Peanut Butter

I am a pretty diehard fan of Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter.  It doesn’t matter to me that Cook’s Illustrated gave it terrible ratings; I think it’s delicious, I appreciate it coming in a glass jar (if for no other reason than when you stir it, it doesn’t make that nails-on-a-chalkboard sound when the knife scrapes the sides), and I have wonderful nostalgic memories of eating it at my dad’s house on Stoned Wheat Thins as a kid.

It sounds nice to buy it in bulk, but it really irks me that none of the bulk options are salted.  I’ve also been warned that the bulk dispensers are very rarely cleaned, which grosses me out a little (not a lot).  Anyway- I have a food processor, so I thought I’d give salted peanut butter a go.

You will need

Salted Roasted Peanuts (about 2 cups) ($3.99 per lb, $3.99 x .64lb = $2.55)

Put your peanuts in the food processor and watch them turn from nuts to paste to butter.  If it’s too thick, you can add some peanut oil to thin it.

It starts out like this...

then turns to crumbs...

then into paste...

and finally peanut butter.

I didn’t thin it, and it was a little pasty.  According to the bin at Whole Foods these peanuts already had some soybean oil on them anyway.  Spencer had a great time watching it go around and around in the food processor, and really liked tasting the peanut butter, but I was unimpressed. 

Scooping it into the mason jar

Try It

$2.55 for about 1 ¼ cups, or $.26/fl oz

Buy It

$4.15 for 1 ¾ cups, or $.29/fl oz

Verdict

Yes, it’s cheaper to make it.  Yes, I’m sure there are cheaper peanuts out there to make it with, too.  I still prefer Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter, so for me, I’ll Buy It.  It was worth a shot, though.  (Update: Spencer loves the stuff so much that I have to say I'll Try It for him from now on!)

He was way more excited than I was.

 NEXT WEEK: Exfoliating Body Scrub!