Peanut butter

“ I would be the last one to condemn the future possibility of producing a commercial nut butter, and yet it is strange that the only successful nut butter is not a nut butter at all. Peanut butter is not a nut butter because peanuts are a legume like a pea or bean. To my knowledge, we do not have any nut butters on the market today with the exception of the cashew nut butter, which recently had a distribution in our locality, but which seems now to have run its course much as our products did. ”

“ One cup molasses, one cup sugar, one tablespoonful vinegar, small lump butter; cook until it hardens in water; pour out, and when cool pull until a light yellow.
PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE.
Two heaping tablespoonfuls of peanut butter, scant teaspoonful of salt, two cups sugar, one cup milk. Put sugar and milk in saucepan, stir them, add the peanut butter and salt. Stir occasionally while cooking. Should be cooked slowly until a soft ball can be formed if dropped into cup of cold water. Beat vigorously until it begins to stiffen, then pour in butter platter. ”

“ It is much more preferable to grind the salt in with the nuts than to mix it in the butter.
ALMOND BUTTER
Almond butter is more difficult to make than peanut butter, on account of the difficulty in removing the skins. Dry heat does not loosen the skins as it does the peanut. To blanch almonds, soak them in boiling water from two to five minutes; then the skins become loose and can be pinched off by pressing on the nut with the thumb and finger; the skins will crack and the kernel pop out. Dry them in a slow oven until they become thoroughly dry and crisp, taking care not to burn them. ”

“ When oily nuts are used in fudge one does not need to use so much butter. Boil to the thread or soft ball stage, and then add one cupful of finely ground peanuts and one teaspoonful vanilla. If preferred peanut butter may be used. Beat up until creamy, pour into buttered pans, and cut into squares.
Fig Fudge
Take two cupfuls of granulated sugar, one cupful of water, a fourth teaspoonful of cream of tartar, one-half pound of figs, one teaspoonful of ginger, and one tablespoonful of butter. Boil the mixture to the soft ball stage. Remove from the fire and beat up until creamy. ”

“ While peanut butter contains forty-six and one half per cent fat, it contains only seventeen per cent carbohydrates. Since sugars and starches are protections to fat, being used for energy before the fats are consumed, if these sugars and starches are not supplied in other food, the fats in the peanut butter are consumed for energy. If starches are consumed in other foods, it is clear that one who wishes to reduce in flesh should avoid peanut butter, as well as other fats. ”

“ Hickory nuts, English walnuts, pecan nuts, and filberts are not only palatable in muffins, cake, and yeast bread, but add to the food value in a rational way.
Peanuts are rich in oil and protein. They are nearly equal to almonds in food value and are even more economical. Peanuts are too concentrated a food for eating between meals or to be taken after a meal already sufficient, but they may take the place of meat in the meal and peanut butter may be used on bread and in sandwiches without butter. ”

“ In eating peanuts it is imperative that they be masticated until they are a pulp; otherwise they are very difficult of digestion. The pain which many people experience, after eating peanuts, is probably due to eating too large a quantity and not fully masticating them, forgetting that they are a very rich, highly-concentrated food. Both peanuts and peanut butter contain over twenty-five per cent of protein and a much larger percentage of fat; therefore they yield much heat and energy. ”

“ PEANUT BUTTER
When peanuts have been blanched, are cold, dry and crisp, run them through a food chopper. Do not use the very finest cutter, as that makes a soft mass. Or they may be crushed with a rolling pin. ”

“ Peanut butter, although used as a spread, has become universally known as one of our most excellent protein sources to replace meat. Easily digested, it is not only popular with adults, but a good food for children.
There is an Armour Oval Label Product for every need of fat in the diet or in cookery THE PROPER FAT FOR EVERY COOKERY USE
For shortening purposes, fats are used to improve the texture of the product. ”

“ The shops show big paper mache English walnuts, peanuts and almonds, full of sweetmeats in imitation of the real nuts, which make appropriate consolation prizes. French "surprise mottoes" in the shape of walnuts, each containing a hat, make very amusing favors.
The refreshments may perfectly carry out the nutting idea:
For the peanut sandwiches, use the ready-made peanut butter. ”

