmother did it in the interest of time, making lots of sandwiches for hungry children, but it still turns my stomach.
Otherwise, I love a good pb&j, preferably with strawberry jam and crunchy peanut butter. It warmed the deepest parts of my heart when my toddler turned out to be a peanut butter junkie as well. Make like so easier some nights when we can hand him a sandwich (he likes his with honey) or just a spoonful of peanut butter and a big glass of milk and call it dinner.
The best PB&J's are made with Bama Apple Jelly!
Never tried microwaving the sandwich, but my (French) husband always uses butter a teeny bit of sea salt.
I do think though, that a good tart raspberry jelly is best, not jam. And as for peanut butter? Koeze Cream-Nut.
and my husband thinks I'm nuts for microwaving my sandwich for 10seconds! It's awesome!
My trick to make them better at lunch time is layer the peanut butter in a thin layer on both slices of bread... then put the jelly in the middle. The jelly can't get to the bread, so the bread doesn't get soggy.
The bread should be warm. The jam should be cherry and spread generously. Strawberry jam will do in a pinch. Definitely not grape. The peanut butter is better creamy.
Butter just sounds gross. But I'm willing to try some salt. I do like to eat my PB&J with a bag of potato chips.
the most superior pb and j sandwich is one made with eggo waffes. trust me.
Put it on a lightly toasted cibatta roll. Best PB&J ever.
My favorite pb&j is from Specialty's in SF. They use whole grain bread, chunky peanut butter, cranberry sauce, with bananas and green apples. During Thanksgiving when I had fresh cranberries, I made this sandwich. So satisfying and refreshing at the same time.
Never met a sexy PB&J. Never met a PB&J I didn't like either. I'm not sure it's possible to mess up with this classic. My personal fave is PB & pear preserves on an english muffin, nuked for a few secs until the PB is creamy. Manna to be sure.
@MISTYPISTY: definitely wierd. can't wrap my mind around it but i'm taking it as a challenge:) I gotta know...have you ever tasted one of hubs' creations? (it's a safe bet that by this time tomorrow, I will have...curiousity is getting the best of me).
QUOTE: whole grain bread, chunky peanut butter, cranberry sauce, with bananas and green apples
wow...this is next on my list. love pb with each of these but never combined them all at once.
One of the best PB& J's I have ever had, I used to order from a restaurant in Ventura, CA -- I think it was called Frankie's. It was on wheat pita bread, peanut butter on one side, sour cream on the other, with lots of fresh, sliced grapes inside. SO DELICIOUS! Refreshing, creamy, savory, sweet & tart! The sour cream may have been slightly sweetened but it was still tart. As far as the classic goes, I love a pb&j on fresh, soft bread and Maranatha has the most delicious peanut butter. I've turned a lot of people on to it. They all say, "How much better can it be?" and end up saying I was right and they get weird and addicted for a while, which I understand.
That picture with that headline? Disturbing.
Calling food sexy really bothers people eh? Food porn, etc, its all supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, lighten up. Personally I never like PB&J, I don't think my mom ever made it for me, I've tried it on my own and I get it but I suspect its more the nostalgia factor for some people than anything else, it just tastes gloopy, mismatched and overly sweet to me, Fluffernutter instead please! Just curious, do people eat peanuts and grapes or peanuts and strawberries together? Or peanut butter and fresh fruit? I don't see those matching either but isn't it similar?
I make my PB&Js like grilled cheese sandwiches... make the PB&J, butter the outside of the bread, and cook it in a skillet for a minute or two per side. Absolutely deeeelicious.
mimee25—my kids (who are grown up now) still really like peanutbutter on apples. (As do I.)
Butter, especially good butter, is SO not the same thing as margarine.
@DECOGIRL...agreed! My dad made (makes?) them this way and while I'm all for childhood nostalgia...GROSS.
Bread must be toasted, Ill have to try the "grilled pbj" method above. And everyone has a favorite jam but I miss my grandma's homemade raspberry rhubarb. Crunchy pb OR the added layer of potato chips inside for crunch.
the absolute BEST pb&j - slightly toasted whole wheat, smooth peanut butter on one side, seedless jam on the other side, and Lays potato chips in the middle. scrumptious!!!!
