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My dad made his peanut butter sandwiches with mayonnaise. He said the mayonnaise kept the peanut butter from sticking to the roof of his mouth. That was his whole rationale for it - nonstick peanut butter. Yeah, right. As a child, I didn’t buy that. And I also did not really care for the combo. What kid doesn’t prefer jelly with peanut butter, anyway?
Anyway, I was thinking about my dad and his weird PB&M sandwich when I saw this in Atlas Obscura: Peanut Butter & Mayonnaise Sandwich Now largely forgotten, the pairing was once as popular as PB&J.
During the Great Depression, people valued high-calorie combinations of protein and fat. Meat and dairy were costly, and consuming enough energy could prove challenging. Enter peanut butter and mayonnaise on white bread. The combination became a staple in Southern households in the United States and, in some regions, it was as ubiquitous as peanut butter and jelly. For the next 30 years or so, the PB&M was a favorite in many American kitchens, perhaps because adding mayonnaise to the era’s rustic, coarse nut butter may have been key for spreadability. According to Garden & Gun, newspapers from the 1940s in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Troy, New York, both advised adding mayonnaise to “moisten” or “thin” peanut butter before adding bacon or shredded American cheese.
In the 1960s, Hellman’s Mayonnaise debuted an advertisement suggesting fun ways to spice up the basic peanut butter & mayo sandwich. To make a “Double Crunch,” one simply added bacon and pickles. A “Funny Face” called for raisins and carrots (and some degree of artistic capability). The “Apple Fandango” featured sliced apples and marmalade, while the “Crazy Combo”—you’ve been warned—included salami, sliced eggs, and onions.
So I guess Dad’s sandwich was a “thing” when he was a boy in the Great Depression. I never knew… But, like this, some Depression era recipes are floating around the Internet because the COVID19 lockdowns have forced an interest in cooking from the pantry. Peanut butter is a longtime pantry staple — and as long as allergies are not an issue, it is much more economical than trendy almond butter.
Anybody else have strange ways with peanut butter sandwiches? Or other pantry items?
The weekend begins now. Come in, be comfortable, and share your day, your weekend plans, your menus! This is an open thread.