"jif" news and stories

I grew up with health food store peanut butter. The kind that is essentially just ground peanuts and a little salt, where the oil rises to the top and either has to be stirred in or poured off before you can make a sandwich. I was always envious of my friends who had jars of Skippy or Jif in their cabinets (our peanut butter had to be stored in the fridge so that it didn't go bad). These days I now prefer the peanut butter I grew up with, loving the flavor of the nuts and salt without any added sugar or fats.

The folks over at AOL Food threw themselves on sword of bad food and tasted 35 different jars of peanut butter in order to find the very best of the best. Their winner was Whole Foods 365 Brand Crunchy Peanut Butter. I'm not a huge fan of crunchy peanut butter typically, but hearing that a collection of reliable foodies determined that it was the best of the bunch makes me curious to give it a shot.

Okay folks, what do you think? Did the AOL Food testers get it right? What's your favorite peanut butter?

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I wasn't sure how to celebrate National Peanut Butter Day. I could put up a bunch of recipes that include peanut butter (and I will, after the jump), but I also wanted to ask one of the more important questions of all-time.

How do you make your peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

I mean, what type of bread do you use? What type of peanut butter? Do you spread the jelly on top of the peanut butter or on the other slice of bread? Do you cut it or eat it whole? What do you drink with it?

I use a soft but hearty bread, like a Canadian White or Pepperidge Farm (Wonder Bread is way too flimsy and lame). I use crunchy Jif, and I spread the peanut butter and jelly on separate slices. I eat it whole, with a glass of fat free milk.

Peanut butter recipes after the jump!

I've learned three things about making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches over the years:

1. Creamy and chunky are both great.
2. They taste terrible with a Diet Coke.
2. Never use Wonder Bread. It tears too easily.

November is National Peanut Butter Lover's Month. Here's a bunch of facts about peanut butter (did you know the average kid will eat 1500 PB&J sandwiches by the time they graduate high school?). Skippy has a bunch of crafts and games for the kids, while Jif has some interesting peanut butter recipes, including Peanut Butter Muffins and Chicken Peanut Mole.

Also check out PeanutButterLovers.com, a site for people who...well, you know, love peanut butter.

Even with all the media surrounding peanut allergies in kids, peanut butter still remains tops when it comes to sandwiches. Newsday put the eternal question to the test with 11 kids and got the answer to "What is the best peanut butter?" They tested 16 brands of peanut butter including store brands like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, and also controlled for crunchy and creamy preferences by testing them separately.

So who won out? As much as parents would love to have kids prefer natural peanut butters, national brand Skippy took first place in both creamy and crunchy categories, followed closely by Peter Pan and then Jif. For the full results, and more information about peanut butter in general, check out the Newsday article.

The entries for Jif's Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich contest have closed and it looks like all of the participating kids worked really hard to get their entries just right. Jif has compiled the top ten recipes and posted them online where users can vote on their favorite.

The participants range in age from 6-12 and, while some parental help (possibly with knives and cutting) is allowed, these are definitely the kids' creations. The recipes include some really unusual, but creatively shaped "sandwiches," like the Peanut Butter Pool Party Sandwich, which is topped with a blue yogurt "pool" and teddy grahams. Others are more conventional takes on the classic peanut butter sandwich, like the Peanutti Panini, Kirsten's Hot Wrap Apple Breakfast Wrap and French Berry Jif® Toast. Check out all the recipes, especially if you have kids that will like the sense of participating in the contest by becoming recipe testers.

The winning child gets a grand prize $25,000 scholarship fund and four runners-up get $2,500 scholarships.

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