Peanut butter on both slices of bread with the jam (not jelly) in the middle, no butter. Make sure the peanut butter is spread thicker on the outer edges of the bread to seal in the jam. Any kind of wheat or multi-grain bread is fine. My real preference is to mix the peanut butter and jam in a bowl and spoon the mixture onto bread slices cut into 4 squares so it's kind of like a dip.
My grandma used to put butter on sandwiches, toast and muffins before the PB and I always hated it that way. Yuck!
Add Nutella with the peanut butter and jelly and you have heaven.
No. Would you tell Proust that his madeleine should be dipped in Lapsang Souchong because it's fancier?
The whole point of comfort food is that it's not haute cuisine. It's not even about food, really. The comfort doesn't come from the finest ingredients, it comes from its familiarity, from the particular combination of textures and flavors you find comforting. It's about triggering the remembrance of comfort.
Thus, whatever makes you happy and comforted is the best. For me it's home-made bread, peanut butter and bananas, or, sometimes, lightly toasted bread with a thin coating of peanut butter eaten with a cut up orange and a cup of milky tea.
I made this 2 nights ago with the addition of some pepper on top of the strawberry jam, microwaved and all. Never had a pb&j with butter, but man, it was really delicious - of course, doesn't European butter make everything taste better?
Jeezus, here come the anti-microwave activists.
Here we have learned that no two people agree on PB&J and that the "best" peanut butter sandwich must feature sardines -- no, pickles -- no, mayonnaise -- no, rat poison. This page of comments ought to be preserved as required reading for anyone (editor or commenter) who says they have the "best" recipe for something. (This includes Slate.com and its annoying series titled "You're Doing It Wrong.")
Whole grain bread, lightly toasted.
Best qualtity salted crunchy peanut butter like Santa Cruz Organic Dark Roasted +
Rasberry jam
I love butter but that sounds strange. And the margarine alternative sounds gross.
* Homemade strawberry refrigerator jam. (Tastes like supercharged fresh berries.)
...or IKEA lingonberry jam.
...or bacon bits (real, not fake.)
Always with chunky peanut butter on fresh whole wheat, toasted or not.
(My mom also buttered the bread for any sandwich. I think it's a Depression era hangover, and was meant to seal the bread from getting soggy when made into sandwiches in the morning for eating later on.)
In line with the nostalgia, anti-microwave and strange combo comments, here's my favorite pb&j per my dad's method:
Spread peanut butter (I prefer chunky but to each his own) on a flour tortilla and jam on another flour tortilla. Put them together and heat it in a pan or on a hot plate like you would a quesadilla. The outside should be a little crispy and the inside should be all kinds of gooey. Cut it with a pizza cutter and share with your now very happy toddler.
I didn't know until I was school age that other people ate their pb&js on regular bread.
Toasted leftover pane de casa, smooth peanut butter, black & blue jam (blackberry-blueberry). Fresh challah (slices or buns) with smooth peanut butter & thinly sliced Granny Smith apple. Chia flax bread with chunky peanut butter & lavender honey (my granddaughter's favourite). Any stale bread, toasted, with smooth peanut butter & mashed ripe banana. All with icy cold milk, of course!
I enjoy PB&J almost daily- it's my mid-afternoon snack so I don't spend my evening commute in a low-blood-sugar meltdown.
Favorite riff on the classic:
Almond butter
Fig chevre (Trader Joe's)
Cranberry chutney (also TJ's)
Yum!!!
PB and just fresh ripe fruit is the sexiest - add an obscenely juicy nectarine and some marionberries in the mix and it will blow your doors off.
Someone else mentioned the sliced grapes, and I have to agree--I had this once at a restaurant in Oregon and still think of the burst of delicious juice that came out with each bite. I'll also second the strawberry freezer jam recommendation--so much fresher-tasting than canned jam!
But please, please, don't use the salt-free, oil-free natural peanut butter--the salt and the oil are necessary to ensure the perfect flavor and texture!
Wow, this sure turned into a referendum on PB&J. Lots of awesome ideas, people!
I love seeing how everyone does "their" PBJ!!
I personally love a good multigrain bread, toasted, with chunky PB (Skippy's All Natural, please) and strawberry jam, cut on the diagonal. And a big glass of chocolate milk. Yumm.
Also, how has no one mentioned Nutella yet?! Best thing ever...nutella and PB on crackers. Plain and simple. Delicious.
I'm with @lemook, grilled pb&j is the best! The insides are warm and melty, the outsides are buttery and crunchy. We eat it for dessert at my house.