Sandwich poll

[james_davis_nicoll]

[Poll #2026632]

Comments

[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.