LATE NIGHT SNACK.

PB & J has to be the best invention ever-especially on the late when you're just getting home. Last night/early morning, as I was about about to bite into my sandwich I started thinking to myself that the simplest ideas make the best ideas. Whoever came up with the idea of placing peanut butter and jelly between two slices of bread was either very bored or extremely creative. So I thought I'd investigate the history of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich:

Food historians have seen nothing written about the peanut butter and jelly sandwich before 1940. What we do know is that GI's in WW 2 were given rations of both peanut butter and jelly. When they returned to the states after the war peanut butter sales and jelly sales both soared.It would seem most likely this would be the birth of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
...Food historians tell us that finely chopped nuts (especially almonds) were regularly used by ancient cooks in a variety of dishes. BUT! It wasn't until the late 19th century that peanut butter,as we know it,came on the market. Did you know that peanut butter was first marketed as a health food? Ancient cooks also knew how to preserve fruit. BUT! It wasn't until the 15th century that modern jellies/jams/preserves were made. Ancient cooks also made bread. BUT! Sliced pre-packaged bread,the stuff we Americans use today to make our peanut butter & jelly sandwiches,didn't happen until the late 1920s....The first located reference to the now immortal peanut butter and jelly sandwich was published by Julia Davis Chandler in 1901. This immediately became a hit with America's youth, who loved the double-sweet combination, and it has remained a favorite ever since...During the early 1900s peanut butter was considered a delicacy and as such it was served at upscale affairs and in New York's finest tearooms....Peanut butter sandwiches moved down the class structure as the price of peanut butter declined due to the commericialization of the industry. Peanut butter's use also moved down the age structure of the nation as manufacturers added sugar to the peanut butter, which appealed to children. The relationship between children and peanut butter was cemented in the late 1920s, when Gustav Papendick invented a process for slicing and wrapping bread. Sliced bread meant that children could make sandwiches themselves without slicing the bread with a potentially dangerous knife. As a consequence of low cost, high nutrition, and ease of assembling, peanut butter sandwiches became one of the top children's meals during the Depression.

[Continue Reading]