Beyond the PB&J: Peanut Butter Taste Test + Easy Recipes

Chewed UP

Hosts Michael Symon, Carla Hall, and Clinton Kelly conduct a blind taste test of six popular peanut butter brands, debating texture preferences, salt

Key takeaways

• Clinton Kelly eats peanut butter almost daily, often straight from the jar or on potato rolls and English muffins.
• Michael Symon explains that natural peanut butters lack stabilizers, making them unsuitable for baking compared to nostalgic brands like Smucker's.

Main topics

• Peanut butter blind taste test
• Smooth versus chunky preferences

Notable quotes

"You cannot bake with a natural peanut butter because there are no stabilizers."

Conclusion

The episode delivers practical, fast recipes that elevate peanut butte

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Got something to say about the world around you? Squarespace gives you everything you need to turn that voice into an online presence, whether that's a blog, a brand, a business, or all three. Start with Blueprint AI or a professionally designed template and make it your own with simple drag-and-drop editing. Build your audience with built-in email campaigns, share your story through video, and track what's working with integrated analytics. From passion project to full-blown business, Squarespace grows with you. Head to squarespace.com slash culture for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code culture to save 10 % off your first purchase of a website or domain. Speaker 4 (0:44) Where I was like, I said spontaneously to Michael, would you rather have somebody pee on your foot or eat a peep? And he was like, pee on the foot. And like. Thousands of people are like, yeah, pee on the foot. What? They're like, what? You people are gross. I immediately judge somebody who likes to get their foot peed on. Speaker 2 (0:59) No one likes to get their foot peed on. Speaker 2 (1:05) Pull up a chair and get ready for a good time with Michael Simon, Carla Hall, and Clinton Kelley. Speaker 2 (1:14) Let's get into it. Speaker 5 (1:17) Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Chewed Up. I am Michael Simon. I'm here with the lovely and talented Miss Carla Hall. Hello. The also lovely and talented Mr. Clinton Kelly. Hello. Hello. Speaker 3 (1:31) Hello. Look at my episode. Speaker 5 (1:33) I am very excited about today's episode. Yes. Because this is one of my favorite things to eat. It is all about... peanut butter and you know when kyle was a kid he and still to this day he would take a tub of peanut butter we could never the lid was never to be found again and there was a spoon sticking in it hilarious just eat peanut butter out of the jar constantly yeah it's kind of like allergic to red meat as a kid and but still doesn't eat red meat um so i think he would crave protein so much he would just we would go through i don't know four or five jars of peanut butter a week. Speaker 3 (2:12) Oh, what? Yep. Speaker 5 (2:13) And I eat probably a peanut butter and jelly sandwich almost every day. Almost every day. Wow. Almost every day. Speaker 4 (2:18) I eat peanut butter almost every day as well. Really? That jar of peanut butter recalled to me from the campus. I hear you calling my name. Let me eat to the full. Clink. Clinton, Clinton, Clinton. Speaker 5 (2:30) You know, I love it on most types of bread. I love it on a potato roll. Yeah. I love it on an English muffin. I love it on a banana. I love chocolate in it. Yeah. I saw something Clinton has in the fridge. I'm going to save that because I love it like that too. Speaker 4 (2:44) I thought that it would be fun to do a peanut butter taste test because you might think that you like a certain brand of peanut butter, but maybe that's not your brand at all. And then I'm Speaker 2 (2:53) going Speaker 4 (2:53) to show two different ways that I use peanut butter kind of all the time. Okay. So let's start. Let's do the taste test. All right. Speaker 3 (2:59) Let's do the taste test. Speaker 4 (3:00) Okay. You