“ Once I tried peanut butter in them, but they weren't much good. If you put a little maple syrup in, that makes them sweet. Once I made some at home when Charlie Danforth was there and I put wintergreen in, and my sister Marjorie said that was the reason he never came any more. ”

“ Nuts—A handful each of shelled nuts and raisins, with a cake of sweet chocolate, will carry a man far on the trail or when he has lost it. The kernels of butternuts and hickory nuts have the highest fuel value of our native species; peanuts and almonds are very rich in protein; Brazil nuts, filberts and pecans, in fat. Peanut butter is a concentrated food that goes well in sandwiches. ”

“ Blend peanut butter, butter and brown sugar into flour and salt until mixture is crumbly. Spoon apple pie filling into unbaked crust; sprinkle peanut butter mixture over pie filling. Bake in a 400° oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until filling is hot and pastry browned.
Pineapple Sundae Pie
1 package vanilla pudding mix
2 cups milk
2 eggs, separated
1 package pineapple-orange flavored gelatin
1 cup dairy sour cream
1 9-inch baked pie shell
1 No. 2 can (2 cups) pineapple pie filling
Whipped cream, chopped pecans and cherries
Combine vanilla pudding mix, small amount of milk and 2 egg yolks ”

“ PEANUT SANDWICHES.—Shell and skin freshly roasted peanuts and roll them to fine crumbs on a pastry board. Add salt to taste and mix the powdered nuts with enough fresh cream cheese to make a paste that can be easily spread on unbuttered bread. Keep in a cold, damp place until wanted.
STUFFED EGGS.—Boil eggs hard and throw them into cold water. When cool remove the shells, cut the eggs in half carefully and extract the yolks. Rub these to a powder with the back of a spoon and add to them pepper and salt to taste, a little melted butter to make the mixture into a smooth paste. ”

“ It is excellent household economy to buy milk and a butter substitute rather than cream or butter. In these substitutes refined vegetable oils such as cottonseed, cocoanut, and peanut, and oils derived from beef or lard are so combined or treated as to produce the desired hardness, and churned with milk or milk and butter to improve texture and flavor. Lard substitutes are similarly made from one or more of these fats, but are harder in texture and no attempt is made to give them a butter flavor by churning with milk. ”

“ Enough water should be used to make it the proper consistency to spread nicely. An egg beater or wire potato masher is an excellent utensil for mixing. A little salt can be added if desired. Nut butter when mixed with water does not keep but a few hours.
PEANUT CREAM
Cook the peanuts until they just begin to turn brown. Then make into butter, ground as fine as possible. Emulsify with water until it is the consistency of milk. Then put in double boiler and cook until it has become as thick as ordinary cream. A little salt can be added if desired. ”

“ Nut meal is made the same as nut butter except that the nuts are ground fewer times through the finest cutter of the mill, or once only through the nut butter cutter loosely adjusted. Either cooked or raw peanuts may be used, but a cooked peanut meal is very desirable. The nuts may be cooked, dried and ground, or cooked without water, after grinding, the same as steamed nut butter. ”

“ Set on fire, stir and cook until the peanuts are well done. They should be brown and cracking which requires quite a little cooking. Add 1⁄4-pound butter and 2 tablespoonsful salt. When dissolved pour batch on greased slab and turn up a few times and then place between iron bars and roll out smooth with rolling pin. Cut in 5- or 10-cent bars or cut to fit pans.
PEANUT TAFFY No. 2.
Place in kettle
Set on slow fire and stir until sugar is dissolved and add 5 pounds No. 1 Spanish Peanuts. Work in well and set off fire for a few moments so as to give the candy a chance to roast peanuts. ”

