Sandwich poll

[james_davis_nicoll]

[Poll #2026632]

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Nut butter of choice* on one slice.
Butter butter on the other slice (to keep the bread from getting soggy).
Jam on top of the butter.
Separate knives or washing in between, to discourage cross-contamination or terrible little bits of peanut butter in the jam jar.


* 12 years of PBJ for school lunch burned me out and I can no longer countenance peanut butter.

[melita66.livejournal.com]

If no banana is available, PB on one slice, jam on top of the PB.

If banana is available, very thin coating of PB on both slices, cut banana lengthwise in chunks (say 2 or 3 so 4 to 6 pieces), place on one piece. Yum!

[mrs-ralph.livejournal.com]

We all forgot about the Smucker's Goober option. Jam and peanut butter in one jar. You get a peanut butter and jam swirled mess that way but some people like it that way.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

PB both slices, jam in the middle.

Since I can no longer eat bread, this is pretty much theoretical. It's Just Not The Same with rice cakes.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

Yes. A thin coating of nut butter helps to contain the jam between.

[anzhalyumitethe.livejournal.com]

Yes, less soggy bread!

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

This is the way God intended. All other methods are used by heathens.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Myself, I adore peanut butter on rice cakes.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

No cats, no ticky-boxes.

[solarbird]

I don't understand the difference between the first two options.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The order in which you are making the sandwich. Do you start by putting the knife in the peanut butter jar, or in the jam jar?

[mastadge.livejournal.com]

I use two knives.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

This. Also: I assumed the first two answers were a psychological test of whether one would choose the first correct answer or be contrary.

Also: where are the cats?

[ironyoxide.livejournal.com]

Waiting for a slice of bread or bit of peanut butter to fall off the counter, obviously.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

Taped to multiple slices of bread with spread in order to develop perpetual motion machine.

[solarbird]

I use two spoons.

[ejmam.livejournal.com]

It is much easier to wipe jam off the knife before switching to peanut butter than the other way around. This is important when you are running low on silverware and the lunch boxes need to go out the door in the next 5 seconds. So, jam first, then peanut butter.

Two knives is another option, but that seems wasteful.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

See, I've never found that to be true, not when I'm using a jam with some texture to it. If it's more like a grape jelly, sure, but if it's something with actual chunks of fruit in it, it tends to be a lot easier and faster for me to do the peanut butter first.

I can't think of a single time in my life I've used two knives for making PB&J. I've used a spoon and a knife before, when I was scraping out the last bits of a jar, or counting calories so measuring amounts of each, but never two knives.

[drglam]

Knife for peanut butter, spoon for jam. No cross-contamination.

[jennlk]

This.

Also, depending on whether the sandwich is for immediate consumption or is to be packed for later, a thin skim of butter (dairy or nut) on the jam slice, under the jam, may be desired.

[solarbird]

Separate spoons, one for each, but your way would work fine as well of course.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

This also confused me. A better explanation may be useful.

[rozasharn.livejournal.com]

I saw it as which slice goes on which side of the plate during the assembly process. Turns out I envision the jam on the left side, PB on the right.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Peanut butter on one piece first; clean off the knife on the other piece of bread, and then use it to put jam on said bread.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly!

[w. dow rieder (from livejournal.com)]

Indeed. You put them on separate slices because many jams don't adhere to a thick layer of PB very well, and you do the PB first to clean the knife. If you do the jam first, you end up with a knife with PB on it, which is harder to wash off and dangerous to leave lying around if you have pets.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

This is the method approved by the ancients and followed by the righteous.

[rosefox]

Without the jam.

[timgueguen.livejournal.com]

Yep. All I want in a sandwich with peanut butter is peanut butter.

[dragonbat2006.livejournal.com]

PB on both slices. Jam on top of one PB side. PB lines the bread so no need for butter.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

You're British, aren't you? Americans don't put butter on PB&J, and find the concept as off-putting as Europeans find the whole concept of PB&J in the first place.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

USAn here: when I was a child, PB&J did involve butter on the jelly side; sometime in my teen years, this ceased to be true.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Would I be extremely rude if I asked approximately how old you are?

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Late fifties.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

We can triangulate this pretty well, then; I am 51 and had a Girl Scout handbook with a recipe for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that did not include butter.

[rozasharn.livejournal.com]

I have The American Woman's Cookbook, dated 1946, with clear and emphatic instructions at the beginning of the sandwich section that all sandwiches must begin with spreading butter meticulously from edge to edge of the bread, explicitly to keep the bread dry.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

So somewhere between 1955 and 1970, it sounds like.