don't have to eat all of the peanut butter in your spoon. That would be so much peanut butter. And this is for your empty spoon. Oh, Speaker 3 (3:07) the Speaker 4 (3:07) empty spoon. Okay. Hey. Speaker 3 (3:15) Straight up natural peanut butter. Speaker 4 (3:17) Very natural. I feel like it's you can taste the fact that the peanuts have been roasted pretty fairly well. Mm-hmm. Speaker 3 (3:22) Mm-hmm. Speaker 5 (3:24) Tasty. I like, I will say in advance, there's not many peanut butters I could come across that I don't like. Speaker 5 (3:33) I am, when I was a kid, I was all about the chunky. As an adult, I'm all about the smooth. And Speaker 4 (3:38) sometimes Speaker 5 (3:38) I get the chunky stuck in like a gap. I have a gap in my tooth. So Speaker 3 (3:45) A, Speaker 4 (3:46) it's also very shiny, which says to me that there's a lot of oil in it. Speaker 3 (3:49) And Speaker 4 (3:49) so it's got a little bit of a runny texture, but it's not running off of the spoon. It could Speaker 5 (3:52) also be like a... like a natural type peanut butter where it has to really be stirred good. Are you a peanut butter in the fridge or peanut butter room temperature person? Room temperature. Speaker 3 (4:02) The Speaker 4 (4:02) other thing about one though, it's sort of crossed between chunky and smooth. There's like, there are little pieces in there, but there aren't big chunky pieces. All right, number two looks to be thicker. Yeah, this is a Speaker 3 (4:11) peanut butter spread. Speaker 4 (4:14) Yeah. Speaker 4 (4:16) You can taste that there are other things besides just, you know, Speaker 3 (4:19) sugar. Speaker 5 (4:20) Yeah. Yeah. I feel like this is similar to the peanut butters that I grew up with. Yeah. Like I bet you this Speaker 4 (4:25) is Skippy Speaker 5 (4:25) or something of that. I guess. But also with these kind of peanut butter, what I have learned from Liz and her baking world is the. the fancy peanut butters don't work nearly as good for baking as the childhood favorites. Speaker 3 (4:39) Not only do they not work well, they don't work. I know, I said I would try to say Speaker 5 (4:44) this nice as I could. No, they Speaker 3 (4:45) don't. You cannot bake with a natural peanut butter because there are no stabilizers. And so it's basically like using melted butter in something where you need a creamed room temperature butter. But so clearly, it doesn't work better than this. What I would say, Speaker 5 (4:59) like this is just certainly my opinion, A is a delicious peanut butter. B just brings me back to childhood, so I'm going to pick B because it brings me the nostalgic peanut butter of my youth. Speaker 4 (5:10) Yeah. Yeah, I actually thought that A was just slightly bitter for me, so I actually like B because it's the sort of peanut butter I grew up with. I probably had 7,000 peanut butter sandwiches that tasted just like that. Speaker 3 (5:19) Yeah. So right now we're working with B. Speaker 4 (5:23) Okay. Oh. Speaker 4 (5:27) Uh-oh, it's runny. Speaker 3 (5:28) Ooh, cow. Speaker 3 (5:31) I mean, I just got a little bit of oil. Speaker 4 (5:33) It's very oily. Speaker 4 (5:37) But I like the fact that it's smooth, you know what I mean? It doesn't have the little... What I didn't love about A was that it had little bits of peanut that I didn't really like. What's the matter? I Speaker 3 (5:46) can't even close my mouth Speaker 5 (5:47) because there's so much peanut butter right now. I would say C is super peanut. Like, very peanut forward. Speaker 5 (5:56) So far, C is my favorite. Yeah, I like C. I like Speaker 3 (6:00) C. Speaker 5 (6:00) Big, it's coming with the big peanuts. And it is a peanut butter that you have to stir. I like the texture Speaker 3 (6:04) of it. Speaker 5 (6:05) Yeah. Speaker 3 (6:06) Yeah. Because the first one was neither here nor there with chunks. It just was so, you know what I mean? It Speaker 4 (6:12) was grainy. Speaker 3 (6:13) It was grainy. Thank you for that word. Okay, C. C. All right. Speaker 