“ Blanch 2 pounds of shelled almonds or peanuts (the peanuts, of course, have been well roasted) by pouring 1 quart of boiling water over them. Allow them to stand a short time. Drain and pour cold water over them, when the skin may be easily removed. Place in a cool oven until dry and crisp. Put a small quantity of butter into a pan. When hot, throw in the nuts and stir for a few minutes, sprinkle a little salt over. Many young cooks do not know that salted peanuts are almost equally as good as salted almonds and cheaper. Peanuts should always be freshly roasted and crisp. ”

“ Fruit butters may be made from good sound fruits or the sound portions of fruits which are wormy or have been bruised. Wash, pare and remove seeds if there are any. Cover with water and cook 3 or 4 hours at a low temperature, stirring often, until the mixture is of the consistency of thick apple sauce. Add sugar to taste when the boiling is two-thirds done. Spices may be added to suit the taste when the boiling is completed. If the pulp is coarse it should be put through a wire sieve or colander. Pour the butter into sterilized jar, put on rubber and cover and adjust top bail. ”

“ To properly cook peanuts is the essential thing to produce a healthful, palatable nut butter. This can be accomplished if care is exercised. There are three ways of cooking them: namely, baking or roasting, boiling, and steaming. The baking process is the easiest way, but care should be used not to scorch them. Scorched or burnt peanuts are unfit to use in any form.
PROCESS NO. 1
Put a layer of peanuts about one-half inch deep in a dripping-pan and place on perforated shelf in a moderate oven. Allow them to bake slowly for about one hour. Cook them until they are a light brown or straw color. ”

“ Lay them in a shallow pan, putting under each sweetbread a piece of nice fresh butter with a very little flour [216] mixed into it. Pour into the pan a glass of nice white wine, mixed with the juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon. Season also with grated nutmeg. Or for sauce, you may use mushroom catchup, with a little salad oil stirred into it.
If you do not live in a place where nice fresh butter is to be obtained, endeavor to do without butter at all, rather than use that which is strong, rancid, or too salt. ”

“ Scald and wipe a small vegetable-pan, and put into it one-half lb. of stiffly-manied butter, properly softened. Season this butter with table-salt and a few drops of lemon-juice, and whisk it while gradually adding one-third pint of cold water. Finish with two tablespoonfuls of very firm, whipped cream. This preparation, though classified as a sauce, is really a compound butter, which is served with boiled fish. The heat of the fish alone suffices to melt it, and its appearance is infinitely more agreeable than that of plain, melted butter. ”

“ A matter for despair as regards bad butter is that at the tables where it is used it stands sentinel at the door to bar your way to every other kind of food. You turn from your dreadful half-slice of bread, which fills your mouth with bitterness, to your beefsteak, which proves virulent with the same poison; you think to take refuge in vegetable diet, and find the butter in the string-beans, and polluting the innocence of early peas,—it is in the corn, in the succotash, in the squash,—the beets swim in it, the onions have it poured over them. ”

“ Some people use bread-crumbs only in making plum pudding, and no flour, in which case, of course, a very considerable number of eggs must be used or else the pudding will break to pieces. In the case, however, of oil being used as a substitute for butter, it is of the utmost importance that the oil be pure and fresh. We here have to overcome a deeply-rooted English prejudice. Pure oil is absolutely tasteless, and it has often been remarked by high-class authorities that really pure butter ought to be the same. ”

“ When tender, take them out, untie the cloth, and rub them through a colander, or, better still, a wire sieve. Now mix in a couple of ounces of butter with some pepper and salt, flour the cloth well and tie it up again and boil it for another hour, when it can be turned out and served. Peas pudding when eaten alone is improved by mixing in, at the same time as the butter, a dessertspoonful of dried powdered mint, also, should you have the remains of any cold potatoes in the house, it is a very good way of using them up. A few savoury herbs can be used instead of mint. ”

“ That it exists in no other substance than butter made from milk, and it is introduced to oleomargarine butter by adding to oleomargarine stock some milk, cream, or butter, and churning, and that when this is done it has all the elements of natural butter, but there must always be a smaller percentage of butterine in the manufactured product than in the butter made from milk. The only effect of the butterine is to give flavor to the butter, having nothing to do with its wholesomeness. ”