They moved the peanut butter at Sobeys on Allen Street a few weeks ago. It was just a couple of shelves up, but that I found it as temporarily debilitating as I did reinforced how well-worn the Sobeys aisles have become to me, and what a hair-trigger debilitation threshold I have.
My mother made a casual comment this summer about stirring peanut butter being a good thing; I’d never done this despite the clear call to action on the lid (which I had always dismissed as an ignorable on the plane of “coffee may be hot” and “contents may have settled during shipment”).
But my mother is wise, so I gave it a tentative try, sticking a big spoon deep into a freshly uncorked jar and mucking about. It helped, especially when the dregs, a few weeks later, were less dreggy.
So last week I kicked things up: I emptied the peanut butter from its jar into our immersion blender cup and went to town. The immersion blender was clearly at the edge of its operational limits, but it didn’t conk out, and when I decanted the peanut butter back into a glass jar it was wonderfully smooth. And has continued to be spreadable and luscious in the days since.
Score one for mother-wisdom (and, sometimes, reading labels).
Comments
One usability hack for natural peanut butter that I have implemented is to transfer it to a larger, glass jar upon opening. The extra volume let’s you properly stir it without risking oil overflow as it’s not too hard if you can get a whip going. I look forward to a future waste-free world where we can skip the plastic container entirely and pipe the right amount from a spigot ourselves.
Bulk Barn has a “fill your own container” ground-in-real-time peanut butter making machine that I’ve used to good end before. I’m not a regular enough customer to make consistent use of it (and I’m not sure where COVID has left this).
I did not know that and will investigate in the future times where trips to new stores seem sensible. Thanks!
My kids have great joy in cracking peanuts open. Unfortunately, nobody likes to eat them as is. Turns out you can make peanut butter out of peanuts! And it’s not that hard, except for the blender, as already mentioned (and I roasted them for 5 minutes in the oven before and let them cool down). Also added peanut oil. And: everybody likes peanut butter!