Peanut butter is a food product usually consisting of roasted and ground peanuts, sometimes sweetened. It is commonly sold in grocery stores, but can be made at home. Many styles are available; the most popular are creamy (smooth) and crunchy, but honey-roasted or wholenut varieties can also be found. Creamy peanut butter is made by grinding all of the mixture very finely. The crunchier styles leave portions of the mixture with a coarser grind, resulting in larger pieces of peanut interspersed with the creamier fine ground mixture.
Used in sandwiches (particularly the classic Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich), candy (for example Reese's Pieces), and pastry, it is a good source of protein, and is popular with children. For people with nutallergies, the intense concentration of nuts in peanut butter can cause fatal anaphylactic shock. Peanut butter is often contaminated with aflatoxin.
In 1893, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg originated an early variety of peanut butter at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. Kellogg, along with his brother, W.K. Kellogg, patented a process for making peanut butter, but it used steamed peanuts rather than roasted peanuts. Contrary to popular belief, the renowned botanist, George Washington Carver had no hand in inventing this food in addition to the numerous uses for the legume he developed.
Peanut butter became a very profitable business in the United States. Currently, the best-selling American brand is Jif.
Peanut butter also makes a superior mouse trap bait to cheese. Not only do mice prefer it to cheese, but its sticky texture reduces the mouse's ability to steal the bait and not get caught.
In 2002, an intentionally irreverent pseudo-scientific paper was published [1] establishing that "Peanut Butter has no effect on the rotation of the Earth". (See also Ig Nobel Prize)
