Creamy and Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butter, the All-American Food (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)

I love peanut butter, so it only makes sense to read a history of the stuff. Learned a lot about the history and how it's made. The author covers farming, marketing, and production, too.

I liked peanut butter when I bought this book. Now I love peanut butter. Reading it wasn't easy for a couple of reasons. (A) It's written like a traditional history book, not as a story. In my humble opinion, history deserves to be told like a story so that we can relate to it better. The writer treats the subject almost like journalism of the past. The book is well written but it takes some work to get through it. It's worth the labor because it really is a gem of a book that deserves consideration if you love the traditions and trappings of Americana and American culture in general. Peanut butter truly is an American food.Reason (B) for taking me a while to get through this book is that I felt the need to experiment with peanut butter along the way. I bought "exotic" peanut butters made with Spanish peanuts, Valencia peanuts and Virginia peanuts. The differences in the qualities of these varieties was striking. Having really only eaten Peter Pan, Jif and Skippy brands of peanut butter for the past half century, I had no idea that other brands even existed. Now, when I'm in a health food store or boutique that carries some odd brand of peanut butter, I read the labels carefully and share the "ah ha" moments and stories about the perceived origins of the products with my wife. My total immersion into the world of peanut butter thanks to Mr. Krampner's great book added an inch to my waistline which I now have to work off. Thank you Mr. Krampner for the years of work that it took to put this book together.

Like millions of Baby Boomers, I grew up on peanut butter. How many hundreds of Skippy (extra chunk style) peanut butter sandwiches did my mom send to school with me? I dunno, but such sandwiches still spell c-o-m-f-o-r-t to me 50 years later, although I've switched to Trader Joe's organic crunchy in the interim. Jon Krampner tells, with engaging good humor and impressively researched detail, the fascinating story of this truly all-American foodstuff. Who knew, for example, why mainstream PB became so sweet and smooth? Or how Skippy fell from its pedestal as the top seller? Or the complicated processes involved in growing, harvesting, and roasting those humble peanuts? I loved this book and didn't want it to end. Like a perfectly executed PBJ, Krampner's offering is by turns reassuring, nourishing, and delicious.

Krampner set out to make a book about peanut butter much like what Mark Kurlansky did for Salt, one of my favorite non fiction works. He did it. Hope he follows up with something else, because he is both informative and entertaining. Now to the store to get some of those special brands he mentions.

This book is very informative, but is probably a little long. It is full of more information than I ever wanted to know about the history and development of Peanut Butter

If you love peanut butter, this is the book for you! A well written look at peanut butter, fun to read with lots of little tidbits that any self-respecting PB&J person will enjoy.

much more detailed & more interesting than one would guess

Fun ready and educational