4 (6:17) D, it looks like we got some chunks of peanuts. But Speaker 3 (6:20) these are actual chunks. These are real chunks. Speaker 4 (6:24) Oh, you guys are going in with a spoon. Because Speaker 3 (6:26) I wanted to stir it up because it was like... Speaker 5 (6:29) The natural ones separate a bit, I feel. I'm getting real focused. I Speaker 3 (6:34) love chunky peanut butter. Speaker 5 (6:36) Yeah, see him. Speaker 5 (6:41) That's good. It's Speaker 4 (6:43) very Speaker 5 (6:43) good. I mean, I like C better because I like smooth, but that's just a personal preference. It has nothing to do with the quality of this peanut butter. Speaker 4 (6:50) Dude, I'm finishing this one. Yeah, that D is great. All right. All right, D. Speaker 4 (6:57) Another another chunk. Speaker 5 (6:59) Yeah, there's good flavor meant deep. Speaker 4 (7:00) Mmm Wow Speaker 3 (7:02) Again Speaker 5 (7:04) future reference. I think when we do these we should do all like they all have to be exactly I'm just Speaker 3 (7:10) saying it's like a peanut butter spreads Speaker 4 (7:13) They Speaker 3 (7:13) should Speaker 5 (7:13) be all smooth or all chunky all pepperoni all cheese pizza or all Him don't shake me off. I think it Speaker 3 (7:20) could be off. I know you're Speaker 5 (7:22) the secret shopper This Speaker 3 (7:23) is a car. This is a cross between a Speaker 3 (7:27) Quality level. Look at the peanuts. Speaker 4 (7:29) Oh yeah, it's got some big chunks of peanut, but then other like little scrappy. Speaker 3 (7:34) Yeah, so it's like grainy with chunks. Speaker 4 (7:38) It feels the most gluey to me like um, I get like it's it's gluing my teeth together. I Don't mind it. I feel like in a peanut butter sandwich. It would be good, but it's not my favorite so far I think D for me is still the winner. Speaker 3 (7:53) All Speaker 4 (7:54) right. Let's move on to F. It's also very tasty. They're all tasty. Yeah. There's not a bad one here. Speaker 5 (8:01) Yeah. Speaker 4 (8:03) All right, this is the thickest of the bunch. Speaker 3 (8:13) This is an unsalted one. Speaker 4 (8:18) That's a nope from me. Really? That's a 100 % no thank you. Speaker 5 (8:23) I like this one. Speaker 4 (8:24) You like it? I don't think it needs salt. I mean, it doesn't taste like anything. It tastes like glue. Speaker 4 (8:30) I mean, it's not my favorite, but I don't, I'm not, you were very... I think it's just, I just don't, I feel like peanut butter needs salt to me. Otherwise, I don't really want it. My Speaker 5 (8:38) guess is this is like a very all-natural type peanut Speaker 3 (8:41) butter. Speaker 5 (8:41) Yeah, Speaker 3 (8:41) it is. Speaker 5 (8:42) I bet you it's got nothing but peanut Speaker 3 (8:43) butter. It's all-natural, no peanut, no salt. Speaker 5 (8:45) Yeah. I mean, this is, yeah. I mean, what was the... Speaker 5 (8:52) What? Speaker 5 (8:55) Yeah. Speaker 4 (8:57) He's working it through. Yeah. Okay. My hands-down favorite. I'm excited to know which this was because I loved D. Like, I thought it was D. Whatever Speaker 5 (9:07) C was, I Speaker 4 (9:09) liked Speaker 5 (9:10) the smooth peanut flavor of C. I thought D was delicious, but I prefer smooth to chunky. Speaker 3 (9:17) I love the taste of C. I love all the chunks of D. Yeah, you like the chunks. So if I was going to get a smooth, it would be C. If I got a chunky, it would be D. Speaker 5 (9:27) Yeah, so like, since Tim doesn't agree, but we've had two different styles of peanut butter, C is the smooth winner. D is the chunky winner. And B Speaker 3 (9:36) was a Speaker 5 (9:37) peanut butter spread. And B was our childhood favorite. Yes. That's what we believe. Speaker 3 (9:48) Before you jump back into cooking, can I ask you something? Of course Speaker 5 (9:50) you can, Carla. Do Speaker 3 (9:51) you ever look around this kitchen and you think, I kind of want all of this to take home? Oh, my god. Speaker 4 (9:56) I was literally just thinking that. Speaker 5 (9:59) A lot of what you're seeing is from my