[azurelunatic]

I learned from Mama in the early 1980s. Since they were for school lunches and would therefore be banged about some, it was a sensible approach.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

My Dutch grandmother used to put butter on PB&Js when I was small, and weirded me the hell out. Two kinds of butter! Madness!

ETA: For the completion of the research, I'm 45 and only experienced butter on PB&J's at my grandmother's house.

Canadian

[dragonbat2006.livejournal.com]

And my mother used to put the butter on, until I started making my own sandwiches and found out that there was a way to avoid it without having the jam soak through the bread.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I'm 48, from the US, and always put butter (okay, margarine) on the bread before both the peanut butter and the jelly.

[t--m--i.livejournal.com]

As far as I know the British don't have peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Speaking here as UK born and resident for ~50 years and having cross checked with the OH in case I had somehow overlooked a hidden streak of PB+J sandwich making. I mean no doubt some people picked it up from N.American friends & relations but it's not normal. Not like cheese and pickle sandwiches say.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I checked with my sibs - all older than I am; three have responded. The oldest doesn't remember butter on PB&J. The second oldest has memories like mine, with the same uncertainties. The youngest - four years older than I - still puts butter on both slices before adding the peanut butter and jelly.

[attolia.livejournal.com]

If it is going in a lunchbox, pb on both slices as a barrier against sogginess, jam on top of peanut butter on one slice.

If it is for me, skip the jam, toast one slice of bread, top with pb and a sliced apple.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

I've possibly made hundreds, maybe thousands of PB&Js in my lifetime, mostly sandwiches that were packed away to be eaten three or four hours later as a schoolkid's lunch. What I do is: use frozen bread, put a pb on both slices, put jam on top on one or the other, and baggie them up. Placing the sandwich at the lop of the lunch bag or box so that they don't get squished is important, but the frozen bread thaws out nicely and the sandwich isn't soggy and gross from the jam soaking through.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

Peanut butter belongs in Reese cups, and jam inside Pop Tarts. Meats, cheese and veggies belong on sandwiches, which should only be made with real bread (kaiser roll or naan preferred), not the processed foam that comes pre-sliced.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

This. Although peanut butter and jam on toast, with a cup of coffee, is pretty nice.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Jelly.

[rpresser.livejournal.com]

Peanut butter on both sides; jam handed to some other person. Sandwich NOT sliced in half.

[windtear.livejournal.com]

The problem with this poll is that there is no option for 'I dislike/am allergic to one or other of the components' or 'my opinion is complicated so I will leave a comment'.

Personally, I dislike the taste of peanuts and peanut butter, and I consider jam a little too sweet for sandwiches. They are supposed to be savoury!

[realinterrobang.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, hold the peanut butter, and the jam...and in my case, probably the bread, too.

Bowl of soup, please.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Siblings!

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Complaint: choices one and two are the same -- both the One True Way to make a PBJ or a Fluffernutter.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

what's a fluffernutter? Do I want to know?

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Marshmallow fluff is basically marshmallows reduced (elevated?) to a spreadable consistency and put in a jar. It's popular in New England, for reasons beyond my understanding. They make sandwiches of it with peanut butter, which they call "fluffernutters."

[dsrtao]

My wife and I did the con suite food provisioning at... something, I forget, held in the Burlington (MA) Mariott. There were constant streams of people coming out of LARP sessions, and we discovered that the goths were all keen on fluffernutters.

I still find that image amusing.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

No, you don't.

[joenotcharles.livejournal.com]

PB on one slice of bread. Jam on top of the PB. There is no other slice of bread - it's just folded over (cutting first is optional) to make a single half-sandwich.

I never eat a PB&J as an entire meal, just a snack, so one slice of bread is plenty.

I was going to lament that I already chose option 3 before I thought to pick, "Other," but actually option 3 describes this perfectly well.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I don't put jam/jelly on my peanut butter sandwiches (and the PB I use contains nothing but peanuts and salt.) Far too sweet.

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

Peanut butter and bread only. Or peanut butter and grape jelly. Not jam. If jelly then butter or peanut butter on both pieces of bread so no jelly on bread.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

PB on TOAST, jam on another slice of toast.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

nuke gently for 15 seconds for perfection..

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

Crunchy peanut butter on one slice. Salt to taste. Orange marmalade on the other. Eat immediately.

[julesjones]

"Some other solution" - I take it this means Canadians also enjoy this bizarre thing, it's not just for USAliens?

[nelc.livejournal.com]

Skip the jam. Add chocolate spread or not, to taste. Add banana or not, to taste.

[pauldormer.livejournal.com]

I have never ever made a peanut butter sandwich. I have never ever purchased a jar of peanut butter. I presume it's available over here, but I've never had occasion to check. Not part of the culture over here when I was growing up.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Don't like jam. Honey. PB on one slice, honey on top of the PB.